President Obama spoke on Friday about the downing of the Malaysian airline in which two less than three hundred persons were murdered. It was done by a Russian missile which was fired from Russia, or right over the Ukrainian border with Russia, by Russian operatives. The plane came down in pieces over Eastern Ukraine. The scene of the carnage is spread upwards of five miles in length over Ukrainian farm land and wheat fields.
Yesterday President Obama said: “Evidence must not be tampered with. Investigators need to access the crash site”
He is doing that because as he said: “there has to be a credible international investigation into what happened.” It is clear what the president of the United States is demanding. Now to my way of thinking that is drawing a red line.
Despite this the evidence is being tampered with and the investigators are not getting the necessary access. It is reported: “the first group of international investigators on the scene were involved in a tense standoff with the armed separatists who control the crash site at Grabovo. A unit of heavily armed rebels blocked the 30-strong team from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), cordoning off a large part of the crash site. The inspectors retreated after an hour-long standoff, having been unable to gain access. They were sent on their way by warning shots fired by the rebel unit commander.”
It is also reported that: “Ukrainian rebels in mis-matched uniforms, who patrolled with guns and posed for photos holding children’s toys and other personal effects. Carry-on bags and backpacks lay open, pillaged by looters.”
The president of the United States has demanded the site of the crash be left undisturbed and investigators be given access. The site of the crash is in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government is willing to give access to the site A small group of armed rebels have control over it and refuse to give access.
Obama now has to back up his words. Failure to do so is totally inexcusable. I know of no other time in American history when a president made a demand that has been rejected and the president has backed down. Obama has had mud thrown in his face by a bunch of bandits. His face is our face as Americans. This must not stand.
We know the rest of the world has made the same demand as Obama but that matters not. He has put the United States prestige on the line. What other nations or the United Nations decide to do or not to do does not matter. Obama has laid down a red line. It has been crossed. The world is watching. The American people are watching.
Where is Obama? He’s not in the situation room overseeing the preparation for the immediate insourcing of our Special Forces where he should be. He is off at Camp David with his family taking what one paper described as: “a rare woodland getaway: a weekend at the presidential mountaintop retreat of Camp David.”
Meanwhile many of the bodies of the victims which include up to 80 children lie spread around the Ukrainian fields, evidence of the depravity of those who brought down the airline is being tampered with, and those responsible for the tragedy are in control of the evidence field.
I hope by the time I post this Saturday morning that American special forces are inserted into action in Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainian government for the limited purpose of securing the site and keeping it secure for a long as necessary. As they are airborne with the necessary support equipment, we should advise Russia that according to international law the site of the crash is a crime scene and we are obligated to go in to secure it.
There is a danger Russia might come after our forces. There are some things that you have no choice but to do and this is one of them. If Russia does attack our troops we will do all in our power to repel them. I put my money on them yelling and shouting but doing nothing else. Our failure to act forcefully and immediately will severely diminish the standing of our country in the eyes of the world.
As a kid growing up in the inner city I learned you have to back up your words. I usually followed Teddy Roosevelt’s advise and spoke softly preferring not to be in fights. But if I told someone not to do something and they said they planned to do it I would dare them to try. If they then did it I’d have to take them on. Sometimes I’d win, other times I’d lose. But I knew you couldn’t dare someone and do nothing if you wanted to have any respect. It was respect that kept one safe.
Too bad Obama didn’t learn this basic truth. Too bad for America. Too bad for the world.
IN 2001 the Ukrainian military shot down a civilian air flight of Siberian Air killing 84. Was that an accident or a mistake? The US Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane killing almost 300. Was that an accident or a mistake? Did any in the media describe those episodes as murder? It seems all the neo cons and all the commentators on Fox want to describe this as murder. Why the double standard? This seems to be as you describe a failed attempt to shoot what was perceived to be a Ukrainian military plane. This is distinguishable from Korean Airlines where the Soviet pilot knew he was engaging a civilian airplane. Doesn’t appear to be murder. 2. When Gorbachov agreed to the unification of Germany it was with an understanding that NATO would not move East. NATO did. Don’t the Russians want to demonstrate that they are in control of the border region with Ukraine and that the West is powerless to prevent them. Isn’t their statement ” don’t come into my backyard” ? The Ukrainians are in the unenviable position of backing down to Russia or plunging into a fruitless confrontation from which they will lose. Hope they are smart enough not to be misled by the West. Look what happened in Syria where the West and it allies in the region instigated a civil war that seems to have no end in sight and has cost the lives of tens of thousands civilians. It also created ISIS. A colossal blunder. 3. Shouldn’t we be thankful to the Russians for defeating the Turks in their 18th century war and taking over Crimea and converting it to Christianity? When Crimea was the Tartar Khanate ( Muslim) in alliance with the Ottomans it was an outlaw state. It frequently raided Ukraine and Russia and seized up to 2 million souls and sold them into slavery in Turkey. 4. Isn’t Putin comparable to Gogol’s General B ” like all of us sinners he was endowed with many virtues and many defects”? He seems to be more sensitive about Russian border security than BHO is about America’s. BHO’s best quality is his restraint. Especially when the options are limited.
