Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools by John Giduck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is in roughly three parts. First, there is fifty-ish pages of introductory material mostly stating that this book is going to be a wake-up call for America before Islamist terrorists - maybe even Chechens themselves - enact a similar tragedy on American soil. The middle part is a taught, blow-by-blow account of the takeover and take-down for which the author is prepared from his career in anti-terrorist training. Ex-soldier Giduck is part of Archangel, a U.S. 501 (c)(3) non-profit, NGO providing anti-terrorism consulting, training and related services to United States law enforcement, military and governmental agencies. He also went on site to review the school before it was demolished. From his interviews with Russian military responders to the Beslan school siege, including the elite Alpha and Vympel units of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), he garners many stunning details I had not heard before. This includes a surrounding angry and drunken mob complicating matters and rabid, sadistic perpetrators - apparently some deluded mercenaries - that, among other things, forced mothers to choose staying with all their children or leaving with one infant. There is also the moving case of the 7-year-old Aida blown from the gym holding area by premature explosions wire to destroy the school who out of confusion and fear crawled back into the terrorists' control.
Giduck's final part is a clarion call to get your head in the game, watch out for Chechens crossing the border and count the days until this happens to a U.S. school. Hopefully his prediction will continue to not bear out. I wonder how he feels knowing perhaps the closest his prediction has come true is due to mentally unstable Americans (citizens and residents) with access to guns: the Virginia Tech massacre, the Northern Illinois University shooting, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
View all my reviews
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Review: The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity
The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity by Steven H. Strogatz My rating: 3 of 5 stars ...
-
Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America by M. Stanton Evans My ...
-
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents by David Pietrusza My rating: 3 of 5 stars The presidential electio...
-
Seeking Hearts: Love, Lust and the Secrets in the Ashes by Ryan Green My rating: 4 of 5 stars ...
No comments:
Post a Comment