If we don't at least let aggressors know that we saw what they did, and don't approve -- then there's every reason to expect more of the same bad behaviour. I thought that was self-evident, amongst FReepers.
Furthermore, there's a big difference between pointing out an obvious act of war, and actually declaring war. Baird did the former -- he did not do the latter. According to the article: "Baird says that the Canadian government will soon announce new sanctions "against a broad range of Russian people and entities."
Those sanctions will likely be in-line with the United States and the European Union."
“So, you would recommend just ignoring the incident altogether? Please educate us as to when shooting down a civilian airliner, going about peaceful business, is not an act of war.”
No. But you want a potential world war over this? As disgusting as this incident is, the idea that a civilian airliner was flying over a known warzone is more disgusting. What the hell was the air traffic controllers doing sanctioning this to happen? And from some of what I read, it was known to pilots to avoid this airspace, but this one just went on through?
I want to see a real investigation, not a bunch of pompous windbags tossing around checks that their butts cant cash. Loose words can let lose wars.