YES, "WE NEED EACH OTHER," BUT FIRST WE MUST CONDUCT OURSELVES LIKE CIVILIZED NATIONS!

By Jiri and Leni Friedman Valenta

The downing of Malaysian Flight 17 is a watershed in Russo-American relations.  It´s similar to the downing of KL007.  Like Ronald Reagan 32 years earlier, Barack Obama must overhaul  his policy towards Russia! Instead of a commander- in-fundraising, we need a commander-in-chief.  As a consultant to Reagan´s administration, I saw the Gipper takeonly 3 days to announce a tougher policy towards the USSR.  There were questions about KL007.  No questions this time!  Russian complicity  in supporting  pro-Russian separatists and mercenaries-turned terrorists is unquestionable. As we suggested weeks ago in the Kyiv Post, the U.S.  must finally provide lethal arms to the legitimate Kiev government and support Ukrainian liberation minus the Crimea. 

Yes, undoubtedly "we need each other"   in coping with international terrorism and continuous crises in Syria and Iraq..  The building of  the ISIS terrorist state and terrorist activities elsewhere will eventually require that the U.S. and Russia cooperate. We, the principles of jvlv have devoted a whole year to writing articles and columns dedicated to forward the argument for such a cooperation in articles like The National Interest, RIAC blogs, Linkedin, our own website, jvlv.net, and Twitter.  However, we are experiencing a game-changer  with  Malaysian Flt. 17. This is the first time whereby a military action has  downed a civilian airline in Europe since WWII. 

It behooves President Putin to apologize for this incident and to bring to justice the East Ukrainian  and Russian terrorists who are responsible.  Finally, he must end the indirect military intervention in the Eastern Ukraine by severing relations with  the separatists and seeking peaceful rapproachment with Kiev..  Only than can we return to the necessary cooperation in other areas. But is Mr. Putin willing and able to do that?

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