It hasn't even been a day and the finger pointing has already begun. Someone shot down the airplane. And someone has to be held accountable. Here is my list of who could be responsible:
1. The Russians. They have the advanced weaponry to shoot this plane down. It's been reported that some of there troops are undisciplined and under-trained, so they could have had a fire control issue. I can't see them doing this on purpose though, what possible gain do they get from this?
2. The pro-Russian rebels. If they had the weapons system, and that is a big if, I would say that this is the most likely faction to have done this. They are made up of civilians and ex-military types who may not have the skills necessary to figure what the target was.
3. The Ukrainians. You can't count them out as suspects. I know it makes very little sense for the Ukrainians to shoot down a civilian plane in their own territory, but mistakes happen. They have the weapons and it happened in their land.
4. Some other faction or group. I only mention it because its in the realm of possibility, but it is so unlikely that its barely possible. Unfortunately I can see this theory getting more attention then it deserves. Already there are conspiracy theories flying around.
Sounds like today there is a bit of certainty on that the Pro-Russian rebels were responsible. At least in the eyes of US Intelligence officials.
ReplyDeleteI've been hearing reports that they had captured some Buk launchers from the Ukrainians. I think the most likely scenario is they picked up one of these launchers and were trying to shoot down Ukrainian planes. Since the rebels are mostly volunteers and ex-military types that probably don't have the skills to man these weapons, a mistake would be inevitable. From what i understand, in contrast to U.S. weapon system, Russian ones are designed to be idiot proof to operate. It's believable that they could have figured out how to fire one before they got fire control down. That's a hell of a way to fight a war.
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