How would we react?

The Chechen rebels in Beslan attacked a school and took more than 1000 people, many of them children, hostage using guns and simple explosives. Apparently, when some of the explosives accidentally went off in the gymansium where the hostages were being held, a melee ensued resulting in 326 dead hostages, 9 dead bystanders and police, and 30 dead terrorists. I saw reports of over 700 injured. Do the math. 700 injured and 326 dead hostages is more than a thousand dead or injured of approximately 1300 total hostage. That's about 76% dead or injured.

What was the Russian plan for dealing with terrorists in such a situation? And more importantly, what is our plan? There is a presidential campaign waging right now. Isn't that the kind of question we should be asking our candidates? Of George Bush, we have the right to ask what the current administration's response to such an attack would be. What is our current plan for dealing with terrorists taking a school hostage? Of John Kerry, we should be asking what his plan would be. I want to know.

I don't know whether these deaths could have been prevented. I think it would be impossible to prevent all such attacks. We can't turn all of our public spaces into fortresses. So given the possibility of terrorists mounting such an attack in the U.S., how would we respond? Do we leave negotiations up to local law enforcement? Does the Pentagon already have a strategy? Do we take a hard-nosed no-negotiations approach?

And I think just as importantly, why hasn't our media asked these questions already? I thought of them as soon as I heard of the hostage taking. The first thing I thought when I heard that Putin has a strict no-negotiation policy is, "What is our policy?"

What is our policy?