Another Malaysian jet goes down with 295 passengers, at Ukraine/Russia border

[Callisto]

http://m.smh.com.au/national/crash-c...718-zuaw3.html

As if this shit couldn't get any more sad.

proxy war on Africa obviously

[Correction]

Transcript of Obama's statement

Now, here is what we know so far. Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine.

We also know that this is not the first time a plane has been shot down in eastern Ukraine. Over the last several weeks Russian- backed separatists have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane and a Ukrainian helicopter, and they claimed responsibility for shooting down a Ukrainian fighter jet.

Moreover, we know that these separatists have received a steady flow of support from Russia.

This includes arms and training. It includes heavy weapons. And it includes anti-aircraft weapons.

Now, the United States stands ready to provide any assistance that is necessary. We've already offered the support of the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board, which has experience in working with international partners on these types of investigations. They are on their way, personnel from the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board. In the coming hours and days, I'll continue to be in close contact with leaders from around the world as we respond to this catastrophe.

Our immediate focus will be on recovering those who were lost, investigating exactly what happened and putting forward the facts. And I want to point out there will likely be misinformation as well. I think it's very important for folks to sift through what is factually based and what is simply speculation. No one can deny the truth that is revealed in the awful images that we all have seen, and the eyes of the world are on eastern Ukraine, and we are going to make sure that the truth is out.

This is a very carefully selected set of words.

[Serra]

I would have been shocked if the US was the first to say we're going to do something about this. That said, I'll also be shocked if nothing happens to the separatists, and the Netherlands is part of NATO, so I wouldn't rule out the US being involved so quickly.

[Abandon]

You damn desk jockey, I'm EW. Not some dumbass that lets his system do the work for them then pushes a button.

rofl

[Xajii]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...60c87b93361928

According to this, 7 leading AIDS researchers en route to a summit in Melbourne were killed on this flight.

Well that is just fuckin great.

edit: shittty other articles mentioned something like 100+, this is false, still sucks tho

[Quicklet]

Even with this incident, outside military intervention is nearly unthinkable (and might not even be necessary so long as Russia can be prodded into stopping its proxy invasion). Ukraine was already gaining ground on the rebels, enough to force Russia to take a more direct role in supplying hardware and installing more direct Russian intelligence officers to control an coordinate the separatists.

Let's not kid ourselves though, while the direct culpability for this lies with the separatists and Russia (who really are one and in the same in most respects at this point), this may have been avoidable if the United States and especially Europe were willing to put more forceful sanctions in place from the start instead of humoring and coddling Putin by more or less gifting him Crimea with minor consequences. Without Russian support (particularly the intelligence officers they provided) there probably wouldn't even be a separatist faction still fighting.

The level of propaganda spewed by Russia today is absurd. The state news was claiming that Ukraine was aiming for Putin's plane, missed and hit the Malaysian jet instead. I know this is a tired comparison, but it really is reaching Nazi Germany levels of natonalism in a way that frankly doesn't seem sustainable to me. Nobody (understandably) wants to get into a military conflict over Russia trying to keep itself from falling apart, but it's hard to see Europe being okay with this state of affairs after this event.

[vagus]

Sigh. Sad thing is more of these incidents will occur.

[archibaldcrane]

If Russia didn't control so much of the EUs natural gas, the EU wouldn't be such pussies.

But they do, so they are.

[Quicklet]

Well said.

[Kuya]

Well, i can definitely hand it to Russia though. As a leftist, any and all dirty hippy tendencies to defend them have long vanquished. Hell, give me a few more years and i'll probably be hawking for nuking Russia.

[Kuya]

Would I bee too extreme in expressing that the world would be a better place without Russia? Or at least Putin?

[archibaldcrane]

Depends on who replaces him.

[quannum]

another puppet of russian corporations.

[kuronosan]

Well, i can definitely hand it to Russia though. As a leftist, any and all dirty hippy tendencies to defend them have long vanquished. Hell, give me a few more years and i'll probably be hawking for nuking Russia.

Ey, fuck you butt-day.

Edit: That escalated quickly:

Republicans blame the President for MH17.

[Quicklet]

It's inevitable, but to be fair if you toned down some of the crazy rhetoric there are legitimate criticisms of Obama's foreign policy (or lack thereof). Of course, I would point to some of the blunders on NSA for worsening ties to Germany, but there's a whole grab-bag of things to latch onto without getting all crazy-town.

That said, it's hard to beat having your state television actively editing wikipedia articles on the event:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...sian-airliner/

[Correction]

I love that there are twitter bots out there to catch edit wars from government IPs.

[Anoat]

Nobody posted this yet? For shame.

Also, news anchor's name is Krystal Ball. Really? lol

[Quicklet]

She ran for Congress a few years ago, there was some faux scandal involving holiday party pictures with some dude with a nose-dildo.

[Cail]

A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash — suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.

http://news.yahoo.com/rebel-leader-g...182256709.html

[Mertron]

sounds legit, aids experts on the plane? they all died of super aids before the rocket strike. like the guy in 12 monkeys who releases the toxin in the airport. should thank the guy who fired before the plane spread the disease elsewhere