"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks in to mine," says Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in 'Casablanca'. The phrase popped into my head because of all the spots in all the troubled places in all the world, MH17 has to get shot down in Ukraine. And this has led, domino-like and contemptuous of our petty (lack of) interest, to a series of events where Tony Abbott is now talking about sending troops to secure the site.
One minute, the who situation in Ukraine was half a world away and somebody else's problem. When we send our troops in with other aggrieved nations to 'secure the area', you can bet your bottom dollar and your mortgage that the so-called separatists will be hostile and may even start a shooting war. Not only was the MH17 thing a game changer, it has thrust Australia into point to lead the way into the retro-medieval hellhole that is East Ukraine. You couldn't have scripted it worse.
It's a charming job where our troops would secure the site so people can collect the scattered remains of the bodies as yet unaccounted for. The last place on earth you'd want to send troops is Ukraine; and the only thing worse than sending troops in to shoot is to send troops in to not shoot. Good grief, what a rotten turn of events.
Why Would You Want To Own A Phone That Belonged To A Dead Person On MH17?
This business of looting the corpses is pretty awful.
Grieving relatives of the MH17 crash victims have had chilling confirmation that their loved ones' possessions have been looted from the crash site.
Relatives of victims in the Netherlands dialled the mobile phone numbers of crash victims and said the phones were answered by people with ‘eastern European-sounding voices’, the Netherlands' De Telegraaf reported.
The relatives were shocked when they heard the voices, the paper said.
Telephone companies agreed to waive the usual requirement for a death certificate and agreed to cancel the phone subscriptions, so those who took the phones could not continue to use them.
That would be really depressing. Not only have your loved ones been killed in the most senseless manner, you have concrete proof that their possessions have been looted by crass people without any class.
I Can't Begin To Fathom Their Pain
This just breaks me. This couple lost all three of their kids in the MH17 incident.
"We live in a hell beyond hell. Our babies are not here with us – we need to live with this act of horror, every day and every moment for the rest of our lives," the statement reads.
"No one deserves what we are going through. Not even the people who shot our whole family out of the sky.
"No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for our children, for Mo, for Evie, for Otis. No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for Grandad Nick. No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for each other. This is a revelation that gives us some comfort."
I don't know how they'll deal with this. I can't imagine there's a way of really living through the aftermath of such a traumatic thing. I really fear for these people. My heart goes out to them.
I have nothing to offer for them to fall back upon. Fairness and deserving has absolutely nothing to do with something like this. It's just irredeemable stupidity on the part of the idiots who fired the missile; the idiots who gave those idiots missiles; the idiots who authorised those idiots to give the missiles to the idiots who fired it. The veritable chain of idiocy goes all the way to the top - Vladimir Putin - and the man had the gall to blame Kiev. And knowing this and spelling it out does absolutely nothing for these people.
It would destroy me. I know that much. But my response would be to demand nuking Donetsk.
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