#MH17. Political Grandstanding Needs To Stop

So the wet limpet that is David Cameron has supposedly warned Vladimir Putin that his billionaire ‘cronies’ will have their assets frozen in London unless he co-operates with the probe into Flight MH17. If you read the Sunday papers, ‘Call Me Dave’ apparently ‘vented his fury’ at what he sees as Russia’s obstruction in a 30-minute phone call to Mr Putin. By all accounts he effectively blamed Russia directly, telling Mr Putin that he had ‘contributed to an appalling tragedy’.

Well I’m sure President Putin won't sleep at night after Dave’s outrage! More likely he’s thinking "Little man from a little country". For goodness sake, save your breath, Cameron! Do you really think for one minute that Putin was listening to a word you said? Admittedly, I’d loved to have heard that telephone conversation, bet all Putin did during the call was utter "Yah! Yah!" in the right places, and burst into gales of laughter afterwards. We know that all the real posturing by world leaders is done for the media. What’s worse though is Cameron’s already decided its Putin’s’ fault and is trying to glean publicity off the back of it. 

So Who’s Really Responsible?

Quite simply, no one knows for certain yet, in actual fact we may never really find out who pulled the trigger, but don’t let that simple fact stop the likes of Cameron and Obama blaming Putin.

We keep getting told by western politicians that it’s all down to the Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. That may be true, it also may not - nothing has been proven. Even if they are linked and funded by Russia, it still doesn’t mean Putin is responsible. Don’t forget, there is another theory that somebody on the Ukraine side was trying to hit Putin's plane which was due shortly after the MH17, it also has a similar paint scheme, so that theory has some credibility. And the Ukraine has form too; they’ve also been known to tell lies in order to start a war.

In the bigger picture, ultimate responsibility sits uncomfortably with the EU. If they hadn't vowed to extend the EU eastwards, conflict in the Ukraine would never have escalated to the level it now has. There was no trouble in Ukraine until, quite simply the EU encouraged Ukraine to look to the west. This lead to the overthrow of a democratically elected President and his government, only to be replaced with an unelected, EU stooge. The country became split, the rest is history.

Media is Shaping This Tragedy

This tragedy is now being shaped by the media, but as Peter Hitchens in the Sunday papers observed and I said above, the conflict that has contributed to this, was shaped by the EU and the West. We are back to the Cold War. The West believes its views must be adhered to or else, but it is perfectly happy to meddle in other countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya etc. 

The media likes quick wins and sound bites, they like to act as judge and jury whether there’s evidence or not. This suits our politicians as they too are good at acting without evidence; we all remember the warmonger, Bliar and his made-up WMD document.

So for the media and the west’s own agenda, they’ve already decided it’s the rebels who need to be held to account. As the Australian Prime Minister said, Putin has said all the right things so far, but needs to bring pressure on the separatists to yield to international norms when dealing with airplane crashes.

People's anger is understandable but there is too much emotion in pointing blame and demonising Putin without having the full facts, especially Cameron and Obama, and let’s not forget the American’s themselves have form in things like this too. Wasn’t it the yanks that brought down an Iranian Airbus with similar amounts of people on board in 1988?

In conflict zones tragedies can happen. What we should be asking is what was MH17 and others thinking in overflying this area in the first place?

Transparency from Russia and the Rebels

Where Putin and the rebels are failing is in the PR/media stakes. They’re acting guilty without it having been proven, this is playing directly into the west and the media’s hands. The way the bodies are dealt with; removing evidence from the scene; obstructing investigators; allowing the scene to be ‘contaminated’; the disappearance of the black box recorder etc.

Don't think for a second that Putin could not control those people - even if they were out of control. He is Russia's President with more leverage behind his words’ than any other world leader can dream of, he is ruthless and people know that reputation. If he has lost control over those rebels, believe me he could get it back just like that!

If Putin and the rebels played the media game properly and was completely transparent then sympathies and blame may shift. But then again, maybe they are guilty and are trying to lessen the backlash. Whichever way, it’s not working.

