Britbillsfan

Shamil Basayev, the Chechen leader responsible for this outrage plus the others in the theatre and hospital a while back, was originally a seperatist Chechen with Islamic beliefs. AFTER the Russians killed 11 members of his family (non-combatants, I believe) he effectively became extremely bitter and turned to more radical Islamic ideas and THEN started on this murderous spree of hostage taking. He DEFINITELY now has ties with al-Qaeda but did not do so originally when he started out. Russian actions have helped turned a rebel into a monster. Not that the death of his family alters the fact one iota as to the absolute burn-in-hell evil that this man has instigated, but it MIGHT help some on this board understand what makes the Chechen terrorists (safe to say they should no longer be regarded as seperatist freedom fighters) tick. the Russians have killed somewhere between 10 and 20% of the population of Chechnya in the last decade, so there are bound to be some almighty bitter and twisted people about. It also illustrates what counter productive results a 'bomb-them-all' policy actualy achieves. All in all a fuggin' nightmare.

Thge French have basically said 'stuff you'in diplomatic terms. The ban stays (their constitiution is very secular, and the new law reflects that). Last I heard the hostages were okay(ish) but being passed between different armed groups.

Since the terroristsin Munich and their 'comrades' were sponsored and trained by our old 'friends' in the Soviet Union and their proxies you are suggesting that the west should have gone and invaded those countries? Without the technological edge the US (and to a lesser extent its allies) have today. Well it would have stopped terrorism in its track. Of course no one would be left on the cinder called earth about now, but hey, all the terrorists would be gone.

Since Europe has, up until 9/11, been at the forefront of terrorist attacks over the 70s, 80s, 90s what the hell do you mean about opening eyes. The French and others have disagreed about Iraq (nothing to do with 9/11 and not a major terrorist sponsor nation generally), but are against terrorism generally. After all there have been extremist Islamist attacks on French soil throughout the 90s, and the French have been very active against the scum for a lot longer than almost anyone else.

Well a fair number of Muslims are dying at the hands of these scum as well. One of aims of al-Qaeda is to eliminate those of heretical Muslim beliefs (heretical to their particular brand of Sunni extremism). Plenty of Muslims are dying in the fight against these terrorists (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan) and a fair few top al-Qaeda guys have been captured by them and then handed over to the US.

Reports are now coming out of 'dozens' of bodies in the gym. 400+ hospitalized. Just horrible.

It does not help that the Bills have been pretty inept on the penalties recently and would still be drawing more than average. Having said that there will be always an element of 'these guys commit lots of infractions so I have to watch them more carefully' in all sports. If you have a good rep you are less likely to get caught as the officials are not looking out for it as much. Not anti-Buffalo really, just a bit of human nature creeping in, IMHO.

It appears the Russians were responding to something that happened in the school (possibly one of the terrorists blew herself up). Casualties currently reported at 310, 7 dead, 5 dead terrorists. No reports of dead kids yet. No way would they storm the school when they did (about 10:00 local time) unless something set it off (or the local commander on the ground was incompetant, but does not SEEM to be the case). Number of hostages looks to be way more than the 350ish originally stated by the authorities. More like 1000+. Absolute chaos on the ground.

The Russians have stormed the school, reports of 250 wounded, including 180 kids . Terrorists shot indiscriminately at the crowds outside when a large group made a break for it (13 got out, apparently, now holed up in a nearby house), reported 'only' 10 dead. :I starred in Brokeback Mountain: terrorist scumbags

Like I said, I have no problem with the scum responsible being taken out, what these evil SoB's are doing and have done is beyond all acceptable standards. However the Russians have made a rod for their own backs in the way they have dealt with the Chechens generally. The greatest recruiting aide for these piles of excrement is not Islam, or rather their particularly vile version of it, but the conduct of the Russians themselves. About the only thing we can do in this sort of situation is hope that no more innocents will get hurt, even if that seems unlikely.

