Twitter. Or post your comments on facebook. You can also email us. Well get to your thoughts here in just a minute but joining us on the phone is peeper baker of the New York Times. What is the u. S. Response so far . And what is the president weighing . What are his options . Good morning. Its nice to talk to you. It is a tough situation for barack obama obviously. There are two different distinct issues here as you raised them already. First is for the american side and the european side getting access to the site and getting the bodies out of there sitting in the field many of them still bloated and literally rotting. A terrible ordeal for the families of the victims that only want their loved ones back at this point. The second point is the larger implication. What does it mean for the relations between the west and the rest of the world with russia at this point . The investigation being conducted by american intelligence agencies and others around the world increasingly pointed to russian involvement with the believed as launched the missile that brought down the plane. Given all of that, then, what is what could happen next with the situation between russia and ukraine and the u. S. Response to it . The president slapped a tougher round of sanctions there, europe didnt go along with those. They did something more modest. Europe at the time said we might do something more significant by tepid of july. Well, this changes that dynamic and i think what youre seeing is the american side working with the europeans in the coming days. There is a meeting on tuesday of Foreign Ministers in europe. The fact that a stronger tougher more unified response that will have genuine impact. There is some suggestion that the latest round of sanction combs posed by the administration in washington did have an effect, the very first thing that happened was putin, the president of russia called president obama to complain about it and then from the tone of his conversation and the vemance of his complaints those sanctions seems to have gotten his attention. They were after the crown jewels of russias economy including gas, the bank which is the arm of the energy company. And the oil company. So i think what youre seeing s the americans try to firm up European Response to russias involvement in ukraine. If the United States were to be more aggressive, if that should be the case, what are the options . Its not like theres a military option here on the table or anything. Nobody is talking about sending in american troops to be peace keepers or Something Like that. So i think what is on the table is an economic and diplomatic kind of set of options. So what can you do to squeeze moscow to the point that they recognize its more in their interests to support peace in ukraine than to continue fomenting troubles. And theres a balance that president obama has tried to seek is one that will have ab impact on the rest of the economy and on Russian Companies and leadership without damaging at least too badly the outside worlds economy. So how do you do this without hurting american businesses, without hurting europeans businesses more tied to russia than americans are. Thats what hes been seeking. He did get complaints from american businesses they didnt like that he was doing some of the things that he was doing. On the other hand, you heard from some critics that he wasnt going far enough. So its a balance he has sought but with this in mind. What about secretary of skate secretary of state john kerry is going to make the rounds. Its very important. After the Korean Airline was shot down by the soviets in 19 3, one of the things that president reagan did in response was, the full measure of american outrage what had happened. I think thats one thing that president obama struggles with. Hes a very reserved personality. He doesnt convey outrage very well. He could say some of the same words that somebody else might and yet not come across with the sense of indignation i think that sometimes you want to feel in your leadership in this moment. He is a calm political figure. Sor of give in to sort of emotional kind of rhetoric. And i think thats a challenge for him to try to find a way to channel what americans and europeans are thinking about whats going on right there, right now. Samantha powers his ambassador to the United Nations shes having to be a much more forceful speaker when it comes to condemning what russia has done for instance even if she said some of the same things that the president would say, say on friday, a few hours later, she says it with a certain force i think that conveys genuinely felt outrage by what has happened and that is something that is important i think in politics and national affairs. On the optics here, theres a piece in the New York Times this morning by one of your colleagues critical of president obama for going about criticizing him for going about his daily schedule after learning about the downing of malaysian flight 17. Your front page story this morning before the lengthy piece goes into the time line of when president obama first heard about that. Tell our viewers. He was this is thursday. His plan was to fly to delaware. He was going to have lunch with a voter who had written him and gave a speech about infrastructure then to fly to new york for a couple fund raisers. Before leaving president putin called him as we talked about a minute ago to complain about the sanctions. He followed the phone call with president putin when he learned about the plane. Putin says he had gotten some reports about a plane going down in the ukraine. Very vague about it. Didnt seem to know much about it. Then it became clear that this is a major event. Of course without saying what that phone conversation would have been like had it happened two hours later had the full measure hit people by that point. So president obama did choose to go ahead with his schedule he flew to delaware and new york. He was dealing with the crisis by phone and made comments in the beginning of his speech in delaware but there