DAVE ROSS

Now it’s everybody’s business

Jul 18, 2014, 9:17 AM | Updated: 9:25 am

Ukrainian coal miners search the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near the villa...

Ukrainian coal miners search the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near the village of Rozsypne, Ukraine, eastern Ukraine, Friday, July 18, 2014. Rescue workers, policemen and off-duty coal miners were combing a sprawling area in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border where the Malaysian plane ended up in burning pieces Thursday, killing all 298 aboard. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

It’s like our gang problem, isn’t it? As long as the gangs kill each other, we unfortunately, tend to tolerate a certain level of violence. But when the bullets stray into the nice neighborhoods, then it becomes everybody’s business.

The fight in the Ukraine seemed to be just another gang fight in a bad neighborhood – until now.

Given how closely this area is being monitored I have no doubt there is a computer somewhere with all the data we need to finger the culprit in that plane crash.

But unless it somehow falls into the hands of a news agency; unless one of the reporters in the area actually finds the tell-tale missile fragment and manages to escape with it – whoever knows the truth is going to figure out who it will help and who it will hurt before saying anything.

The stakes are pretty high after all. As Senator John McCain made clear, if the insurgents are to blame, the U.S. is going to be under irresistible pressure to get involved.

“Including giving the Ukrainians the ability to defend themselves, which we have not done so far,” said McCain.

So everything is riding on, “Who did it?”

But even if we get a definitive answer to that question, it won’t fix the fundamental problem, which is that the most powerful weapons always end up in the hands of THE most ruthless people, no matter what you do.

Sooner or later, that rule apples to every new weapon we develop to defend ourselves from the previous new weapons we developed to defend ourselves from the weapons before that.

The problem isn’t the weapons. The problem is the number of people in this world who think they’re the solution.

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Now it’s everybody’s business