ON PUTIN VS. THE WORLD: STAND UP TO HIM NOW

According to Google, at least 52 Russian citizens read this blog. So, I wrote to a couple of folks living there asking why their country supports the thugs who shot down the Malaysian airliner, killing 298 innocent people. The three responses I received were interesting.

One wrote to me: 

"How about your government? Do you think you are not guilty?" 

I can only assume the writer was referring to something other than the Malaysian airliner downing.

Another sent this:

"I advise you to open your eyes to watch the news and think with your head. It was shot down by the Ukrainian military, rather than Russian, and it has been proved. So think before you accuse and are rude." 

Wow! Really?

And, finally, this one:

"How can you be the judge when the black box is in Donetsk, Ukraine, and which it has not been transferred to the international commission. [sic] After all in the black box all the information before the fall. And the answer to you Americans let your monkey [my emphasis] stop sponsoring war in Ukraine, there innocent people die because of your national debt."

This one uses a very typical Russian expletive to describe our President, Barack Obama. Very charming indeed! I have no idea how our national debt kills innocent people, however.

I checked online with several television stations in Russia, Channel One, NTV, and Russia 1, as well as Russia Today, the English-speaking Russian news source, to see what they were saying about the Ukraine and the MH-17 disaster. All are Russian state-owned outlets.

I noticed the "separatists" are known to Russian television viewers as the "militia." Russian TV makes it clear that Ukraine is responsible for the downing of the Malaysian airliner.

We are also told by one station that the militia moved the bodies to refrigerated box cars for "humanitarian purposes" because there are "no international personnel" on-site to investigate the crash or preserve the remains. And, Russia is deemed the level-headed government, requesting a balanced international inquiry into the tragedy.

In a separate unrelated piece that amused me, NTV claims that Edward Snowden is much happier now than he ever was living in the United States.

Reports from the Western media, however, like the BBC, CBS, and CNN, relate a different story. They are all stating clear evidence of Russia's involvement in the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner. They show international personnel attempting to survey the site over the weekend while armed separatists kept them from this work.

The story line most horrific, however, comes from reporters who have covered airline accidents in the past. They all say there is something missing from this crash site, passenger personal effects. Corpses appeared to be without wrist watches, cash, or credit cards. I have not heard one of these reporters says they witnessed looting. They report, however, that these passengers seem to have carried no items of value on their person and  that empty wallets lie in the fields.

Chris Cuomo of CNN noted that a Ukrainian man in his hotel shouted to someone in the lobby that he saw a lot of "new wrist watches" on local farmers and separatists. If it is true what these reporters are implying, then the world has a bigger problem than previously imagined.

We are dealing with thugs and terrorists without a moral code, not merely separatists. Vladimir Putin has released these thugs, mostly male Russian citizens, to create mayhem. These criminals are the same kind of men who, without the worry of repercussion, beat gay men and women, accost and jail Russian punk bands, and call the President of the United States a monkey. [See previous blog re: Russian thuggery]

The Russian President shows himself to the Russian media as a man of leadership and humanity. He attends the World Cup and hob nobs with Angela Merkel and Dilma Rousseff. He attends the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] Conference calling for an end to the International Monetary Fund and the dominance of the U.S. dollar in world commerce. And, because he controls the media within Russia's borders, his people are fed a continuous crock of odoriferous dung.

The former KGB Colonel understands only one thing, force. When the U.S. did not bomb Syria last year over its use of chemical weapons, he knew the U.S. would do nothing militarily if he moved to take Ukraine. So, he took Crimea using disguised thugs as a militia. He continues the fight in eastern Ukraine with the same militia under his control.

Europe will hem and haw and cry as it always does, but eventually it will do nothing. After all, Putin's main supporter, Angela Merkel, has Europe crushed between her Germanic mitts. What Hitler could not do with blitzkrieg tactics in Europe, Ms. Merkel has done through the German economy. With her ally in Russia, she now has all of Europe by its collective cojones.

Only the United States has the independence and power to end this cycle. But, it will also take fortitude on the part of the American people.

I believe Mr. Obama should ask Congress to approve sending a heavily-armed military unit to assist the Ukrainians in securing the area of the crash site, including orders allowing these U.S. soldiers to fully protect themselves. Further, his request should include sending a U.S. carrier fleet into international waters in the Black Sea to stand by should they be needed.

Like the thuggish Nikita Khrushchev before him, my bet is that Vladimir Putin will back down before Americans reach station in or near Ukraine. He is a bully, and bullies usually take the cowardly way out of a real fight.

Call his bluff, Mr. Obama.