What rank hypocrisy. Every comment you, Sir Rumpole, have made on this thread has been politically related.
Following Shorten, Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt declared: “As the member for Melbourne and on behalf of the Greens, I want to associate myself with the remarks of the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition.”
Greens leader Christine Milne said Australia should take a stand through the G20.
"I would certainly back a move to say no, he (Putin) shouldn't be coming to the G20," she told Sky News.
Official passenger and crew Manifest released yesterday by MAS
Nationality: Total
Netherlands: 193 (including 1 dual Netherlands/USA citizen)
Malaysia: 43 (including 15 crew & 2 infants)
Australia: 27
Indonesia: 12 (including 1 infant)
United Kingdom: 10 (including 1 dual UK/S. Africa citizen)
Germany: 4
Belgium: 4
Philippines: 3
Canada: 1
New Zealand: 1
Total: 298
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/mh17.html
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/con...s/mas/PDF/MH17/MH17 PAX AND CREW MANIFEST.pdf
RIP.
On Insiders this morning they quoted 36 Australians on board.
An international outpouring of grief continues after the shooting down of flight MH17 killed 298 people, including 28 Australians and eight permanent Australian residents.
Spoke to a ex-Navy Radar specialist today.
Short answer - whoever fired that SAM, knew it was a commercial plane. No questions.
I'd bet that they are also trying to tamper with the black boxes which they have located.
Russia has blood on their hands.
When would we like the next world war to start ?
The shooting down of the Malaysian airline is a disaster and a tragedy. But for the life of me I just cannot see how the Russians or even the separatists really wanted to shoot down a civilian airliner and kill 300 people. It just seems too stupid and politically wrong for anyone.
So where do we all go from here ? Do we go for blood and push political pressure to the stage that some sot of larger armed conflict emerges ? It's worth remembering that many conflicts have arisen as rhetoric spins out of control and local commanders end up with firefights that escalate into larger conflicts.
I won't presume to say what should happen next but for everyones sake I think the rhetoric should be cooled down.
By the way does anyone believe this is the first time such an incident has occurred ? There is plenty of history to think about. It includes an Iranian airliner shot down by the US as well as other incidents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/17/history-of-airlines-shot-down-malaysia-airlines-mh17
http://www.theguardian.com/world/dag-hammarskjold
In no way do I understate the tragedy of the loss of life. I just don't think that going on a path that could risk even more bloodshed, particularly if it could spiral out of control, is a sensible response.
___________________________________________________________________
PS I appreciate the reasonably civil and constructive tone of the discussion on this thread. Makes it more interesting/worthwhile to participate !!
Cheers
+1In no way do I understate the tragedy of the loss of life. I just don't think that going on a path that could risk even more bloodshed, particularly if it could spiral out of control, is a sensible response.
In 2007, 38.7% of the European Union's natural gas total imports and 24.3% of consumed natural gas originated from Russia.[1][3] As of 2009, Russian natural gas was delivered to Europe through 12 pipelines, of which three were direct pipelines (to Finland, Estonia and Latvia), four through Belarus (to Lithuania and Poland) and five through Ukraine (to Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Poland).[3] In 2011, an additional pipeline, Nord Stream (directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea), opened.[4]
The largest importers of Russian gas in the European Union are Germany and Italy, accounting together for almost half of the EU gas imports from Russia. Other larger Russian gas importers (over 5 billion cubic meter per year) in the European Union are France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Slovakia.[5][6] The largest non-EU importers of Russian natural gas are Ukraine, Turkey and Belarus.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_in_the_European_energy_sector
Remember @CongressEdits, the tweetbot that alerts whenever a Wikipedia article is edited from a government IP address? There’s a Russian version now, and it just uncovered some pretty drastic edits to a Wikipedia article that mentions Flight MH17, originating from a Russian government IP address.
As The Telegraph reports, @RuGovEdits tweeted that a computer user from within the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VHTRK) edited the Russian-language version of the Wikipedia entry about the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet shot down over Ukraine yesterday.
The original version of the Wikipedia article listing civil aviation accidents stated that MH17 had been shot down “by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation.” Emphasis added.
The edits originating from the government-owned computer changed the article to read “the plane [flight MH17] was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers“. Again, emphasis added.
@RuGovEdits alerted the public with a tweet that says (translated): “Wikipedia article List of aircraft accidents in civil aviation has been edited by RTR [another name for VGTRK]“.
When would we like the next world war to start ?
Good comments, basilio. Completely agree.
What do others think of Mr Abbott's comments so far? Has he struck the right note? A little too aggressive when we still don't completely understand what happened?
Longer term, Europe needs to consider how wise it is to hitch your energy requirements to a country run by thugs that seems to be edging closer and closer to being an outright rogue state.
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