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On 07/20/2014 02:09 AM, Michael Karadjis via Marxism wrote: > >> I don't think the question is one of blame. Accidents happen. > > MK: Exactly. So we need to separate the informational issue of whose > accident it was from the idea that this has some connection to the > politics if the conflict. I don't think we can just blow this off with "shit happens." A very aggressive decision was made to take out a plane at 33,000 ft. This was not a plane involved in air attacks. It followed threats to attack anything flying over Eastern Ukraine and it required especially trained crews and weapons. Also see; http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/18/why-ukraine-erupted-again.html > Russia has been escalating its war in Ukraine for weeks. The urgency > to win turned to recklessness. > > President Putin has been recklessly escalating the crisis in eastern > Ukraine since he was embarrassed and outmaneuvered by the Ukrainian > president three weeks ago. Allowing a passenger jet to be shot down is > the act of an increasingly desperate man. > > The Kremlin ordered tanks, heavy weapons and Russian fighters to pour > over the border stoking up the crisis until tragedy struck. We should > have seen it coming; on Wednesday morning the front page of Foreign > Policy magazine had a headline that should have sent shockwaves > through the geopolitical landscape: Russia Is Firing Missiles At > Ukraine > <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/16/russia_is_firing_missiles_at_ukraine_grad_rockets_us_sanctions>. > > The story followed several Russian citizens posting videos to social > media which they said show GRAD rockets being fired from Russian > territory toward Ukraine. By triangulating the different camera > angles, my team at The Interpreter proved that the unguided rockets > were indeed being fired into Ukraine from Russia. Thursday morning, > there were reports that a group of Ukrainian soldiers had been hit by > the rocket fire and were actually receiving medical treatment on the > other side of the border, ironically enough in the same town from > which the rockets had been launched in the first place. > > This should have been huge news. How could things in Ukraine have > deteriorated to the point where Putin was now engaged in such a > reckless act of aggression? Of course, it was huge news... but for > only a few hours. Quickly this headline was buried under the news that > another Malaysian airlines flight was missing, and evidence is > steadily growing that either Russian-backed separatists or Russia > itself may have fired the missile that brought it down.While much of > the media is trying to figure out who shot this aircraft down, with > what weapon and where it was obtained, it might be more instructive to > focus instead on the 'whys' of this incident. > > Why would Putin want to shoot down a commercial airliner? And if it > was an accident, why would Putin allow the separatists to have a > weapon this powerful without having full control over how it was used? > > The answer to that question reveals that the situation in Ukraine, and > in Moscow, is much, much worse than many had feared. > > The first thing we have to understand is that the Kremlin spent a lot > of time and money to bring down, either deliberately or accidentally, > Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. The prime suspect is a Buk > surface-to-air missile system > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buk_missile_system>. This is not a > shoulder-fired weapon easily smuggled across the border, a > point-and-shoot heat-seeking weapon that could be used with little > training by anyone who got their hands on it. This is an advanced and > battle-proven series of highly sophisticated vehicles which coordinate > to track targets with radar and fire missiles so advanced that they > were designed to knock smart bombs and cruise missiles out of the sky. > Whoever launched this weapon was highly trained and extremely > well-equipped. > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
