Posted on 04/12/2010 6:06:15 AM PDT by shortstop
Has anyone thought that maybe the Russians did it?
This plane crash over the weekend, the one that killed the Polish president and decapitated the Polish government, are we completely sure it was an accident?
Because, if it was, it was an accident that did the Russians a lot of good. And if it wasn’t an accident, it fits right in with Russian ambitions for renewed empire.
No, I’m not a conspiracy nut and, yes, I did grow up during the Cold War and, yes, I do believe Reagan got it right when he called them an Evil Empire.
And, yes, if I was the president of the United States, or of some European nation, I would be nervous.
Here’s the history and the situation.
Russia has been a nation and culture bent on conquest for centuries. It has repeatedly through time dominated, invaded or conquered any number of peoples and countries across portions of Europe and Asia. The Soviet Union, the last such Russian empire, collapsed less than a generation ago because of pressure from the United States, inherent defects of socialism and communism, bankruptcy and a thirst for independence among its chattel states.
With Poland in the lead.
It was the Poles who first effectively stood up to Russian communism. That resistance was one point in a long and savage history of Russian oppression of Poland. Ironically, but maybe not coincidentally, the Polish leaders flying to Russia over the weekend were doing so to commemorate the anniversary of a Russian attempt to decapitate the Polish government and society. Allied with Hitler early in the Second World War, the Russians gathered together more than 20,000 officers of the Polish army and systematically killed them all. It was an attempt at cultural and national genocide, hoping to strip Polish society of its leaders and thereby render Poland easier to conquer.
It worked, and there’s a part of me that wonders if Russia has tried it again.
Because Russia clearly wants back the nations it held captive during the Soviet era. And it is engaged in violent conflict to get them back.
In Krygystan within the last week, for example, mobs many believe were armed and goaded by the Russians have toppled a pro-West president, trapped more than 1,000 American airman at a U.S. air base, declared alliance with Russia and called for the closing of the American base – an important military supply route to Afghanistan.
Russia is also involved in ongoing military tensions with the Republic of Georgia, tensions which include a Russian military invasion and occupation of parts of Georgia.
And then there’s Ukraine, where the president was the target of an assassination attempt – he was poisoned with dioxin – that many believe was arranged by Russian agents.
Notice the trend. Ukraine, Georgia and Krygystan were friendly to the United States. They all were once in the Soviet Union. They all have been in the targets of Russia.
Which brings us to Poland and its president.
Lech Kaczynski was pro-American. He rejected the influence of both the European Union and Russia in favor of alliance with the United States. He actively sought membership in NATO and he very much wanted to be under the umbrella of an American anti-missile shield. He wanted to be out from under the threat of Russian nuclear attack.
Kaczynski was embraced by George W. Bush but rebuffed by Barack H. Obama, and the nuclear arms-reduction treaty that Obama signed just last week with the Russians came with the public proviso that the Russians would abandon the treaty if America developed any technology to protect itself or anyone else from Russian nuclear bombs.
And now Lech Kaczynski is dead. With him are the senior commanders of the Polish military, the leader of the nation’s central bank, leaders of parliament, top businessmen and social leaders.
Poland is decapitated.
In the same town where it was decapitated 70 years before.
Poland’s pro-American leadership has been wiped out. As the last major former-Soviet vassal to want friendship with the United States, Poland’s government is gone. Like Georgia and Ukraine, it has met misfortune.
In a plane crash that was, before any sort of investigation, immediately declared the result of pilot error. The Russians have said that the Polish pilot repeatedly ignored the advice of Russian air traffic controllers and flew into trees and the ground.
That seems unlikely.
Pilots obey air traffic controllers, pilots avoid flying into the ground, it is extremely rare for a plane to crash.
And it has been more than 50 years since fog has been an impediment to modern instrument aviation.
And to top it all off, Vladimir Putin is in charge of the crash investigation. That’s the same Putin who was a career officer in the KGB and who ordered Russian troops into Georgia, and who would have ordered any attack on the Ukrainian president.
So forgive me for being suspicious.But Russia won big this weekend.
And history teaches us that that’s not usually an accident.
First I can’t believe that many leaders of the Polish Government were on that plane.
That aside:
This has Kremlin all over it.
Can you imagine the look of amazement on Putin’s face when he heard the entire leadership of Poland was coming?
He must have said something like “I can’t believe my luck!”.
Then amazingly the pilot completely ignored Ground Control orders to not land at this airport, this while flying the most important plane, in Poland, carrying the most imnportant people of Poland.
The plane then offloaded fuel and well,... crashed. Killing the entire leadership of Poland.
Weird.
Chechnyans are mostly Islamic after performing religious cleansing in Chechnya, but their fight with Russia is one for independence. They want to break away from Russia. And if terrorist can take down that plane, no head of state on the planet is safe. Has Russia even described what their terrorism counter measures were for this event ?
Amazingly Russia very quickly found the black boxes. LOL. Can’t wait to hear what their interpretation is.
If you were the president of Poland (and intelligent) would you even go near Russia? Really!
Zactly
"The Germans did it."
Korean Airlines 007. Anyone? Anyone?
In Poland the Prime Minister is the one with most of the clout and chief policy maker. President is more of a figurehead position.
Being Suicidal, one might think the pilot understood the effects of gravity, on his life and the lives of the most important people in Poland.
I don’t believe in coincidences and Russia has been acting like the Bear of late.
They had just announced the other day that Presidential elections were to take place this October. I wonder how Kaczynski’s party will fare, will there by a sympathy vote against Tusk’s party?
General Sikorski. Anyone?
HUH? You kidding?
Well, it may have been easy to miss just as the lack of coverage by Newsers about this tragedy.
Heck, I had the TV on all weekend and even had dinner with friends on Saturday.
One friend, who I consider very intelligent had not the slightest amount of information regarding this. He had only seen a ticker tape under the News caster and that was about all he knew.
Doesn’t look good for the hens.
Nope. Russian responsibility for getting these leaders on the ground safely.
Scapegoating ain’t gonna fly and would show a serious flaw in their security and prestige.
Story is and will be pilot stupidity. No one is going prove otherwise.
That assumes the pilot had something to do with the crash.
Let’s just get to the truth of this.
Of course no one will believe the truth. (either a accident, or The Russians did it).
It’s looking like a pilot flying in very bad conditions, who didn’t want to say he couldn’t make the landing and made a catastrophic decision.
Political philosophy wise both Tusk and Kascinski were quite similar. The Poles as a whole are a very conservative country so it appears to be personality and style that candidates are selected by.
Every crisis is an opportunity.
Tusk’s party (PO) is more economically conservative, but very pro-EU, but also more socially liberal than Kaczynski’s (PiS) party, which is more socially conservative and Euro-Skeptic.
You can't rule out sabotage. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to screw with a planes electrical system prior to take-off or during maintenance.
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