WTF

~ Laura

I step away from the computer for the afternoon, and planes fall from the sky. It’s because I was cleaning the house and forcing my eldest to deal with the horror story under his bed. Wrath of God.

Malaysian Airlines

Israel in Gaza

and this…  @ABCPolitics: DEVELOPING: White House placed on lockdown; cause not yet known; reporters being told to stay in press area

 

 

Published by Laura

11 thoughts on “WTF”

  1. I’ve been thinking about what it was like when WWII was starting. This, on top of Syria, a terrorist organization taking over Iraq, the continued persistent level of random shooting deaths in the US. The pictures circulating of the children who died in Gaza look eerily like the browned group of boys swimming the relays at our local swim.

    And, adding to the unsettled feeling –my kiddo’s realization that the last 5 flights she’s taken have been without me. I’m not sure where it came from, but this morning, she asked what we would do if she didn’t return. I’m usually pretty immune, but even I am starting feel a vaguely unsettled and unsafe.

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    1. Thanks, Vickie! Yes, I did see that post. Someone else sent me a link to that post this morning.

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  3. Well, my wife is in Russia right now (glad I didn’t book the flight on Ukranian airlines!) so this is on my mind, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it won’t come to much more than this. I think that Putin is in fact about as smart as the leader of a band of corner street thugs, but don’t think that even he will push this too far.

    Also, poor Malaysian Airlines. I foresee a name change in the future. And, the idiots at whatever news station Diane Sawyer works for were featuring a story on “tragedies involving Boeing 777s”. It’s as if they really do intend to make people dumber.

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    1. “Well, my wife is in Russia right now (glad I didn’t book the flight on Ukranian airlines!) so this is on my mind, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it won’t come to much more than this. I think that Putin is in fact about as smart as the leader of a band of corner street thugs, but don’t think that even he will push this too far.”

      Oh, dear. Hope your wife has a quiet visit. In a pinch, it is possible to fly Vladivostok-Seoul-Los Angeles by Korean Air–not cheap, but it is well out of the hot zone.

      I think Putin is rather savvy, in that at least in the recent past, he’s figured out to the millimeter how much he can get away with–plausible deniability with these “separatists,” plus so far limiting himself to areas that Russia has a historically and ethnically defensible claim to and can hold onto without difficulty. It will be interesting to see if he has to back off or if he tries to overstep. It would be a big mistake to try to nibble off territory with too many unfriendly non-Russians. I suspect the Ukrainians could really bring the pain in a guerilla struggle if they wanted to–they’ve done it before.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army

      I did not see this stuff coming. 20 years ago, it was all Kumbaya and hugs between Russia and the US (well, at least 60%) and the idea of actual war breaking out between Ukraine and Russia in the 21st century would have seemed outlandish. Of course, you can say the same of war between the former Yugoslav states in the late 20th century–it seems impossible until it happens.

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      3. MH said,

        “I don’t think many people were that surprised by the war between the former Balkan states.”

        Eh, they had lived without inter-ethnic war for 40 odd years by then, and they’d had the Olympics in Sarajevo in the 1980s. They were positioned to be a happy fun Southeastern European beach vacation destination for Western Europeans on a budget. There was nothing inevitable about the war. (I used to teach English to former Yugoslav emigres from Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia–their descriptions of the tourist sights in the old country were mouth-watering, and I see from a little googling that the descriptions were quite accurate.)

        http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-croatia/

        http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/europe-short-haul/stunning-serbia-remains-one-europes-3227101

        http://www.bosniatravels.com/tekstovi2.aspx?tid=41

        Objectively speaking, if you know what the 20th century history (to say nothing of earlier history) is for Eastern Europe and how the borders got redrawn at the end of WWII, it kind of makes sense in retrospect that Ukraine and Russia would eventually wind up in armed conflict, but prospectively speaking, neither the Yugoslav war nor the Ukraine-Russia stuff looked inevitable.

        And speaking of predictions, there are a lot of other border issues elsewhere in Eastern and Central Europe that may eventually look “inevitable” once they blow up. Poland, for instance, had its borders redrawn in a big way at the end of WWII.

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  4. I was the eternal optimist. I really thought we had won the cold war (or that Reagan had, right) and that all the global realpolitik induced proxy wars and dictatorial regimes were going to fall leaving us with a free world.

    I know that sounds like I’m being sarcastic, but no, I really did believe that. I thought the Arab spring was the turning point, and then Myanmar, and changes in Cuba, . . . . I thought the next step was going to be Africa and then everything would be milk and honey.

    Instead, we got Islamic fundamentalists + a return to the military coup in Egypt, anarchy in Libya, aggressive anti-muslim actions by the new government in Myanmar/Burma, war in Israel/Palestine, war in Ukraine, . . . .

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    1. “I was the eternal optimist. I really thought we had won the cold war (or that Reagan had, right) and that all the global realpolitik induced proxy wars and dictatorial regimes were going to fall leaving us with a free world.”

      Back in 1989-90s, that was a somewhat reasonable position. Whatsisname even wrote a book entitled, “The End of History” in 1992.

      Back in the mid/late 1990s when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Russia, there was an obvious thaw underway. It was very easy to believe that the thaw was permanent.

      Here’s a blast from 1991–the Scorpions’ Winds of Change. The video has lots of inspiring 1989 footage.

      I wrote out some of the lyrics of that song with one of my Russian students back in the 90s.

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