Posted on 07/23/2014 2:37:03 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands, and all the explaining in the world cannot remove the stain or restore whatever lingering respect he may have enjoyed outside his own tarnished sphere of influence.
There’s no other reasonable conclusion, given the available evidence about Russia’s role in the horrible shooting down of that Malaysian airliner over Ukraine late last week.
The Russian leader has tried to persuade critics that Ukraine bears responsibility because the missile that destroyed the airliner was fired from what is technically Ukrainian soil.
That won’t fly, although it may find traction with the Russian people whose growing sense of nationalism has been stoked by Putin’s rhetoric, much of it critical of the United States in particular and the West in general.
The unadorned truth is that, encouraged by Putin, pro-Russian separatists took over large segments of eastern Ukraine in a bid to derail their elected leaders’ plans to establish closer economic and cultural ties with Europe.
Their preference, one they’re willing to pursue at any cost, is to restore Ukraine’s long-ago relationship with what was the Soviet Union, arguing that their language and their culture are more closely aligned with Russia’s than with Europe’s.
And it seems clear enough that it was these militant separatists who launched the death-dealing missile. Even more damning, the sophisticated missile system they used was Russian and had no business being in Ukraine.
Even if it were to be determined that the separatists shot down the passenger airliner by mistake, believing it was a Ukrainian military target, the Russian leader would still be complicit in the tragedy by enabling the missile launcher to be deployed by untrained zealots.
Nearly 300 innocent lives were lost — and thousands of others horribly damaged — because Russian-speaking Ukrainians, using Russian-made weapons and acting with the encouragement of Putin, had the wherewithal to launch a missile that could not have been part of their arsenal without Moscow’s consent.
Seldom has this turmoil-stricken world of ours been as unified as it is in condemning Putin for his role in this disaster.
And many of those placing the blame squarely on the Russian leader are taking note of the fact it was 100 years ago next month that a single reckless act — the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo — opened the door that led to World War I.
The world is confronted not just with the tragedy in Ukraine but also the seemingly out-of-control conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the brutal tactics on display in the widening war between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq and Syria, unrest in various parts of Africa and mounting tensions between China and Japan. We may not be on the brink of World War III, but the number of major conflicts occurring simultaneously certainly suggests some frightening parallels with the two previous world wars.
Some are saying that Putin has caused a resumption of the Cold War. That may be so, but the danger is that he’s added so much heat with his reckless posturing that the near future seems less like a resumption of the Cold War than the beginnings of something far more dangerous.
That's approximately the number of civilians the Ukrainian regime has killed to date. Where' the sympathy for them?
“Putin’s bloody hands”
Careful, Joe. We don’t want to offend the KGB-Putin butt kissers among us.
I’m calling BS on that.
Stop your of the usual defending of the Russian creeps, they’re the ones who created this whole mess, and you damn well know it.
It is sickening to see media and Puti’s butt kissers calling “Ukrainian separatists” bunch of Russian masked military thugs executing Putin’s order to annex Ukrainian territory.
When Yanukovych “thing” did not work out, Ukrainians froze at Maidan to put end to “joining Putin’s great mother Russia”, Putin mobilized his army at Ukrainian border, took over Crimea and now is biting more pieces of Ukraine.
Ukrainian people, even Russian speaking and especially Crimean Tatars do not want to be part of the Putin’s great Russian empire again or ever.
Masked spetznatz and Russian military personnel with modern armaments, no markings, are not Ukrainian separatists!!!!!!
If Ukrainians were desperate to join Putin’s empire, they would peacefully demonstrate for split, just like they did at Maidan. Masked thugs are Putin’s occupying soldiers, terrorizing population and just demonstrated their “skills” by shooting down Malaysian Air. When they were shooting down Ukrainian planes, world was quiet, now they awaken and see the true face of Putin - new Hitler.
So media: Please stop calling “Putin’s masked occupants of Ukraine!” as “Ukrainian Separatists”!
Putin’s Russians shot down the plane not Ukrainians. Plane flew across whole Ukraine, until drunk Ivan saw another “Ukrainian” target entering airspace of “Donetsk Republic” and ordered fire, only to see foreign passports and bodies showering the fields.
With military like that Putin is hoping to conquer 40 million of pissed off Ukrainians, who fought Hitler and Stalin?
You screwed up Volodia, Ukraine is not Abkhazia.
I hope Russians realize who is leading them and do to him what Ukrainians did to Yanukovych. Then the Slavs can work together to build better future without sick imperialistic gangsters.
No John McCain started this mess back as far as last December. John McCain tells Ukraine protesters: 'We are here to support your just cause'. Just liked he did in Libya and Syria.
You’re so ridiculous you’re funny.
Now try coming up with a answer that is actually plausible.
Where are all the bodies McGruff — your Thugs at Donetsk are 98 short.
Their aim is as bad as their math.
I keep wondering hy Putin left such rockets in the hands of a bunch of drunken derelicts. Putin acts mystified by the downing of this commercial jet, but what did he think these jerks would do with such weapons? Is Putin really as stupid as he seems?
No John McCain started this mess back as far as last December. John McCain tells Ukraine protesters: ‘We are here to support your just cause’.
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I suspect you are fully aware that the timeline you claim above is incorrect.
He wildcatted his way onto the podium of a major protest already in progress.
“they’re the ones who created this whole mess,”
Absolutely true. It was NOT John McCain. It was not the Ukrainians who wanted their government out of the hands of a seriously corrupt pro-Russian tyrant. It was the Russians. Everything would have calmed down and there would have been NO fighting if the Russians had not decided to whip up things in Crimea and then the Eastern Ukraine. The simple fact is that somebody has been supplying the pro-Russian thugs with military intelligence, officers, equipment, and cash. It’s the RUSSIANS!
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