NC:
1. I’m not sure how people described the prior incidents or this incident but I suggest the killing of the 300 innocent passengers by a rebel force, or by Russian forces, who have invaded another country and are part of an illegal war who use missiles with malicious attempt to take lives is murder.
2. I don’t quite follow this section. First, NATO is a defensive alliance and has never threatened Russia. It has been formed to protect people from Russia. Are you suggesting because NATO moved to Poland and the Baltic States Russia is justified in invading Ukraine
1. I’m not sure how people described the prior incidents or this incident but I suggest the killing of the 300 innocent passengers by a rebel force, or by Russian forces, who have invaded another country and are part of an illegal war who use missiles with malicious attempt to take the lives of those flying in airplanes is murder.
2. I don’t quite follow this section. First, NATO is a defensive alliance and has never threatened Russia. It has been formed to protect people from Russia. Are you suggesting because the Baltic States in 2004 joined NATO Russia is justified in invading Ukraine? No one doubts Ukraine can’t stand up to Russia; we’ve already seen it can’t with the seizure of Crimea. Neither can Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia or for that matter Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic or Bulgaria
The Ukrainians are only being misled by the west when they see there is freedom in those countries that they would like to have for themselves. They look to Russia and see a one party state under the iron rule of one man who prohibits demonstrations and controls all media. Your comparison of Ukraine with Syria lags. The rebels in Ukraine are mostly from outside Ukraine – look at the pictures of some of them and you’ll see Chechens. There is no civil war there, it is a Russian invasion hidden under the umbrella of lies by Russia.
3. Why go back to the 18th Century. Why not deal with the 20th Century which produced Joseph Stalin who starved 7 million Ukrainians, deported the Tatars of Crimea to Siberia, and murdered countless others. Stalin’s KGB produced Putin.
4. Putin is pure evil. How account for his total failure to own up to his role in the murder of 300 civilians and his ongoing lies about it. His border security has never been threatened while he has threatened and invaded the borders of other countries which he continues to do.
Obama’s restraint has tossed the world into turmoil. If Reagan acted with restraint the Soviet Union would still exist; if Roosevelt acted in that manner Europe would have fallen to the Nazis; if Truman did most of the countries in Europe would be communist. True there is a time for restraint but in foreign policy acting with restraint in the face of situations demanding action is far from a virtue.
Mr. MATT, hoping that this President would have the screws do what’s needed is just wishful thinking. He’s proven time and again that he’s not @ all up to the job. After having drawn ” red lines ” in the sand countless times and never having backed up his words , he’s the proverbial ” paper tiger “. No one believes him, no one fears him, and no one respects him. President Obama is PATHETIC !
Gus:
I can’t disagree with anything you said. It seems he likes the perks of the job but runs from the responsibility. Henry Barth hit the nail on the head when he said he: “sees the world as it should be and not how it really is.” That’s not a leader; that’s not good for our country.
Interesting:
Did a Russian soldier’s trigger finger blow MH17 out of the sky?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2698068/Did-Russian-soldiers-trigger-finger-blow-MH17-sky-NOT-Ukranian-rebel-Tense-United-Nations-showdown-turns-heat-Putin-US-says-rag-tag-separatists-struggle-fire-missile-themselves.html
Henry:
The separatists are Russian soldiers pretending otherwise. Of course the missile had to be operated by trained Russian soldiers; you don’t turn such a sophisticated piece of equipment over to ignorant Cossaks. Take a look at some of the photographs of the so-called Ukrainian separatists – they are in fact Chechens.
I think I mentioned this previously. A radio commenter here in Ireland noted recently that “Obama’s problem is that he is a liberal former university professor who, like Woodrow Wilson, sees the world as it should be and not how it really is.”
Henry:
The radio comenter was exactly right. My grandson when he was 3 years old was listening me to complain about something said: “Grandpa, th world isn’t like you want it to be.” Maybe I should get him over to Harvard to fill one of those professorial openings.