The problem with the Russians is we’re constantly dealing with a regime who care about and value life so little. Remember the shooting down of the Korean Airlines’ 747 by the Russians in the 80’s, they denied responsibility for that for some time afterwards until it was finally proved that it was them. That may ultimately be the case here, but we’re not there yet.

Sanctions and Boycotts

The west are shit scared of Putin and Russia and won’t take him on militarily, which is probably a good thing as none of us know what the outcome of that maybe. So the best they can come up with are sanctions and boycotts.

That is all well and good, but firstly these shouldn’t be applied until any Russian guilt in this tragedy has been proven. If it is proven then we need to do it properly. The west needs to not just talk about it, but do it! Freeze their accounts; confiscate their London properties; impound their yachts when they enter European ports; shut them out of the world economy. The Russians already own half of London so it should be imposed that can never be allowed to buy property in the UK again.

And what about boycotts? If you’re going to boycott something then actually do it. There was a so called world boycott on the Russian Olympic Games many years ago but some countries still turned up. Where is the next World Cup? Oh yeah, Russia!  Doesn’t Russia have some teams in European Cup? These are places where Russia can be isolated now.

The problem is these sanctions and boycotts become ineffectual when countries break promises to apply them if it might affect them.  Angela Merkel has promised tougher sanctions, what? Like she promised not to back Herr Juncker's Presidency? At the end of the day, neither Germany nor France will stop their lucrative trade links with Russia so sanctions are a waste of time. I suppose it would have been a completely different story though if it had been a Lufthansa plane!

Cameron playing the media but doing nothing

The events over the weekend with Cameron playing to the cameras again; demonstrating his outrage on behalf of the victims and laying into Putin already having decided who is responsible. It’s all so predictable and laughable. It was all a media show. Let’s not forget, in this country we are all now too reliable on the Russians for our gas.

I wish we had a politician that was not so self-conscious that he felt the need to demonstrate what he thinks is the politically correct response; such personal weakness last year nearly got us into yet another war in Syria. Remember when Cameron was going to stop it all by himself, well no with British troops actually? Cameron must spend his entire day worrying about how he should be seen to respond on every issue. Politicians like that end up like Nick Clegg, trying - and failing - to be all things to everyone.

I've become totally sick of David Cameron talking but effectively doing nothing.  But given the way Cameron has been behaving over this, if it is proven that it was NOT the so called Russian separatists who were responsible then I think his political career may be over and he will become as popular as Tony Blair. Cameron needs to learn to be a statesman, not a petulant schoolboy.

So let’s stop playing up to the USA who do not depend on Russia for its oil and gas. Cameron should wait until there is more evidence before trying to throw his weight around. Russia can beat us by simply turning the gas valve off and ultimately Obama cannot be trusted.

Political Grandstanding Needs To Stop

This tragedy is one of the saddest things ever. Can you try and imagine, losing a loved one on this plane, going about their lives only to be shot down in an act of unbelievable horror, then being told there personal things are being stolen and not knowing if you will ever get there body back home?

I suspect it was all a big mistake. Putin couldn't possibly have ordered the downing of MH17. Yes, Russia is responsible for Ukraine having horrible weapons, just like the US is responsible for Iraq having horrible weapons. Britain, France, China, etc all sell or supply horrible weapons too! Whoever fired that missile probably thought it was a Ukrainian aircraft. It was a horrible mistake! There a war going on and it was flying through a warzone.

Knowing Putin’s reputation, I do suspect that if it WAS a Pro-Russian Separatist who fired the missile, he is now in an unmarked grave somewhere as he would now be a serious embarrassment to his side.

A problem that needs addressing immediately though, is the flying of commercial aircraft through warzones, and we’re not just talking Ukraine here. This is simple to achieve and is something our politicians should be sprouting on about instead of applying unsubstantiated blame.

Putin wasn’t directly to blame Mr Cameron, he never ordered it! Some idiot did send the plane through an active warzone though, and that wasn’t Putin. Then we have the reason this whole conflict started, that sits right at the feet of an expansionist EU that our politicians love but the public hates!

At the moment though, all this political grandstanding on the bodies of the dead by Cameron and Obama quite simply disgusts me!