MH17

Let’s stay clear of the conspiracy theories, of which there are innumerable. Let’s ignore the theory that the earlier Malaysian flight was some kind of practice run, that the Americans or the EU did it to force Putin into a corner, ignore it all.

I don’t think Putin or Russia are to blame. The ‘Russian separatists’ in Crimea are a rag-tag band of rebels, most of whom are barely under any kind of control from their ‘generals’. If they get hold of a missile launcher they are going to want to fire a missile. It is quite possible that Putin has supplied them with some equipment but he has no more control over how they use it than we had over Saddam’s chemical weapons (that we sold him) or what those Syrian rebels do with the guns we send them.

I’t akin to the antismoker argument that tobacco companies sold something they knew was dangerous so are responsible when those who buy the product get sick. It’s the same as arguing that the car dealer is at fault when someone flattens Granny – and if they were drunk, it’s the drinks industry’s fault too. When you sell or give something to someone else you no longer have any say in what they do with it.

I gave away an air rifle a while back. If it is later used in an armed robbery, am I to be held responsible? I have sold toy trucks on eBay in the past. They are covered in easily detachable small parts so I made clear that they should not be given to small children. That is, I stated that I knew they were potentially dangerous. If some idiot gives one to a child and they choke on a wing mirror, whose fault is that?

If Putin has supplied those rebels with weaponry, he did so expecting the weapons to be used against their local enemy. He, I am quite certain, did not say ‘Yeah, shoot the Westerners and if any of those Malaysian jets fly over, get them too.’

The Mail had identified the type of missile used and the launcher it came from almost before the plane hit the ground. Nobody outside Crimea has had a good look at that wreckage as yet. The investigation is yet to happen but the Mail, and most of the English press, talks as if Putin himself aimed and fired it.

So now we have the Cameroid calling for sanctions against Russia. Where does this idiot think most of our gas supplies come from? Then he demands that France break a 1.2 billion deal with Russia over some helicopter ships they have built for Putin’s navy. Is France so cash-rich it can afford to scrap whole naval vessels, all the cost that went into building them, just to make a petty point?

It was not Russia who fired that missile. They just made it. If the Russians use those helicopter ships to shoot down an American plane, will that be France’s responsibility? It doesn’t work that way.

Today the Mail is claiming that only 200 bodies were recovered. ‘What happened to the other 98’ they howl, among claims that those showing signs of shrapnel were hidden away.

A plane crash is a very messy thing. A plane hit by a missile at 30,000 feet will come down in bits. Not all the bits will land in the same place. In fact, if the plane was hit by a modern anti-aircraft missile at that altitude it is impressive that they have already found two-thirds of the bodies aboard. Wreckage and bodies will be widely scattered and hunting for them in a war zone is not the easiest of tasks.

There is no point throwing blame at those who cannot have known about this tragedy until after it happened. Blame lies with a man or a few men. Not with a country. Someone brought this plane down but it wasn’t Putin.

Those responsible for firing the missile should be brought to trial and then shot. Calls of ‘But it’s a war’ only redefine the crime as a war crime, which makes the penalties available to the court that much higher. Should we demand Putin hands over the men responsible? How can he? He does not command those rebels and will have no idea who was pressing which button.

Someone does. Someone knows.

Someone has the power to avert a third world war.

But do they have the courage?