The European Union & The Malaysian Jetliner (Updated)

On Thursday May 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 (en route from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) crashed in Eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

The tragedy has since lead to many speculations concerning what caused the airplane to crash, among other theories so far it is believed that the plane could have been shot down by a missile.

John Aravosis, over at the AMERICAblog, yesterday posted an interesting analysis of the event and it's political ramifications involving Russia, the European Union and the United States, see Destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight poses huge conundrum for Obama, Europe.

At this point, US intelligence thinks the Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine shot down the Malaysian airliner, and they suspect it was with a Russian (Soviet) “Buk” missile. And the Pentagon said today that it was basically inconceivable that the rebels could have learned to operate the missiles without Russian help. There’s also a serious question as to where the Russian rebels got their Russian weapons from (take a guess).

But it’s worse than that. CNN was saying yesterday that while it would have been obvious to the Russians that this was a civilian airliner, it would have been next to impossible for the Russian rebels in Ukraine to know the difference between a Ukrainian military plane and a civilian airliner. The Russians knew they couldn't tell the difference, the Russians knew they were providing weapons and training to people who were planning on shooting down planes in an area that was a major corridor for international civilian air traffic. And the Russians went ahead and trained them to shoot down the planes anyway (if, everything we now suspect ends up being true).

That’s not an accident. And it’s not simple negligence. It borders on premeditated murder.

You train someone to shoot down planes, in a zone full of civilian airliners, knowing full well that the people you’re training have no way of knowing which planes are civilian and which are military. You know they’re going to be killing innocent people, and you simply don’t care (or perhaps even want them to). That’s not a “mistake.”

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Although we are still at an early stage, and there has been no formal inquiry into the cause of the crash yet, I believe that Mr. Aravosis is on the right track. 

It will now be very interesting to see if - and how - the European Union and the United States decide to take action against Russia and "Little Father" Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, in the latter's attempts  "to reconstitute the Soviet Union in all its deadly glory".

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Update
Malaysia Airlines has released the full names and nationalities of every person on board. There were:

• 192 Dutch, including one who had a dual Dutch/U.S. citizenship
• 44 Malaysian
• 27 Australian
• 12 Indonesian
• 10 British, including one who had dual U.K./African citizenship
• 4 German
• 4 Belgian
• 3 Filipino
• 1 Canadian
• 1 New Zealander

The Olympic Games, Russia & Putin

I was tipped about this post by John Aravosis on the AMERICAblog by the longtime Bock in SecondLife reader, my dear brother, Dejerrity Mycron.

Despite Dej's present sufferings in an old Manhattan building with a malfunctioning boiler and a worthless managing company in the midst of the coldest winter in New York for ages, my lovely and loving brother takes the time and makes the effort to send me tips. Isn't it clear from that fact alone, that the man is completely loveable?

Oh guys, he is single too at the moment so if you would want to meet this gruff diamond in disguise just drop a notecard on my profile and I may set you up for an introduction.

Send your notecards to The McMillan Matchmaking Agency (a part of the BMcM Corporation), c/o Bock McMillan.

If you pass my scrutiny, I may introduce you! First come, first served! 
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The AMERICAblog; "How Vladimir Putin sent 'Brand Russia'  into the toilet". The post starts like this:

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more to harm the image of Russia internationally than anyone in a generation.

Putin’s baby, the 2014 Winter Olympics being held in Sochi, Russia in just under two weeks, was meant to demonstrate to the world that Russia had entered the modern age.

Then a funny thing happened. The world actually paid attention to Russia, and found it to be a third-world cesspool run by a despot.

If Brand Russia had already been bruised by Putin’s reign, in the past 12 months it’s been utterly destroyed."

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I hope "Little Father" Putin reads it and takes notice, but that may be a vain wish.