So sad, Malaysian airliner shot down.

Now after the Russians grab the Crimea and is poised to cross the border again, after a civil war in Ukraine, after  U.S. and EU sanctions are leveled at Moscow, after the most serious standoff between Russia and the U.S. since the Cold War, we have the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner. So sad. Meanwhile more than 1,000 civilians and combatants have been killed since mid-April in Ukraine while tens of thousands of people have fled to Russia, the West and Israel. This a story that won’t go away, and its origins also lie in the Russian Civil War of 100 years ago, the actual beginning of the Cold War. Background  “Klara’s Journey,” (Marion Street Press).