Boy oh boy, U.S. Senator John McCain says Russian President Vladimir Putin is "getting away with murder" in MH17. The latest U.S. intel reports are that there is no "direct link" to Moscow but that Moscow "created the conditions," pretty similar to what President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry and The New York Times have been saying. The problem there is Obama and Kerry and U.S. spooks were equally certain only military action was necessary to get Syria to give up chemical wmd. The same U.S. intel people say their best judgment now is that the shoot-down was a "mistake." Okay, let's dispose of that one right now: if by "mistake," they mean the Russian separatists shot down MH17 thinking it was a Ukrainian military plane, that's no mistake, they had no right shooting down a Ukrainian plane; in criminal law that's called transferred intent. Then a Putin advisor accused Kiev of being "the West's henchmen" while a former advisor said he couldn't believe the level of anti-Western sentiment coming out of the Kremlin these days. There seems to be a bit of a struggle going on for the soul of Russia.
It should be enough that the SAM was fired by Russian separatists from a separatist-controlled area in Ukraine, enough of a "link" to Putin, that is. I thought that was established. These latest reports are at least confusing the issue though for if the above is enough, why not leave it there? Unless the above is not considered enough or unless these latest reports are intended to imply indirectly that that "enough" itself is under reconsideration. Drat this!
It should be enough that the SAM was fired by Russian separatists from a separatist-controlled area in Ukraine, enough of a "link" to Putin, that is. I thought that was established. These latest reports are at least confusing the issue though for if the above is enough, why not leave it there? Unless the above is not considered enough or unless these latest reports are intended to imply indirectly that that "enough" itself is under reconsideration. Drat this!
