I can't help but pin at least some of the blame for the Malaysian Airlines shoot down on everyone who routed a commercial flight over a war zone where there was an active air-defense network that has been shooting down enemy aircraft.
This is c'est la guerre folks. I know we're all living in happy shiny funland where things like this don't happen to innocent bystanders; but being an innocent bystander to a war is nearly as dangerous as minding your own business at 0230.
Walking (or flying) through an active disagreement has a high likelihood of involving you regardless of your desires or intent.
It's obvious in foresight and I am fucking flabbergasted that civil air traffic was not routed around the war zone.
Addendum:
What should our military response be?
Nada, zip, zilch.
Not a US flag carrier.
Didn't happen in the US.
Not our military problem at all.
Or sailing through it. I'm amused, reading about people who got all butthurt when the Lusitania was sunk...the Germans had given warning that ships in that area were likely to be sunk without warning, and she was a British-flagged ship. If I had gone wandering off to Sarajevo at the height of the fighting there and got my useless head in the way of a sniper's bullet, I wouldn't feel that I had any right to complain...I knew that it was a war zone and that snipers were all over the place.
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