[stars & stripes forever]

“international crime”

What’s with the quotations around international crime? It is what it is.

[yldstrk]

I just put it the way the headline was in the BBC article, it is not my independent comment, I agree with the Ukrainian PM when he calls the shooters bastards..........

[The_Reader_David]

The scorn quotes are there because it was only actually an international crime if you believe the airliner, as an airliner, was intentionally targeted. Otherwise, it was one of those tragedies that happen as a result of fog of war.

No one was ever run up on war-crimes charges in the downing of Iran Air 655 back in 1988, and there the USS Vincennes had not been under attack by an opposing air force, the plane was on its usual route, not hundreds of miles north of its usual route. Nor, although payments were made to the families of those killed, did the U.S. ever formally accept responsibility for the downing of the airliner. Even at the edge of war, fog of war exists and can lead to unintended civilian deaths.

If Putin's government wants to deny responsibility, they have adequate precedent given them by the U.S. government. In fact, Russia can follow the precedent exactly: wait eight years, make ex gratia compensation payments to the victims' families of $300,000 per wage-earning victim and $150,000 per non-wage-earning victim, will still denying responsibility.

If international law is not simply to be a bludgeon with which the U.S. (or the winnner in some conflict) beats opponents, it should apply equally to all.