Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
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Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#2"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. "
This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking.
"But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war."
If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bully nations like Russia taking over other nations with absolutely no intervention.
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#3"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. "But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war." If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bul…
Intentional or not, there have been, at most, three passenger jets hit by anti-aircraft missiles in the last thirty years.
Keep in mind that even if this happened once a year, flying would still be far, far safer than driving.
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#4"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. "But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war." If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bul…
> "This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. "
> This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking.
And its simply, factually incorrect; military forces shooting down civilian airliners is not something that never, never happens, nor is it something that is unlikely to happen again. In fact, it seems to have happened more than once each decade for most of the history of civilian aviation (though there may have been only once incident in the 1990s).
EDIT: The one instance I had seen in the 1990s actually involved two planes of the same airline shot down by missiles by the same rebels on subsequent days, and a third hit while loading by mortar fire while loading on the ground on the next day. So, the 1990s aren't an exception to the "more than once per decade".
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#5"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. "But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war." If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bul…
I, for one, am glad that hitting back is not the only strategy available to ensure that the chances of this happening again are minimized.
And I'm glad that there are governments in place in this world that share this perspective.
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#6"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. "But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war." If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bul…
Intentional or not, there have been, at most, three passenger jets hit by anti-aircraft missiles in the last thirty years. Keep in mind that even if this happened once a year, flying would still be far, far safer than driving.
> Intentional or not, there have been, at most, three passenger jets hit by anti-aircraft missiles in the last thirty years.
At most 3 is incorrect.
Not counting MH17, there are at least four civilian passenger aircraft that were definitively shot down by missiles, and more that were suspected to be (or were definitively shot down, but where I can't find definitive information on the "by missiles" part) in the last 30 years:
LN 602 (March 23, 2007): attributed to the Tamil Tigers using Manpad missiles
Siberia Airlines 1812 (October 4, 2001): admitted shot down by Ukrainian military
Two Transair Georgia flights (September 21-22, 1993): shot down by missiles fired by rebels
Iran Air 655 (July 3, 1988): shot down by the USS Vincennes
Air Malawi 7Q-YMB (November 6, 1987): shot down by Mozambique (can't find anything one way or the other about whether this was "by anti-aircraft missiles" rather than, say, guns, so maybe not technically within scope.)
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#7If someone got punched in the face in front of you and then looked at you and said "I'm not going to do anything, the chances of that happening again are slim and I'm not some brutish American" would you be impressed or would you think they're a little crazy?
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#8Not to belittle the tragedy, but somehow, this feels a little different then people hijacking your planes and flying them into buildings.
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#9"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. "But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war." If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bul…
> "This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " > This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. And its simply, factually incorrect; military forces shooting down civilian airliners is not something that never, never happens, nor is it something that is unlikely to happen again. In fact, it seems to have happened more t…
2x in the 90s. 3.5x in the 2000s. 22x since the 1940s [0]
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airliner_shootdown_inci...
Re: Dutch travellers react calmly to loss of flight MH17 – “we are not America”
#10"This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. " This wasn't an equipment failure or a natural disaster, so I don't really agree with this line of thinking. "But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war." If this was an intentional act, we do need to do something about it (so it doesn't happen again). Extreme pacifism just leads to bul…
Why on earth would it be intentional?
It's pretty much the worst PR possible for Russia. In fact, the only parties who have anything to gain from the plane going down are Kyiv and the US.
It was more than likely an unfortunate accident, as the separatists had shot down several fighter jets and military transports in the same area in the days leading up to MH17... On previous days MH17 had also flown south of Donetsk.