The world loses, again

It is not a good year for Malaysian Airlines. Last March, Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing suddenly veered off course and then disappeared. It has not been found since, and we can only assume that all on board have perished. Then just this Thursday, a Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was apparently shot down by a ground-to-air missile, most likely fired by Ukrainian rebels aligned with Russia. There is an ongoing conflict in Ukraine where rebels wanting to secede from Ukraine and be annexed by Russia have been fighting a civil war. MH17 was apparently flying over the conflict area.

Still, why shoot down a commercial aircraft? It is a known fact that the Russians have been supplying arms and weapons to the rebels to help their cause. What they forgot to supply were brains to the rebels who would operate such weapon systems. Experts all agree that commercial passenger aircraft do not look like anything military, and it is certain MH17 was not making any threatening moves against the rebels at 33,000 feet. Shoulder-fired missile systems can be ruled out as they cannot reach that altitude, so whatever brought down MH17 had to be from a vehicle weapons platform of some sort. That would need a lot of training to operate, leading some to think that the missile may not have come from the rebels, but from some dumb Russians. Unless they deliberately shot down the plane.

This is not the first time a commercial jet was shot down over Russian airspace. In 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 entered Russian airspace, and was deliberately shot down by a fighter aircraft. The Russians merely explained that it entered their airspace, and they also believed the aircraft was spying on them. The pilot of the fighter that shot down Korean 007 knew it was a civilian aircraft, but casually said that these planes can easily be converted for military use. Two hundred sixty-nine people were murdered that day, but Russia could not care less. They were neither sanctioned nor punished.

The actions of those on the ground where MH17 crashed speak volumes. Armed gunmen have secured the crash site, only allowing a handful of journalists for a limited time to view the site. The gunmen were neither helpful nor accommodating, even hostile. One was allegedly drunk. Investigators were not allowed to do their job of finding out what happened, and the plane's black boxes have apparently been found and brought to Russia. The treatment of the dead passengers has been described as appalling. There have been reports of militants looting the passengers' belongings. Totally unacceptable. This all stinks of a cover-up, even though the world has apparently made up its mind about what happened to MH17.

For sure Russia will not give a damn. They are so used to killing innocent civilians, what's two hundred ninety-eight more non-Russians? They will easily put the blame on the aircraft for flying into a conflict zone. And after they have doctored all the evidence, they will surely show clean hands of the incident. Such is the arrogance brought about by a powerful military, just like China. It is no wonder these two countries are so often in agreement.

Which is why just like the Korean Airlines incident, nobody will be punished for this obvious crime. The families of the victims will agonize over the senseless loss of their loved ones. I heard a whole family was wiped out. The outrage is there, but that's all there is. President Vladimir Putin will not be perturbed. He will be defiant, as he always is.

The world loses on this one, again.

rapide_90yahoo.com.