Earlier today a Malaysia Air flight headed from
Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was
downed over eastern Ukraine, where the Ukrainian military has
been fighting pro-Russia separatists. Ukrainian officials say the
flight was hit by a surface-to-air missile.
The incident has dominated the news cycle since news broke of
the crash about twelve hours ago
Tonight (tomorrow in New Zealand), the New Zealand website
stuff asks “Does
downing of MH17 flight mean war?“
Although it’s unclear exactly who was behind the apparent
ground-launched missile that destroyed the Malaysia Airlines Boeing
777, US allies who have tried to occupy the middle ground in the
worst crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the end
of the Cold War may now support bolder action to end the fighting
in Ukraine.“Some people thought Ukraine didn’t have anything to do with
them. They are now discovering their error,” one senior US official
said, adding that this could shatter the view in some European
capitals that the conflict was largely contained.
Unless the warmongers in Washington and other relevant world
capitals get their way, the answer to stuff’s question is, No. The
last
two (U.S.-related) times
commercial flights were downed by missiles, the world and its
leaders managed to avoid a war. Agendas aside, it shouldn’t be
difficult to avoid one here either and the push for war kinetic action in the
wake of the downed Malaysia Air flight provides a very real world
example of what’s at stake in the debate over how interventionist
U.S. foreign policy should be, a debate that’s more prominent in
domestic politics now than it has been in years.
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/Uei0HC
via IFTTT