was a question do you want to be seen having lunch with a voter who wrote a letter on a day when so much tragedy had taken place. More than just the russia thing it was the owe curns into gaza. So it doesnt necessarily look good. E was you dont want to look insensitive toward it. Other president s have struggled with. But they dont want to have their schedule hijacked by events. They dont want to be reactive. On the other hand, they also dont want to look insensitive and remove ages from the leadership a president should be exhibiting in time of crisis. In your experience, in your past, do you think this downed flight change it is equation at all for russia . With the tension in ukraine . Well, you know, a little bit. I think even when we discover about what russia did i dont think they intended for a civilian airliner with people on board to be shot down. They supplied arms to separatists, they were intending for those to be used in military conflict. Clearly the rebels if they did shoot this down, seems to have mistaken it for a military transport planes as one shot down a few days earlier. So this does change the dynamic a little bit. This puts russia on the defensive. You know, russians dont want their brothers in ukraine to be fighting with them and i think this puts a graphic and tragic display of consequences to things going on right now that it creates questions in russia about what theyre doing. But its a society in which sense sor really rules. A society where the kremlin doesnt have to answer to a lot of other Power Centers within the capital. And it doesnt change any for him. Its hard for other actors in the political system to force change in policy. Well, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Great talking to you. Lets go outside of washington this morning and get your take. Should there be a more aggressive response from the United States to russia . Larry in washington, d. C. , republican. Caller yes, good morning there should be a more aggressive. The reason this is occurring is because president obama, hes made statements that russia is a Regional Power which is not true. So dictators respond to weakness. 1938 all over again. Youve got to take it in context that the cold war is over. People get sick and tired. Were heading towards a hot war. This is the 100 anniversary of world war one. So were heading towards thermal Nuclear World war three. And looking at germany this is where youre going to see the dynamics. 2014 is the turning point for america and the world. Host theres not a lot of options on the table. What should the u. S. Do . Caller what should the u. S. Do . Develop some balls, develop ome balls and go set forces to let russia know if you continue this there will be repercusions. Talking diplomacy is not working. Turning 1938 all over again. Were host got your point. Going to susan. What do you think . Caller first i had the same attitude as the previous caller. Then i listened to several roundtables and two things stuck to me that i thought they were quite correct about. One is that we lost one u. S. Person. Netherlands lost many times more than that. And havent said anything aggressive at all. First, the nations that were most impacted need to Say Something first and foremost. But secondly rather than rage i think we should use shame and disgust at those who basically just smashed up hundreds of people many of them children. It was so heartbreaking to see the toys on the ground. And i think to take a righteous position and heap shame upon those who did it should be first. And secondly when people call there should be rep cushions they never say what they think those ought to be. Boots on the ground . What are we really talking about . But i can having the world turn their backs and shame them as best as we can would be far more effective in a moral approach than threatening and saber rattling when theres not an awful lot in terms of power that we can really do about it. Host bob from montana. Caller im glad you took my call here. Ive been on facebook for about the last year, yeefandahalf and i have some friends in moscow that ive been talking to. They are apolitical or so they claim. And theyve introduced me to the voice of russia which at that time about a yearandahalf ago there wasnt a whole lot of rhetoric going on as far as the joking about the cleent and then obama and so forth. And then came taking crimea and all of a sudden they were bragging about this is their there was n spot and obviously some real difference that was happening as far as how the voice of russia was portraying the United States. It was more of a joke and they were laughing and it was obvious that putin was more willing to take chances. I think thats exactly what led to this taking down of the airplane was that theyre just kind of doing some braveedo and all of a sudden there was a mistake made. I believe everybody can understand that that they were probably going after a military transport or Something Like that. But nonetheless, it was all based on the fact that they no longer fear the United States. Host so then what should be done . How do you respond . Caller i think we have to show some strength. Maybe if we do war games with poland certainly showing that were moving some artillery into the area, something thats going to show that theres some substantial movement in not just drawing this red lipe that never comes to path. All right. Jack in minnesota. Caller zpworninge. Regarding an aggressive response to this, there are several factors that probably should be considered here. This is an active civil war zone and that active civil war in my opinion was ins gated and fomented by us and our state department. E started the overthrow of yanokovic which started the whole they think. Secondly, were very selective n our response to terrifying tragedies like this. When the kiev government burned alive 42 people in odd esa i dont recall any aggressive responses or any indignation. And were very selective as far as countries like israel which is just, just killed over 300 people in