[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.

[justa-hairyape]

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.

What is obvious does not matter. We must keep piling on the pressure. Everyone must hate Putin and be racist towards all Russians. How could we ever enter into another Cold War, if we were not ? And the sad part is, Putin would love another cold war. In fact he is already laying the ground work within Russia. Denying press freedoms. Jailing activists. All coming to America thanks to Putin's pal Obama and the GOP-E.

[Enterprise]

I agree. While the black boxes might show the obvious, that the plane suffered catastrophic failures, they wouldn't show what type of missile was fired, where it was fired from, or who fired it. Crucial information would have to come from preserving the crime scene, and given the current situation, that would have been impossible.

Just musing here, but suppose ANWR, and many other oil exploration, development, and transportation projects like KEYSTONE had regularly been approved. Russia might threaten Europe with a cutoff of energy supplies, and Europe could immediately turn to the U.S. with no disruption to their needs. The impact on Russia would be severe, instead of being severe to Europe.