If anyone knows a good prayer for the Russian people and civil authorities, please send it my way. I’m floundering, caught up short by the horror of their loss at the school in Beslan, and uncertain of anything to say on their behalf other than “Lord, have mercy.” Maybe it’s enough.

Putin now says that Russia’s past response to terrorism had been insufficient. I think that some other nations wanted to believe that Muslim terrorism was America’s problem. I think that they had the idea that they would appease these factions within their borders and they would escape their own 9/11. I don’t know if they will still blame us somehow, as if the powder keg never would have exploded without the spark of our war in Iraq and the fact that our own heightened level of security makes these attacks less possible in our country.

If there was any such illusion in Russia, it’s gone now. I am terribly sorry for their overwhelming loss, currently listed at 342 dead, mostly women and children. If Russia now stands ready to join us in repelling a violent and merciless enemy, I would consider it a good thing to have come out of this horror.