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Another Malaysian airliner crashed. This time probably hit by surface-to-air missile in Eastern Ukraine.


Casper

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This is not good, not at all.  Shooting down commercial airliners isn't something I feel the US will will keep out of and it's about to hit the fan.

This! I don't see this being good for the United States either. A war with Russia is not something i think our country can handle right now with the state that we are currently in.

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All reports I'm reading point to Ukraine shooting it down... What does this have to do with Russia? Am I missing something?

 

The Ukrainian "rebels" (the ones who want annexation into Russia) are alleged to be responsible for the shooting.  While I doubt the Russian government will condone the act, the driving force behind the rebellion is a sense of Russian patriotism.  For obvious and predictable reasons, the Ukrainian government opposes ceding any part of their country to Russia, regardless of what the citizens (or at least a vocal minority?) desire.

 

 

I agree that the U.S. will need to make a public reaction.  I would like it to be "our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.  Please take the current conflict in Ukraine into consideration when planning your world travels."  I expect that it will be something more like, "The Russian government needs to make it clear to these rebel forces that acts of aggression are not productive steps toward their goal.  If the Russian and Ukrainian governments cannot quell such acts, the U.S. will be urging the United Nations to authorize military measures from someone who will."

 

Of course Republicans will call the former "isolationism" and the latter "weak foreign policy," but I don't see why the U.S. needs to stick its neck out here...

Edited by redkow97
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Early reports have been conflicting on who might have done this but the most recent links I've found via RT are indicating the Kiev regime as the possible guilty party.  Another report is stating that Putin's aircraft may have been the intended target.

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and that's another wrinkle.  I think it will take some time to sort out who is definitively responsible, let alone their true motive.

 

I agree, there is rhetoric from both sides but nothing definitive and it's too early in the investigation to lock down a guilty party.  

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Not likely. In 1983 Russia shot down a KLM 747 with a congressman on board. Nothing happened.

Although I wouldn't take bets on Malaysia entering the conflict in Ukraine...

This was before my time and I just learned of it last night watching the news.  Very interesting that nothing was done at all, I get not going full war mode, but like to still have any ties with them after they lied about it for 13+ years is interesting.

 

The rebels were supplied via Russia so that's where they come into things together.  And yes, the US going into a big WW right now would be really bad with the state of the the US as a whole.

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This has happened before sometimes in error, some times as a deliberate act. In this case it interesting that based on some reports the flight was 150 east of it's normal route. Not sure if was weather related or not. Also 100 of the top AIDS researchers in the world were killed in this incident.

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/17/5912699/7-times-militaries-have-shot-down-civilian-planes

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Pretty much the risk taken when utilizing missiles and rockets. Latest is that rebels announced shooting down an Antonov (much smaller) at the time of the shot taken on the commercial. (twitter) That was retracted/deleted. The comments section of Aviation Week displayed photos of the mobile rig used, although it's not clear who the operators were, since it's assumed none of the rebels had the skill set. Stolen from the Ukrainian national forces early on, it was spotted in a nearby town from where the shoot down was, and satellite photos show it not far from the crash site at the time of the shooting. Early warning satellites also picked up infrared of the launch and supposedly have the launch location. And it's one of the few pieces of hardware around that could have taken a shot at that altitude. A serious piece of equipment.

 

http://pic.twitter.com/bIJzIXW2hQ

http://t.co/3yFpXcwYpL

http://t.co/Uz38yGPwGV

http://t.co/TtqX6sxZOQ

 

It's difficult to hide from the public internet. Almost as good as satellite surveillance.

 

edit: Nope, new photos and videos appear to show the mobile missile rig rolling in on a transporter from across the Russian border at 1am that morning. I thought the idea of it was lost Ukrainian equipment lacked details. This makes a little more sense.

Edited by ReconRat
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The voice recording of the Russian Intellignce officer and the other pro-Russian militant is pretty damning if it is real. The transcript I read made it pretty clear they knew the fucked up.

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