Comments on: A moment of respect

By: Michael Jennings

Michael Jennings — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:21:58 +0000

The best thing in the Charles Crawford article that Tendryakov quotes above is this Yesterday on BBC and CNN I was asked whether Poland would slump into political instability, so many top people being lost in this disaster. I replied, “of course not”. After the cold war, Poland decided to join the west, and the country has pursued this end rather ferociously since. They have succeeded. Go east from Frankfurt an-der Oder, and Poland is the next country. Stuff works. The institutions and the rule of law are sound. Once they figure out that you are friendly towards them, they are hugely warm and friendly back. (Answering yes to "Would you like some vodka?" can be dangerous though). The country is politically stable. That means that if most of the general staff is killed, then other officers will be promoted early and some will return from retirement, and the military will continue to function fine. One of the central bank deputies will step up to replace the previous head. A peaceful presidential election will occur. As it happens, I am in Poland right now. Just a coincidence - I booked the trip some time ago. I have been watching Polish TV for the last couple of hours, and it endless footage of people walking past the caskets of the President and First Lady lying in state, mixed with pictures of military guards carrying flag covered caskets onto aircraft, mixed with interviews with friends of people who died in the plane crash, mixed with footage of the President in happier times. But on the ground, life goes on. The country is absolutely horrified by what has happened, but it will cope just fine.

By: Laird

Laird — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:34:54 +0000

FWIW, at least one Polish MP is blaming the Russians.

By: Tatyana

Tatyana — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:01:42 +0000

Alice: took the words out of my mouth!

By: Alice

Alice — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:20:02 +0000

Someone in the Samizdata commentariat is linking to an article in huffingtonpost? And not to mock said article?

These truly are the Final Days!

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:53:43 +0000

“In fact, according to the US government, 95.7 percent of the passengers involved in aviation accidents make it out alive. That’s right. When the National Transportation Safety Board studied accidents between 1983 and 2000 involving 53,487 passengers, they found that 51,207 survived. That’s 95.7 percent. When you exclude crashes in which no one had a chance of surviving – like Pan Am 103 – the NTSB says the survival rate in the most serious crashes is 76.6 percent. In other words, if your plane crashes, you aren’t necessarily doomed, just like the passengers on US Air 1549 in the Hudson.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-sherwood/the-three-myths-about-pla_b_158362.html
Agencies have a long, illustrious and well-documented history of engineering assassinations of key politicians. You can’t afford to be naive about these things.

By: Perry de Havilland

Perry de Havilland — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:35:47 +0000

Not sure why people back off so much from so-called “conspiracy theories”.

Because they are usually wild conjecture or simply delusional.

And if you think 95% of CFIT accidents like this have survivors, you clearly ain’t very well informed about aviation.

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:11:59 +0000

Not sure why people back off so much from so-called "conspiracy theories". Most of them are pretty straightforward statements of facts, and are often well-documented as such. Anyone not suspicious about this crash (and the deafening quiet from mainstream media) is surely incapable of thinking for themselves. http://thebluetourist.blogspot.com/2010/04/polish-crash.html(Link)

By: RAB

RAB — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:39:24 +0000

Slight misreading of my post here I think.
I didn’t say I “believed” in a conspiracy theory, only that it was odds on that you were going to get one.
I think it was just a tragic accident. Lech Walesa has said that the President may have overruled the pilots and demanded the plane be landed. He had previous in that respect.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/7581643/Russia-tried-to-divert-Polish-presidents-flight.html

Then again the Russians could have been playing silly buggers as mentioned in the above article.

But there is no doubt that there are those in Russia and the EU, who are not as upset about the crash as us freedom lovers here are. Like I said in my original post, we lost some good friends and allies on that plane.
RIP.

By: Paul Marks

Paul Marks — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:52:22 +0000

Mr Jennings has written something that needed to be written. I also wish to express my support for the people of Poland in this sad time.

By: Perry de Havilland

Perry de Havilland — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:29:24 +0000

Classic CFIT, no need for conspiracy theories. Bad weather and the pilot decided to keep trying rather than divert.

By: Cazare

Cazare — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:26:07 +0000

Respect

By: Johnathan Pearce

Johnathan Pearce — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:05:19 +0000

Well said.