McCain's Outbursts Not Helping

You have to hand it to John McCain…he is consistent.

Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 had barely crashed into the ground and there was McCain blaming the incident on President Obama.

McCain said he didn’t want to speculate on who the perpetrators were that actually shot down the commercial airliner. Then he speculated that if the Russians were involved “there will be hell to pay.”

While McCain didn’t want to speculate on who pulled the trigger he had no qualms about blaming the president’s refusal to provide the Ukrainian government with weapons as the root cause for the escalation of violence in the region; calling the president’s handling of the crisis: “embarrassing.” If we are to follow McCain’s logic…had the president sent weapons to the Ukrainian government then the Russian government or the pro-Russian separatists would not have fired a surface to air missile at a defenseless commercial airliner.

The US government in all probability already knows who fired on the airliner but they have not yet decided how or when to release the information. US satellites have been monitoring the area non-stop since Putin invaded Crimea. They know where the Russian troops and separatist rebels are stationed. The technology can easily determine from which side of the Ukraine/Russian border the missile was fired. But when and how you announce such an accusation is as important as indentifying the perpetrator. Better to give Putin the opportunity to explain. Yet here was McCain big footing the situation for political purposes.

The missile was probably launched by one of the poorly trained pro- Russian separatists without any authorization from Moscow. Perhaps they thought they were firing at a Ukrainian military aircraft. Regardless, it is Putin who put the weapons in the separatists’ hands so it is Putin who will shoulder the blame.

Imagine if you will that President Obama had sent similar weaponry to the Ukrainians and a poorly trained Ukrainian had accidently or intentionally shot down Malaysian Flight 17. What tune would McCain be singing then?

At times like this the world’s lone superpower needs to speak with one clear voice. That voice belongs to the person elected by the people to speak on their behalf…the President of the United States.

McCain’s self serving political outbursts are not in the country’s best interests.