[babygene]

“Well, for starters, one could determine whether it was an air-to-air missile versus ground-to-air. Which, in turn would make the Russians shut up about some of their conspiracy theories.”

We already know it was a ground to air missile. The Ukraine had them as well as the separatists.

Apparently Ukraine military jets escorted the airliner until 3 minutes before the shoot down. Don’t you find that odd? Could this perhaps trick the separatists into thinking it was a military aircraft? None of this evidence is going to come from the crash site.

At some point, as with any investigation, we have to ask who had the motive. Who would most likely gain from this?

Would it be the Ukraine, NATO, Russia or the separatists? I don’t trust any of them, but you know who I trust the least? You got it... Obama.

[1rudeboy]

Whoa, cowboy. One of the central elements of the Russian propaganda campaign is that Ukraine shot down this jet. So, you have either:

1. Ukraine tricking the separatists,
2. Ukraine doing the shooting, or
3. the separatists doing the shooting.

The rest of your comment is opinion cloaked as fact. And the question, "who gains?" is completely irrelevant.

[publius911]

Apparently Ukraine military jets escorted the airliner until 3 minutes before the shoot down.

What is the source of this?
A teenager on twitter?
The Russians in eastern Ukraine pretending to be Ukranians and playing civil war?
What?

[Uncle Chip]

Who gains in all this

You do know that one of the demands from the Putin backed rebels in all of this that the Ukrainians agree to the independence of Donetsk before the Dutch et al can get all their dead back.

Putin is using the dead as bargaining chips to get what the his rebels can't win on the battlefield.

Putin and his rebels gained in all of this -- they got bargaining chips to fall from the sky at the cost of only one SAM.