I read one theory that Bad Vlad was playing with Hillary’s “Reset” button when the missile accidentally launched.
Only one small problem, Putin has yet to be proved guilty.
Personally I think he was involved even if only as the knowing supplier but on the face of it the Ukraine gov’t has more to gain from such an act. As the lawyers say “Cui bono?”
Any kind of mental imbalance is exacerbated by vast, virtually unchecked power. Obama was actually less mentally screwed up when he was first elected than he is now. Six or so years of being treated like a king has mushroomed Obama’s problems out of all proportion. Notice of late the who-gives-a-hoot level of golfing, partying, vacationing & fund raising. He acts like whether the public approves or disapproves is irrelevant. The king does what he wants to do, period. Also notice the increasingly weird, inappropriate giggling. It’s gotten 100x worse since he first entered the WH.
Putin is also not one-hundred percent sound mentally. He has virtually unlimited power, and he spends an outsized amount of time promoted the Cult of Putin. So many ‘manly’ photos of him riding a bear—bare chested—hunting, posing in KGB shades, ostentatiously showing off his pecs in a wife-beater shirt, etc. He has, if possible, an even more serious crush on himself than Obama.
When one’s mental instability is given unfettered rein, the judgment suffers. I.e.: people held to normal standards must evaluate their decisions & their environment from a real-world perspective. People w virtually unlimited power & a paid cadre of yes-men make decisions in a vacuum. No matter what they decide their inner circle praises them as demi-gods; the consequences of not doing so make this a given.
So Putin made a disastrous decision & his yes-squad assured him of its brilliance. His ego couldn’t see it any other way. Now he’s getting a rare taste of the real world. He won’t handle it well at all.
...other than the little fact that he's been running rings around 0baMao.
Putin is winning. He'll take all of Eastern and Southern Ukraine for the same reason a dog licks its testicles - because he can. As soon as that's over, he'll take (my guess) the Georgian Black Sea province of Adjaria (ethnically different from other Georgians, although related) and maybe more of Georgia, and have his hand on the switch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Europe will not dare to say a peep after that.
Then he'll have a free hand to annex the Russian-speaking parts of the former Soviet Empire, starting (my guess) with Northern Kazakhstan, after that the Baltics.
The only country that could rise to stop him is the United States. But we won't do that for the reasons described above.
So, Putin wins his old Soviet Empire back at the ridiculously low cost of a few half-hearted sanctions.
was there any evidence that Putin personally made a deliberate decision to down this airplane?
if so, I missed it... and this article would then be pure BS
My theory:
Ukrainian Russian sympathizers
(possibly into the vodka)
fired at a target they believed to be Ukrainian military.
A tragic error.
Breaking news: International investigators have pinpointed the exact location on the ground from which the missile was launched. They have provided photographs of the remains of a Book Depository, craftily concealed by the Separatists, not far from a Grassy Knoll, which could have served as the site of a back-up launcher, in case the first one failed.
As further proof, they cited the discovery at the site of numerous beer bottles.
A bigger question is why was Malaysia Airlines flying their airline in that airspace?
I'm so glad I don't have to be subjected to that here anymore.
Greg Satell Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
He's also a writer for the Kiev (Ukrainian) Post
If this guy is smarter than Putin then he should be able to answer these questions:
1. Why did the MH17 plane leave the international corridor?
2. Was MH17 leaving the route a navigation mistake or was the crew following instructions by Ukrainian air traffic controllers in Dnepropetrovsk?
3. Why was a large group of air defense systems deployed to the militia-held area if the self-defense forces have no planes?
4. Why did Kiev deploy BUK missile systems on the edge of militia-controlled zones directly before the tragedy?
5. On the day of the crash Kiev intensified Kupol-M1 9S18 radar activity, key BUK system components. Why?
6. Where did the launcher – from the video circulated by Western media and showing a Buk system being moved allegedly from Ukraine to Russia – come from? As the video was made on the territory controlled by Kiev, where was the launcher being transported?
7. Why haven’t US officials revealed the evidence supporting claims that the MH17 was shot down by a missile launched by the militia?
Is this a Putin miscalculation? Or is he taking advantage of a void in leadership from the West, particularly the US?
Really? Putin was out there lining up crosshairs and pulling triggers? Wow, talk about a man of the people, one of the commoners, an every man and a leader who actually gets out to see what’s really going on in his country. Nope, sorry, it was just as first reported by a bozo on twitter who didn’t have enough training to know the difference between a cargo plane and a passenger plane.
All I know is that our president wants me to be mad at Putin, so I’m MAD AS HELL at Putin.
...by the way, where is our southern border?
Putin is a winner here. Why does the writer think that Vlad cares about his good opinion?
Miscalculation, failure, and indescisevness are found daily in the Oval Office.