It was tragic when the plane was shot from the sky over the Ukraine, but it was, as everyone understood, unintended. A war zone is a danger zone, even undeclared wars. But it did worry me that more was being made of it than was warranted. We have much bigger issues, and that particular problem came to an end the very moment it occurred. There was no reason to strain our relations with Russia to such an extent over any of it.

I feel the same about yesterday’s executions in Indonesia. The people I feel most sorry for are their parents who will forever feel that tremendous sense of loss for their children. But we cannot run our foreign policy on such cheap sentimentality. Indonesia executes drug runners. Other countries execute people for other kinds of things, such as conversion to Christianity.

I have found myself dwelling on the deaths in Nepal which are on a very different scale, and these are tragedies that have invaded people’s lives through no actions of their own. I don’t wish execution on anyone, but that is the law of their land. For us, other issues matter more.