Of course how do you tell who actually supports the insurgents amongst the civilian population, because they sure as hell will not tell you. And the Russians have never gone with the sensitive war approach. Half the reason why the fundamentalists can so easily recruit in Chechnya is that the Russian military have gone into Chechnya with 'all the fury of a hurricane'. In parts of Chechnya you can not find an male between about 15 and 60 years old because the Russians have 'arrested' them indiscriminately whether they supported the insurgents or not (and of course they are never seen or heard from again). Of course anybody in the area not arrested is not going to hang about waiting for death and will seek help from whoever they can (ie: insurgents) and are prime for indoctrination. And when reporters with the gumption to see for themselves have gone into Chechnya they have ended up dead also (again at the hands of the Russians as often as not). Of course with what remains of the free press in Russia being compromised by Putin's government the news coming out of Chechnya is becoming harder to get outside of official channels. A hearts and minds approach would eventually achieve results, unlike the already tried method you propose. Chechens themselves tend to loathe both the Russians and the insurgents and have been pretty much living in hell for the last decade or so. Of course killing all the scumbags in the school and the actual insurgents is a good thing. It is just the Russians have always gone for the sledgehammer to crack a nut approach that is half the problem.

I think Dorenbos contributes to this team far more than a borderline 'position' player would do. The player he replaces will be the 50ish best player on our roster and no more than a third stringer, most likely. So far none of the alternatives have shown Dorenbos to be easily replaceable as he fulfils his role extremely well. Brown lost his roster spot because he was pretty piss poor in doing his job last season and other players on the roster have shown to be a marked improvement when they have been returning kicks. (I know it is only pre-season that McGee & Reed have had a go, but they can not reasonable to be expected to be much worse than Brown once the regular season starts). The situation is very different with Dorenbos.

After last year and the dodgy start to camp Williams had it is no wonder quite a few people had a bad feeling about the OL. But it is a good feeling to think it looks like the OL is begining to take shape as a competant unit. Now if only the positives can continue into the regular season (and, with a llittle luck, beyond).

Dear oh dear. Detailed analysis on what really has happened on the field so far. You know that the billsfanone sages are going to give some you abuse on this don't you? How dare you point out any possible flaws in their arguments! Seriously though, thanks for the info, and since that game both MW and TT have improved their play (IMHO), I think (and sincerely hope) that the line will be fine this season now that the two major problems (Pucillo and Gilbride's 'gameplans') have been removed.

Jennings - Smith - Teague - Villarrial - Williams

Gilbride's excuse for an offense barely managed to stay on the field for huge chunks of the season. As for his 'theory' it appears that most of the NFL are busily copying what he achieved in the last year.... In any case lots of short plays can open up the long play far better than just continuously giong for the long pass as the opposing D will not be able to key on that as well. This year the Bills have more ability to get the long scores (Moulds not being injured and Evans providing even more speed on occassion) than last, and I feel certain MM will go for the long TD at regular intervals in the season (although not every other play). The thing that let the Bills down against the Colts was having a third stringer play LT and even worse play from the not-so-special teams. The comment on the 'D' seems wildly inaccurate. The Colts have a pretty good offense and but for a 4th down conversion did pretty poorly for the most part (excluding scrubs). The inaccurate example of the 'third down converion' seems indicative of Sullivan's woolly thinking. I do not think there has ever been a 'D' in existance that could have got Gilbride's offense into the play-offs, as this is no longer his offense the comment is not really valid. As for the salaries and big time players - well the 'D' did excellently last year and although more turnovers would have been welcomed it was the 'O' that sucked royally. So the $s paid to the 'D' seem to have been earnt. Besides, without a single regular season down (ie: when it counts) being played (ie: when it counts) how on earth can he tell if Vincent is looking value for money The Bills did sign one of the better FA interior linemen in the off season and appear to be happy enough (mostly) with all but the left guard spot, but had a lot of young linemen on the roster and obviously were looking for someone to step up to be proficient enough to help. It looks as though Smith could do that, especially with decent coahing now in place. The team is largely the same as last year but there are major caveats to that. The interior of the O-line is much improved so far, with the revolving door of Pucillo looking like a bad memory, Villarrial looks solid and Teague stepping up (probably from not having to watch out for Pucillo on his shoulder). There is now speed at the receiver position.

Looks that way, one managed to get off a hijack alarm before going down, apparently.