Mr.Putin’s decision to provide arms to his friends seems to have backfired
Jul 21, 2014, 8:01 AM | Updated: 9:27 am
(AP Photo/RIA Novosti Kremlin, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service)
United States intelligence now has persuasive evidence that the doomed Malaysian Air jet was shot down by Ukrainian separatists using weapons provided by Russia.
On Face The Nation, Republican Congressman Peter King expressed the outrage that most of the world is feeling. “There can be no reasonable doubt now that Russia was involved, that Putin was invovled by supplying this type of weaponry to a group of thugs like the ukrainian separatists you have to bare responsibility for what happens after that.
“By supplying this type of weaponry to a group of thugs, you have to bear responsibility for what happens after that.”
Keep that warning in mind because according to CBS Pentagon correspondent David Martin, it sounds like U.S. officials are right now contemplating taking ta similar risk:
“Right now the U.S. is providing so-called non-lethal military equipment to the Ukrainian military to the obvious ramp up would be to start providing them with lethal. In fact
In fact there are plenty of tough guys on our side who think we should have armed the Ukranian government long ago.
But I’m betting even Putin wishes he’d asked a few more questions before providing his proxies those sophisticated missile launchers. Like, “Are you guys sure you know how to work this thing?”
Claiming it was an accident won’t help because that would mean Putin entrusted some very powerful weapons to a bunch of idiots.
There’s a warning for the U.S. in that:
If we’re telling the world to hold Putin fully responsible for the way his weapons are used, we’re also telling the world to hold us responsible for the way our weapons are used.