[Enterprise]

"A strong leader would have sent in special forces to secure the crash site, lock down the airspace, and find the black boxes..."

The only nation in the area which had the capability of doing what you have suggested is Ukraine. Had Ukraine tried to secure the crash site, it would have suffered a lot of casualties and loss of equipment long before the crash site could have been considered secure. In the end, the crash site would have been blended in with the residue of military damage, with no guarantee that the black boxes would have been recovered, and with a certainty that the "crime scene" evidence which needed to be preserved would have been rendered useless. In short, a lot lives and equipment would have been expended to accomplish nothing.

[Dick Bachert]

At this point, the flight data recorders are really not necessary. It becomes more obvious with each passing day that the Russian backed separatists accidentally pulled the trigger on MH17. Their screw-up is Putin's worst nightmare and may — with some luck — bring the Europeans closer to penning him in.