THE AIRLINER – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  While the president of the United States attended fundraisers in New York yesterday, the rest of the sane world was fixed on the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine.  We're now learning more.  From CNN:

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Friday blasted the "terrorists" he blamed for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine a day earlier, with 298 people aboard.

He called on all governments to back the investigation and "to support the Ukrainian government to bring to justice all these bastards who committed this international crime."

Since the Malaysia Airlines jet fell from the sky above eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Russia and Ukraine -- which routinely uses the word "terrorists" to describe pro-Russian separatists -- have traded blame and accusations.

Now, a preliminary classified U.S. intelligence analysis has concluded that the missile that hit Flight 17 most likely was fired by pro-Russian separatists inside eastern Ukraine, according to a U.S. defense official with direct access to the latest information.

The official declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.

Earlier, a senior U.S. official said the United States concluded that a missile shot down the plane.

"Terrorists have killed almost 300 persons with one shot," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday. "Among them are women, children, citizens of different countries of the world."

COMMENT:  Incredible, but we still don't know if there were any Americans aboard.  And the reaction from Western Europe has been less than strong.  Business ties between Europe and Russia are strong, and seem to dictate reaction to anything Russia does.

I'd imagine there'll be some rumbling, and appropriately anguished statements for a few days, or a week, and then things will return to normal.  Obama doesn't appear much interested.  His weakness is now a given.  John Kerry spent a good part of yesterday lecturing the Israelis about applying too much force in their actions against Hamas. 

The world, after all, hasn't gotten too exercised about the murder of 140,000 Syrians in the last year. 

July 18,  2014