Quote:I find it pretty "convenient" that Russia is in possession of the "black box" (or so they say...)  That could just be a bluff.

 

Sure, the technology is old (Vietnam era analog computing and vacuum tubes) and inexperienced users could make mistakes since there's no "visual"... but sorry, color me skeptical that Ukraine may have mistook it for Russian military.

 

It also seems far too "convenient" for Putin to blame Ukraine since he's "not invading" them.  After all, it's not like such a "mistake" by Ukraine would be a convenient reason for him to "punish" them (and possibly gain support for doing so.)

 

There's definitely a possibility that Russia pulled the trigger, but I tend to think that scenario is the least feasible because if it was traced back to them, it would be an act of war.  Putin doesn't mind poking the bear with a stick because he knows he'll get a spineless response from the US right now, but even in our weakened state, if it was proven Russia did this the US, or more likely NATO would be forced to respond militarily. 

 

Where the missile was fired from is a good indicator that rebels were most likely the culprits.  It's irrefutable that they were given the missile batteries.  They've been shooting planes down in that region for a while now, including 2 more this week besides this one.  If you've got people operating these systems who only have enough understanding to know how to target and launch, but not enough to identify the target, anything is possible.  Based on what's transpired recently, it seems to me this would be the best case scenario.  If it turned out Russia is behind this?  That would be the worst case.  Either way, they're providing the weapons to the rebels. 

 

There needs to be some accountability there.  Unfortunately, it's becoming almost too clear that there's nobody on this side of the Atlantic with the stones to speak up, and countries in Europe won't do it because they have a dependency on Russia for their oil.  They don't want to jeopardize that. 

 

We don't need a declaration of war, but Russia needs to be put back in their box, and there are ways to accomplish that without having to fire a single shot.  Unfortunately, when we've gotten tough with them recently, we've frozen assets for a few citizens.  We haven't caused any real economic pain.  To date, this administration has shown it's unwilling to really clamp down.   

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