Quote:If Russia was behind shooting this airliner down, and it was done intentionally with malice, that's an act of war. It doesn't matter that it's a Malaysian airliner. It doesn't even matter if there were or were not Ukrainians on board. The goal, if Russia did this themselves, would be to provoke something. It could very likely be considered an act of war. You're right, the invasion itself should be considered as such, but it's never been openly confirmed that these incursion troops are Russian (even though the world knows they are).


This whole thing is a joke. It's Putin looking to rebuild the Soviet Union. We've allowed him to bow up and play the bully because we're incapable of leading with any sort of authority in the world with this current crop of "leaders" who are determined to undermine the lead role the US has always taken in these instances. This country has been tested repeatedly in the middle east, and now in eastern Europe, and over the past 5 years, the response has been impotent lip service that constantly changes. Red lines are drawn, then re-written because we don't have a leader with the convictions to stand up for what is right in the world.


That doesn't mean you have to go to war. We've seen leaders who were able to use words and policies very effectively to box in our enemies in the past. This bunch just doesn't seem to grasp the role this nation plays on a world stage, and the true influence that can be brought to action to deal with a resurgent Soviet Union. We've retreated in almost every aspect of foreign policy over the past 5 years except for pandering to a certain sect. Everyone else has been left to their own devices, and that void is now being filled by Russia as a result.


Regarding the incident itself, the human story of this is becoming almost too tragic. They left the bodies out there for almost 2 days before they finally started to collect the remains and put them into a refrigerated train car. They've been preventing experts from getting into the crash zone to conduct any sort of investigation, and only agreed today to get out of the way. Russia is instructing the rebels to allow crash investigators to access the scene, but we're now days past the incident, and no doubt they've picked through the wreckage to remove a lot of evidence.