“Europe Weighs Tougher Sanctions”
As one person put it a few days ago, “It is going to get awfully cold in Europe, soon.”
The most likely theory is that there was no intention to shoot down a passenger plane full of uninvolved people.
A misidentification.
Common sense would have routed planes around the warzone, a really tiny portion of Ukraine. They’re doing that now, but why not before?
What sense does it make to punish for an accident?
Ukraine accidentally shot down a passenger plane in 2001.
Shouldn’t the punishment be the same?
By way of evidence, the U.S. is now saying the satellite data indicates a launch from rebel* controlled territory. The Russians then claimed “the Ukrainian army moved a BUK/SAM battery into a rebel-controlled area near the crash site the morning of 17 July, just hours before the crash”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17#Cause (and many other sources)
This is a statement so self-contradictory as to be absurd. You gotta be pretty desperate to come up with that bad a lie!
*... “Invader controlled territory” might be a more accurate assessment.