You know those horrible quislings David Brooks was complaining about yesterday, the ones who see the slaughter in Beslan and -- instead of being real men and proclaiming a counter-jihad against members of the Islamic "cult of death" -- talk about nonviolent political and logistical measures for dealing with the Chechens? Well, it appears that such quislings work in the Bush administration:

The Bush administration differed Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said that only a political settlement could end the crisis between Russia and the breakaway region of Chechnya.

The administration also left open the possibility of U.S. meetings with Chechens who are not linked to terrorists.

...[Richard] Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said Tuesday that "our view on the overall situation has not changed." That is, he said, ultimately "there must be a political settlement" over Chechnya.

He said U.S. officials had met with Chechens with a variety of views in the past, although "we do not meet with terrorists." There may be additional meetings in the future, though none are planned, he said….

--AP

And, as CNN notes,

A few weeks ago the United States granted asylum to Ilias Akhmadov, the "foreign minister" of the Chechen separatist movement.

Here's what an AFP story said at the time about that:

Russia, which accuses Akhmadov of terrorism and of links to an armed incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in 1999, has been seeking his extradition since he arrived in the United States in 2002.

I'm really no expert on this. But apparently even this bellicose administration thinks that chanting EVIL EVIL EVIL is not the way to prevent future atrocities like Beslan.