Editorial: Who benefits from the shooting of the Malaysian plane?
Neither Russia nor the anti-fascist self-defence forces of the Donbass have anything to gain by perpetrating such an atrocity.
When Malaysian Airways flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, the imperialist media flew into action. Within minutes, and without a shred of evidence, the finger was pointed at Russia.
The Ukraine ‘government’ appointed by the US-backed fascist coup alternately cried that it must have been Russia’s doing, and that it must have been the act of ‘Russian separatists’ (antifascist self-defence forces). Some ‘journalists’ even claimed to have recordings of east Ukrainian antifascists discussing such an operation prior to and during the event.
As it became apparent that the east Ukrainian forces did not possess the required weaponry, however, the Russian army was universally blamed by imperialist media and politicians alike.
British corporate media, meanwhile, have tried to find any handle with which to stir their readers’ outrage, shedding shameless and loud crocodile tears over British victims on the plane. At the same time, they have been demonising any Britons who show support for the antifascist cause, including a young man in Yorkshire involved with a solidarity group.
They have even labelled anyone going from Britain to the aid of the self-defence forces as ‘fascist’! Goebbels is alive and well, it seems, and working at the Daily Mirror!
The Ukrainian fascist regime hurriedly tried to get its hands on the black box from the crash site, but the antifascists beat them to it. They salvaged the boxes while collecting the bodies of the victims (under fire from the fascist forces all the while). Defeating all attempts at sabotage, the anti-fascist forces handed the boxes to the Malaysian authorities along with the bodies of the crash victims, as was appropriate.
Without a shred of evidence, the imperialist media have declared that ‘Putin was responsible’. But anyone prepared to use their heads for thinking rather than as a hat stand may come to a different conclusion.
Who stood to gain from this atrocity? Neither the Russians nor the Donetsk self-defence forces stood to gain anything but the wrath of the world at a time when they are trying to show everyone the truth about the very real mass slaughter being rained down on east Ukrainians by the west-backed mercenaries and fascists.
The Anglo-American imperialists and their puppets, on the other hand, are trying to gain from this atrocity by blaming it on those whom they are determined to wipe out (the self-defence forces of eastern Ukraine) and on the country that they want to pull into a war (Russia).
Many other facts and questions remain. It is, for example, a fact that the fascists do possess the weapons needed to carry out such an attack. And one has to wonder why the flight was routed over a major conflict zone, or why the pilot was advised to fly lower before his plane was brought down.
Why, moreover, were fascist-controlled jets seen flying on a course to intercept the airliner? And what happened to the air control worker who saw those jets?
The Reichstag fire, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction … imperialism has a long history of committing crimes to blame on its opponents. It seems extremely likely that the crew and passengers of flight MH17 are the latest in a very long line of victims in the cause of imperialist brigandage and domination.
