That’s what my headline would read. Instead, first read Reuters’s “More Than 200 Killed in Russian School Shootout“.

I don’t like the way this news story starts out: “Russian troops stormed a school on Friday, blaming Chechen hostage-takers for a bloody battle in which more than 200 people — dozens of them children — were killed and hundreds were wounded.” The way it’s worded kind of makes you question who’s to blame, doesn’t it? Well, read on, my friend… “Russian authorities said they had been forced into an unplanned rescue operation when the hostage-takers opened fire on fleeing children.” Exactly the way it should have been reported first!

Even if the Russians had decided to storm the building first, let me tell you something… the blame still belongs to the terrorists.

The blame belongs to the terrorists!

THE BLAME BELONGS TO THE TERRORISTS!

You know why? Answer me this… Who decided to take school children hostage: The terrorists, or the Russians?

Murdering young children does not make you a freedom fighter! Murdering young children makes you a terrorist.

You can call them Chechen separatists, or whatever else the hell you want to call them, but, plain and simple, they are terrorists. And that’s all there is to it.

With people like this, I wonder if the Chechens deserve their own country.

I’m not done yet. Read this Russian Siege Sparks World Horror, Solidarity and then come back.

Ah yes, a much better beginning: “Tragic, despicable, inhumane, cowardly, barbaric, evil, and astonishing — the deaths of a hundred or more people including children in a siege in Russia sparked strong words for the hostage-takers from world leaders.”

I know news media supposedly should be unbiased, but I don’t feel as if the media has any responsibility to be unbiased against terrorists who murder school children. Just my two cents.

Though, I wonder what analyst Alex Standish thinks. This quote from him seems to paint a picture: “I suspect that Putin’s immediate concern will have been to be seen to be strong rather than be seen to be negotiating.” Wait! And let us not forget this quote either: “And if that means sacrificing civilians caught up in the middle, I don’t suspect that is the key issue as far as Putin is concerned.”

Hey, Mr. Standish, I wonder what the terrorists think about “sacrificing civilians caught up in the middle.” Hm?

Let’s get one more thing straight. These “civilians” were not “caught up in the middle;” they were deliberately taken hostage by terrorists.

That issue cleared, I must redirect you to the headline I would use: “Terrorists Kill Over 200 at Russian School.” If I wrote the news article, I wouldn’t wait to mention the 704 in the hospital until page two.

My heart goes out to the over 200 killed, the 704 in the hospital, the friends and family of those held hostage, and the Russian people in general.

“10 Arabs had been among the gunmen killed,” the news article also mentions. Hmmmm…

Finally, to anyone unconvinced, a picture is worth a thousand words… A volunteer carrying a small child.