gaza including four kids playing on the beach. We didnt have an indignant response when they bombed our uss ship liberty killing 34 of our people. We didnt have an aggressive response against israel. What do you think the response should be . Caller i think the response should be host to the situation in russia. Caller i think it should be very muted. This people that were hearing from the folks from the fox news watchers saying nobody fears us any more and weve got to be more belligerent i think thats totally as nine. We need to back off the world and its not being an isolationist to back off and not foment civil wars all over the world and to not engage in criminal wars like the iraq war. You know, there should be indignation at us for things like the iraq war where a million iraqis were killed. Host all right. Monica, new york, go ahead. Caller every time something goes wrong overseas they want the president to start a war again. I dont think its fair. Yo hear a voice from europe. These people here with russia theyre fighting and they know they shot that plane down im sorry for the family but the president cannot go there every time and want to start another war. Something has to be dope. Ok. Out of england heres one voice from david cameron. This from putin this morning. Jim in south carolina. Caller it should be the same response as when the americans accidentally shot down that iranian passenger airliner. They didnt know it was an iranian passenger airliner. And if you Pay Attention to what the fellows are saying that they keep playing the recordings trying to find out who is to blame youll note that they didnt mean to either. They knew it was a tragedy when they first did it and figured out it was a passenger airliner. And that has a natural flow. You would have to reeducate the entire american populous of the whole thing has got a natural flow to it and theres not anybody talking about it knows anything other than kicking putin. And putins not going the way of yeltsin and john mcdane and the rest mccain will find that out the hard way. Host the Prime Minister of russia tweeted this out. We will the have a preview coming up here from cspan radio and of course cspan radio reairing all of the sunday talk shows starting at noon. Blake in alabama. Caller caller i believe the blood is on hands of john mccain. He went there fomented it threw gas on the fire instead of finding a solution and there have been nothing but killings after he has been to kiev. Secondly, the neo cons like the previous caller was talking about that surrounded obama, obama doesnt even know what the hell hes doing and theyre fomenting trying to squeeze the ssians and putting selective restrictions on the businesses there. Just like what the nazis did in germany that they had selected jews. Theyre only selecting jews to punish them. This time everybody is getting punished in russia except the jews. Isnt that a coincidence . Well go to james in north dakota. To say its i just want to say one of the things i love about cspan being a conservative guy is to listen to the democrats who are so entertaining just how miserable they are. Host what do you think the u. S. Response should be to russia . Caller there shouldnt be any response. Its probably just an accident and i dont know why its making such 24 7 news cycle. Its a tragedy but people bring up israel, theres that strain of ant setityism. They cant say anything theyve got to find some way to Say Something bad about their country. But the most asnine thing that was said by balm is you may have heard him president obama. They talk mccain has made these points whenever theres something in syria or some other country obama was talking about the territorial sovereignty of ukraine must be preserved. Hes talking about the borders of a sovereignty of a nation thousands of miles away when our own borders have been compromise bid 15 to 250 million invaders and he wont do anything about. Host ill take your point and show our viewers on that news the front page of the Washington Post this morning. Its a piece that the white house has been warned several times over the past two years about the influx of minors coming from Central America and experts in this story saying that the white house considered this a local problem and also says the administration did too long to heed those warnings. So this is a lengthy piece front page of the Washington Post if youre following that story. Also in other news heres the Atlanta Journal constitutions this morning out of georgia. What to extect in tuses runoff. Be watching for that on tuesday. Then also in the New York Times magazine today in their sunday edition, heres the headline. Thats in the new York Magazine this morning. We will go back to your thoughts this morning on the investigation and the downing of malaysian flight 17 and get your thoughts on what the u. S. Response should be. Well go to jim in California Independent caller. Ller i served in iraq and ive seen combat zones and i know how crazy things can get. But what i find really i want resting about all this is that everybody is trying to make it the russians fault before they know what the going on. It makes me think of louis tainia. The shattered glass with the nazis. The narrative sptb being put down in the way thats very conducive to the american ideology. Host jim well go to richard in arkansas. Caller zpworninge. Caller hello and good morning. Itardless of whose fault was, the International Team should have been flown in their under heavy protection, the area secured, and the rebels should have been told straight up any interference will be met with deadly force. You have shot down in International Passenger flight and you will back off from this area until our job is done. This is what should have been done to protect the bodies and the flight evidence, all at once. When we are done, you will leave. But you will not interfere. If putin has anything to say, he can tell someone who gives a darn. This president is a spineless jellyfish i would like nothing more than to see this entir