Ignoring all the conspiratorial rants above I'm prepared to accept that some ill-trained militia commander with a big gun and a small brain took a unilateral decision to shoot down what he assumed as (another) cargo plane, as they have done before.

A Malaysian pilot had also taken the decision (or was told) to fly over a route that had been abandoned by other airlines as being potentially too dangerous just to save some fuel.

The resulting combination was an undeniable tragedy.

Not that it justifies this in any way but there is far more to the Ukrainian situation than has been skimmed over by the media.

Then again most think it's nothing more than "baddies versus baddies" anyway.

Is the fact that the Russians provided the weapons really any worse than the US weapons being used against the Palestinians, Tamils and in almost every other conflict?

Is Mise, the last US annexation was the Mariana Islands in 1947, where they took over a United Nations (actually a League of Nations) mandate from Japan following WWII.

Wobbles,

Assuming that firing off a surface-to-air missile requires a bit more line-of-command authority than shooting at your neighbour's cat with a pea-rifle, the unfortunate commission of this accident surely would have needed not only highly skilled operatives, maybe more than one or two, but also authority from much higher up in the chain of command.

Through some general or other, to the Minister of Aggression, and if he has any control over his own myrmidons, to Putin himself.

Or are you suggesting that Putin is powerless to control anything anybody down the hierarchy does, right down to the handful of morons who pressed the buttons ?

Who approved the transport of the missile system over the border and did that go up to Putin ?

How high up the hierarchy did the authority to press the buttons go ? At what point was there a break in the chain of command, if Putin is as innocent as you tacitly assume, and if some other Mafia/KGB colonel in his entourage gave the orders, or at least 'enabled' them ?

Joe

Loudmouth,
There was a report some days back that the Southern Russian army
command is somewhat rebellious of command from the Kremlin.
The report said something like they make their own rules.
I cannot verify it or vouch for it but in a large country like Russia
I think it has traditionally been like that.

Loudmouth,
I didn't mean to imply that Putin was "innocent" but I also think it's fanciful to think that the buck for every death due to military activity, whether planned or accidental, can be slated back to the leader of any country.

If that was the case there's a lot of blood on just a few hands and we could achieve world peace very easily.

If they knew the target was a civilian aircraft would the same order have been given?

The fate of Iran Air Flight 655 - shot down by the US in 1988 did not result in an official apology.
Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114- shot down by Israeli fighters in 1973 was dismissed as an "error of judgment".

Likewise the dozen or so other incidents involving attacks on commercial aircraft over the last 30 years.

What would be the reaction if the plane had been shot down by Israeli troops as it approached their country from Palestinian airspace, or does the offender determine the degree of seriousness and outrage of the event?

Agronomist,

Thanks, but that is not quite an annexation and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas is in political union with the US but is not part of it.
Guam was surrendered to the US by Spain during the Spanish-American war of 1898 and later ceded to the US, again not an annexation.