General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Face it, DU: Manny *loves* Putin. [View all]
At the risk (well, certainty) of being labeled a Putin lover/defender and so forth, there are a couple of things that I'd like to point out regarding the horrible downing of MH17 and the deaths of so many.
First off, this man:
the Director of National Intelligence, flagrantly and admittedly lied even to Congress and still has his job. Clearly, our government has no big concerns about lying to Americans. So why would we believe anything at all that they tell us? It might be true, it might be a lie, but mostly, it will be what suits their own goals, not ours.
Sadly, it's hard to know who to believe here. In situations like this, I tend to turn to the foreign press to see what they're saying, particularly those sources that tend to be truthful and tend not to be US lapdogs. I took a look at Deutsche Welle, which I've found to be fair and level-headed, and it seems that things are not so clear with regard to who downed MH17:
From:
The plane was apparently hit by a surface-to-air missile. The separatists have denied that they are able to hit an aircraft flying at 10,000 meters (33,000 feet).
Aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt told DW that rebel and guerilla organizations never before had access to such type of weapons. They often had shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles of rather small caliber, but those could only reach an altitude of up to 4,000 meters, he told DW.
Other weapons systems are required to fire 10,000 meters into the sky. If it is proven that rebels downed the plane, one had to thoroughly check how they could get their hands on such a weapon, he added. The pro-Russian separatists had previously said they had obtained a mobile Russian anti-aircraft defense system Buk last week.
That, however, is a very sophisticated system and it's questionable whether they were able to learn how to operate Buk in such a short time. There are also reports that the Ukrainian military also has such weapons; it has denied firing any missiles.
This may be BS, it may be accurate... but it is in a legitimate news source that seems to no longer be in bed with the US government.
The bottom line is that I'm suggesting that we all wait a little while before forming a judgment here. Things may become quite clear in the coming days - or, like the Syrian gas attacks, they may become more uncertain.
(And no, this doesn't mean I approve of Putin. I don't. With gusto.)