Unacceptable Casualties of War

It has been a disheartening day in international news with the fighting in Isreal/Gaza taking the lives of children and a civilian airliner being shot down over Ukraine .

While war is already horrific enough for soldiers tasked with waging it, the senseless murder of innocent people cannot become acceptable. I'm not in the military and I do not claim to be an expert. I'm sure that certain "collateral damage" is unavoidable in any conflict, but a passenger jet? Seriously?

I will be contemplating these events throughout the evening and keeping these people in my thoughts. I am reminded that as a Jedi, I cannot simply be an observer. Occurrences like these can make one feel hopeless, but we must do all we can to seek the light and continue to be beacons for peace.

I agree.

Every time I hear, see or read something about things like this something inside me reminds of Chaplins' speech from the Great Dictator.

Thought I'd share it with you. I have posted several different versions of it through out the site... but it's good and what harm would it do to link it again!??!

Affordable counter-measures installed on civilian aircraft would be a waste of time probably, because weapon technology would be already trying to defeat more advanced military counter-measures.

Its all very sad.

Things have been heating up there over the last few days with reports of Russian artillery shelling across the border and moving 10,000 troops to the border... as it was looking like Russia had noticed the international community/media had lost interest (too busy enjoying the soccer). Reminds me how Russia made its move in Georgia during the Beijing Olympics, perhaps they were waiting for Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Obviously its more complex then that, but perhaps its the only glimmer of light I can see from this outright tragedy - that it might have averted a push by Russia into parts of the SouthEast Ukraine, and the war that might have followed. Getting control of the airspace (denying its use to the enemy by shooting down its aircraft in the area) is one of the preparatory stages of a ground campaign.

All over lines drawn on a map

All combat craft have fof systems in place (friend or foe)...this identifies the craft as military...there is no "accidental" shooting down of civilian craft...the only possible excuse (thanks to terrorists) is that the plane was not under the pilots control but a hijacker's...putin's just a little wannabe thug trying to recapture the past "glory" of russia, unfortunately when people in position of power have desire it's the little people that pay the price...remove the serpent's head and it's body dies...remove a hydra's head and three more pop up...the question is how do you know which it is that you're dealing with, serpent or hydra....

RyuJin wrote: not under the pilots control but a hijacker's...

Dunno mate, could have been a bomb I guess. The pro-Russian rebels apparently had a SA-11/17 and wikipedia says;

"Additionally a non-cooperative threat classification system was installed, allowing targets to be classified without IFF via analysis of return radar signals."

So perhaps they didn't bother learning how to interrogate returns, instead just locking onto it and pressing the button. :S

Unfortunately the airliner wasn't taken down by another craft, but a mid range missile launcher (surface to air). I am neither an expert, or have more of a claim to know about this military than the next guy, but it could have been a mistake. Either way, it is a devastating event. My thoughts are with them.

pic.twitter.com/CSC5NFcqwP
Manual Target?

Deepseablue wrote: Unfortunately the airliner wasn't taken down by another craft, but a mid range missile launcher (surface to air). I am neither an expert, or have more of a claim to know about this military than the next guy, but it could have been a mistake. Either way, it is a devastating event. My thoughts are with them.

The odds of this being a mistake are slim to none.

Source: years of work on Air and Missile Defense Command and Control Systems. (AMDCCS)

As a Jedi, I will not seek to steal the hard won victory from the people waging this battle. To do so, to purposely white knight my way into a conflict I have nothing to do with outside of a third party moral disgust, devalues their suffering and sacrifice and the potential good to come of it.

Desolous wrote: The odds of this being a mistake are slim to none.

The plane was flying at 33,000 feet and moving at cruising speed. It takes some pretty sophisticated targeting capabilities and someone who knows how to use the system to pull this off. I'm sure more information will surface in the coming days, but I think it is safe to assume that the missile was fired at the plane intentionally. Whether or not they knew it was a civilian passenger jet is a whole other question. Either way, it is a clear indication of how volatile the situation is in the Ukraine. Sadly, it took innocent deaths to return the world's attention to the crisis.