scrubbedexpat099

Came down just by the Russian border about as far away as you can get from where Ukraine has forces.

So would realistically have to have been shot down by a fighter and one operating that close to Russian airspace, seems unlikely.

Pulaski

Agreed.
Well they're trying their hardest to get the world "on board" because they can't stand up to the Ruskies alone, so the chances of them taking pot shots at aircraft at cruising altitude is, IMO, slim to none. .... Unless they thought they could frame the Russians, but that would be a reckless plan to say the least.

kimilseung

It was "Cossacks from the Chernukhino roadblock", not looking good for the rebels.

scrubbedexpat091

It's being reported on aviation sites that Igor Strelkov, Russian rebel leader in East-Ukraine, confirmed they shot down what they thought was a Ukrainian military plane.

civilservant

Without wishing to be flippant - 'someone should have gone to specsavers' in order to confuse a Su-27 Flanker with a Boeing Triple-7

sir_eccles

Most news reports seem to suggest a BUK launcher was seen in or near a rebel held town.

Bluegrass Lass

This happen, and now Israel is invading Gaza.

WTF is happening out there? The world is going to hell in a handbasket!

scrubbedexpat099

Both stories are relatively minor, you are just focused on what hits the headlines.

materialcontroller

It's OK folks, we're saved. Obama's "offered assistance" to Ukraine to find out what really happened.

Bluegrass Lass

Maybe you're right and I'm blowing things out of proportion. But I can see some perfect storm of events that could lead to who-knows-what..maybe WWIII. Between these 2 events, the disturbances in Iraq and Syria and still relative instability in Egypt, just seems like there's a huge potential for a large scale war....or maybe I've read too many books & have an overactive imagination.

I can only hope cool heads prevail to prevent anything of that magnitude.

Pulaski

Not only. Look at a map centered on the Middle East. There are wars or insurgencies in Libya, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Syria, eastern Turkey, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan (an "invasion" by the Pakistani army into the NWFP "tribal zone" has been largely ignored by the global media), Ukraine, and "instability" in Moldova/ Transdieneistra, Georgia/Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan/Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the notorious Russian republics of Chechnya, and Dagestan, and the cross-border (Russian/Georgian) areas of North and South Ossetia.

It certainly isn't pretty, but the question is whether there are circumstances than could bring them all together as happened in WWI where numerous local events and skirmishes coalesced into a world war?

scrubbedexpat099

More worrying when there are not all these relatively minor issues, keeps them busy.

civilservant

Didn't someone once say something along the lines of 'if they're fighting each other, they aren't fighting us'

Pretty much sums up the middle east and eastern Europe.

Pulaski

Something like that was said about Afghanistan, and an underplayed argument IMO, for keeping a security presence there. We rushed out of Iraq and that has now flared up in a very ugly way, so when the US "stayed behind" in West Germany to face down the Russians during the Cold War for 35 years after the end of WWII, and still has a substantial presence, I think leaving Iraq so quickly was a huge strategic error, that we are about to repeat in Afghanistan.

scrubbedexpat099

Did it ever flare down?

There are neither the resources or the will to keep a lid on all these things, like playing whack a mole.

If it were a Monopoly sort of game and you have your cards and resources, can not imagine many people spending anything on Afghanistan. More useful as a card to play against somebody.