So, as I sit and watch several news outlets' continuing (continuous?) coverage of the tragic shoot down of MH-17, I was stunned to hear audio of a Ukranian Separatist talking to a Russian Army officer about their confirmation that the downed plane was civilian. I guess any doubt that Russian forces were (at the very least) involved in a short-lived, misguided attempted cover up of the downing of the Malaysian jet is now squashed flat - at least until Putin says it was actors hired by the (legitimate) government of Ukrain to make it sound like Russia was complicit.
You want to talk about acting? Putin's news organization is more government-controlled than Pravda ever was (want proof? - the incident isn't even front page news in Russia), so don't believe an ounce of his rhetoric. I wouldn't put it past him to hire actors to say they're they ones who shot down the plane and they're from Des Moines, Iowa. I also expect them to claim responsibility for kidnapping the Lindbergh baby and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
Seriously, The only way to avoid this kind of tragedy in the Ukranian conflict? End the conflict. How do you end it? Russia gets out. The only way Russia gets out? Replace Putin. Someone less megalomaniacal, like Kim Jung Un seems like a more reasonable choice.
Meanwhile, what a joy our country is to watch. While I do say "hats off!" to Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., who flat out said Russia could end the war if they wanted, I'm rather disappointed in our president, who went to a fundraiser. Guess that's better than having him mucking things up through hands-on diplomacy. A reall show stopper for the United States State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki (the "P" is silent, as is her ability to rationally order facts and present them clearly). She embarrassed (really she's an ongoing embarrassment to) our country and the U.S. State Department - even more than John Kerry. Ms. Psaki, I didn't think you could do worse than your pre-schoolish Sharpie-on-construction-paper hash-tagged "#usforukraine" in March...thanks for proving me wrong by opening your press briefing with something other than this piece of news for the past TWO DAYS. Somebody get her a Sharpie.
I know that civilian airliners have been in the wrong place in armed conflicts before; and that the flight path of MH-17 was intentionally altered by its flight crew to conserve fuel and the alteration took it into the militarized zone. Through the confluence of those factors, almost 300 people are dead; let us not lose site of that. But now, it only gets worse. Pro-Russian rebels are firing warning shots at U.N. investigators trying to find answers in a debris field stretching over nine miles. This speaks to the mindset of the people who fired the missile (or at least armed the system that fired it). It may have been an accidental shootdown, but the what's happening now is no accident; the separatists know what they're doing. And that's the difference between a soldier and a terrorist. A terrorist uses fear to get his or her way, which is what the armed thugs at the crash site did today. And they're aligned with the Russian government. What does that tell us about that government?
Just food for thought as the wagon rolls on. Thanks for riding shotgun. And remember, that's just a figure of speech here, but for the Russian military and their Separatist cronies, they may take it literally.
