Obama hits resets buttons on Wobbly public response to malayasia Air lines shoot down

President Obama on Friday called the
downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 an
“outrage of unspeakable proportions,”
declared it a “wake-up call” for timid
European leaders, and all but laid blame for
the tragedy directly at the doorstep of
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Obama’s blunt language, delivered in the
White House briefing room from behind a
lectern with the presidential seal, offered a
stark contrast to his muddled public
handling of the disaster a day earlier.
As the news broke on Thursday, the White
House signaled that the president had first
learned about the world-shaking events
from Putin at the tail end of a telephone
call arranged at Moscow’s request. With
grisly details coming in, Obama went ahead
with a heavily partisan public schedule: A
speech in Wilmington, Delaware, where he
hit Republicans over infrastructure funding,
followed by a brace of Democratic
fundraisers in New York City.
Obama had begun his speech in Delaware
with just seven sentences on the attack,
declaring that “it looks like it may be a
terrible tragedy” — a jarring response to
media reports that were already citing a
death toll of nearly 300 people. He did not
tie the catastrophe to Russia.
And it was Vice President Joe Biden, not
Obama, who first told Americans that the
passenger jet had apparently been “shot
down — not an accident, blown out of the
sky.”
Republicans have recently stepped up their
regular criticisms of Obama’s handling of
world affairs — a reflection of escalating
chaos from Iraq to Libya, as well as Syria's
widening civil war, China’s increasingly
tense relations with its neighbors, and the
collapse of the Middle East peace process.
His natural caution in the face of crisis has
fed GOP charges that he is too slow to act
or give voice to American outrage.
Come Friday, Obama revised his tone,
shedding “may be a terrible tragedy” in
favor of “outrage of unspeakable
proportions,” personally confirmed that “a
surface-to-air missile was fired, and that's
what brought the jet down,” linked the
attack directly back to pro-Moscow Ukrainian
separatists, and implicated Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
“A group of separatists can't shoot down
military transport planes,” he said, “without
sophisticated equipment and sophisticated
training, and that is coming from Russia.”
Putin’s refusal to halt the flow of weapons
and fighters into eastern Ukraine has
emboldened the separatists and led them to
snub talks with the government in Kiev,
Obama charged.
Putin “has the most control over that
situation, and so far, at least, he has not
exercised it,” the president said.
Obama had a stern message about
European leaders, who have resisted U.S.
calls for strict economic sanctions on Russia
for stirring up armed unrest in eastern
Ukraine, fearful that Moscow could shut off
westward flows of oil and natural gas.
“This certainly will be a wake-up call for
Europe and the world that there are
consequences to an escalating conflict in
eastern Ukraine, that it is not going to be
localized, it is not going to be contained,”
he said.
And the world learned from the president
that at least one American, Quinn Lucas
Schansman, was among the victims.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his
family for this terrible loss,” said Obama,
who noted: “Because events are moving so
quickly, I don't want to say with absolute
certainty that there might not be additional
Americans.”
White House aides had emphasized on
Thursday that the president had taken
charge behind the scenes. They disclosed his
telephone calls to leaders of Ukraine, the
Netherlands and Malaysia. They highlighted
that he had spoken to Secretary of State
John Kerry by telephone and had later
consulted CIA Director John Brennan,
Principal Deputy Director of National
Intelligence Stephanie O’Sullivan, White
House chief of staff Denis McDonough, and
deputy national security advisers Lisa
Monaco and Ben Rhodes.
It was not clear to what extent Obama, who
came to office vowing to “reset” relations
with Russia, would change his cautious
strategy when it comes to Ukraine. The
president has fended off calls from
Republicans to upgrade that country’s
weaponry and assist its fight against the
Russian-backed separatists. One
administration official, who requested
anonymity, suggested that the airliner
tragedy highlighted the need for extreme
caution when considering whether to provide
advanced weaponry to forces not
accustomed to using it.
Asked whether he would escalate the
pressure on Moscow, Obama declared that
“it's very important for us to make sure that
we don't get out ahead of the facts” and
noted that he had just announced fresh
sanctions on Russian energy and financial
firms on Wednesday.
“We had already ratcheted up sanctions
against Russia,” he said. “We will continue
to make clear that as Russia, you know,
engages in efforts that are supporting the
separatists, that we have a capacity to
increase the costs that we impose on them,
and we will do so.”
But Obama ruled out a greater role for the
U.S. military.
There’s no way for the president to avoid
partisan criticism in the current political
climate. But he might take some comfort
from the experience of former President
Ronald Reagan, the conservative icon who
faced sharp words from fellow conservatives
over his response to the Sept. 1, 1983,
incident in which a Soviet fighter jet shot
down a South Korean airliner with 269
people aboard — including a U.S.
congressman — killing them all.
Reagan called that attack an “act of
barbarism” and referred to it as the “Korean
airline massacre.” He ordered Soviet airline
Aeroflot’s U.S. operations to be shut down a
week after the incident. His personal diary
for Sept. 4, 1983, suggests that he took
seriously a Republican senator’s suggestion
that the United States retaliate against
undercover Soviet operators.
“Strom Thurmond made a great suggestion,”
Reagan wrote. “We know the whereabouts
of many K.G.B. agents [redacted] were
looking into the practicality of this
[redacted] that would be shooting our
selves in the foot.”
He also complained about sniping from his
right flank.
"Short of going to war, what would they
have us do?” he asked in a speech.
"I know that some of our critics have
sounded off that somehow we haven't
exacted enough vengeance," Reagan said.
"Well, vengeance isn't the name of the
game in this."
It wasn’t enough for some conservatives.
“The administration is pathetic when it says
this proves the President’s words have been
right all along,” declared columnist George
Will, referring to Reagan’s anti-Soviet
rhetoric. “We didn’t elect a dictionary. We
elected a president and it’s time for him to
act.”