Heres why the Malasyian shootdown is kind of terrifying: There is a real concern that the action of ukrainian rebels, which are most likely supported by Russia, just shot down a passenger get over ukraine. Russia shot down a passenger jet. Who knows who was on board, but it was coming from Amsterdam. So lots of possible US/UK/Western passengers. Russia, of course, will want to deny this, because this is a literal act of war by most peoples standards. If they dig in-- or even worse, try to push it of on western-friendly Ukraine, things will go from bad to worse. It then becomes a he-said-she-said over the kind of shot fired in Sarajevo, only about 500 miles from where this happened. This was almost certainly an accident. But if Russia lies about it-- or even worse, tries to blame Ukraine, this could be the fracture lines that create factions in a global conflict. If Russia, who is already friendly with Iran, tries to take advantage of the ISIS situation in iraq, the rebel situation in Syria, and starts to try to escalate/flex in the middle east, then that Bloc would see itself in control of the vast majority of the world energy supply, knowing that the US would never fire first in a nuclear war scenario, they would effectively be calling our nuclear bluff in the largest stakes imaginable. But theyd be right-- because we wont strike first with nukes. Putin plays old school global conflict. Just because we dont think in those terms much anymore, doesnt mean that Putin isnt. We really could be in a geopolitical situation that is on par with cuban missile crisis in the very near future. That was the closest we have ever come to nuclear annihilation. That freaks me out, and thats why how this plays out is so important over the next few days.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 17:09:28 +0000