The usual howler monkeys were out in full force after hearing reports about the downed Malaysian flight. Their gripe? On the day of the tragedy, the president gave only a brief mention of it, then went on to talk about other issues.
Apparently, the Obama Derangement Howlers expected President Obama to give a full, detailed report on something no one had any real information on.
IOW, the people ululating the loudest were the people who grab onto the latest rumors and right wing misinformation and run with it, especially if they can blame it all on President Obama.
I put more trust in people who actually know what they're talking about.
Infidel753 has been writing about this issue for a long time, and he has some thoughtful, non-hysterical, insights into what's been happening in the Ukraine:
"First off, let's be clear that yes, we do know beyond any real doubt that it was the Russian-backed "rebels" in eastern Ukraine who shot down MH17. They've been shooting at Ukrainian military aircraft in the same area on a regular basis recently. They have the "Buk" anti-aircraft system, supplied by Russia, which is capable of hitting planes at airliner cruising altitude. A recording of rebel officers discussing having shot down a plane, then finding out that it was civilian, has been released. The Putin regime has made a feeble effort to blame the Ukrainian government, but Ukrainian forces have not been using anti-aircraft weapons for the simple reason that the rebels are not using aircraft.
Here is a good report on what's currently known and on world reactions, and here's some video of the crash site -- real video, not the sanitized images the US media give you with human corpses edited out, so be warned.
This is ultimately Putin's fault. He made the decision to supply powerful military weapons to what are basically the Russo-Ukrainian equivalents of the trigger-happy morons who rallied around the Bundy ranch back in April and are now freaking out at random school buses in Arizona. It was easily foreseeable that some gargantuan fuck-up like this would be the result."
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Just for the record, here's a look back in history at how the right's favorite president handled a similar situation (via Andrew Sullivan's blog):
How Reagan Handled A Situation Like This
JUL 18 2014 @ 1:00PM
"Andrew Rudalevige draws parallels between the MH17 tragedy and the USSR shooting down a Korean Airlines plane in 1983. Reagan’s reaction to it: Reagan demanded an apology to the world and continued a number of sanctions — but he decided not to end grain sales to the USSR or to suspend arms control talks.
George Will argued that “the administration is pathetic…. We didn’t elect a dictionary. We elected a President and it’s time for him to act.” The Manchester Union-Leader editorialized that “if someone had told us three years ago that the Russians could blow a civilian airliner out of the skies – and not face one whit of retaliation from a Ronald Reagan administration, we would have called that crazy.
It is crazy. It is insane. It is exactly what happened.” Even at the height of the Cold War, however — and keeping in mind that the flight had departed from the U.S., with dozens of American passengers, including a sitting member of Congress – Reagan told a National Security Meeting that 'we’ve got to protect against overreaction. Vengeance isn’t the name of the game.'”
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One wonders if the Putin fanboys and fangirls on the right are still secretly admiring their favorite "strong leadership" guy.
8 comments:
"National Review's Jim Geraghty wrote a post called "What's the Consequence for Killing American Citizens?" then followed it up with another post criticizing Obama for not being more willing to jump the gun.
Badgering politicians for not setting aside politics at chaotic moments is an old, lame paid operative tactic. If political writers want to engage in it, I guess that's their business. But doing so on the basis of information that turns out to be false and then moving on doesn't wear well."
The righties make a career out of demanding the president speak before the facts are known.
They prefer emotional hysterics to a measured response.
Shaw, the S.F.B.'s are copying and pasting your posts and comments into conservative AOW's blog.
C.L. that seems to be a favorite pastime of conservative bloggers and commenters: come to my blog, copy my posts and comments, then paste them in AOW's blog. I have no idea why those followers do this.
Small minds are easily amused.
In any case, my opinions get published in a blog where very few liberals are welcomed, and those comments and posts are pasted in those blogs by people who profess to hate me and my blog, but read me every day.
Go figure.
Thanks for the cite. I'm a little puzzled by Hrafnkell's post, but if he's saying Putin is the Russian equivalent of Bush, I could go with that.
Shooting down a plane load of innocent civilians, now THAT'S strong leadership any tyrant would envy. Are the baggers hoping Putie will be their honey hunk in the 2016 election cycle?
They do love those strong, murdering he-men, don't they.
boy, Old Obama shoulda just jumped in a phone booth, put on his Super Spade costume and up and went and knocked that rocket right outa da sky before it could kills dem people.
shheshhhh....the Wailing Monkeys are getting more oblivious to reality by the moment. And McCain keeps up his silly Mantra..."I wouldna done dat"...no...he wouldn't have....he would have had Sarah, the 'Bold and Impetuous' take care of it.....with her far ranging vision of truth,justice,equality and Russia
I guess he's taking advantage of Obama's "flexibility"
Vote for Hillary so we can hit the "reset button" with Russia
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