According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian military jet was shot down near the city of Suwayda, along the nation’s southern border with Jordan. ISIS shot the plane down near a military airport, and the pilot is believed to have survived.
Initial reports falsely claimed the plane was a Russian plane, and that the pilots had been captured, though Russia was quick to dismiss this claim, insisting their planes were all accounted. for.
This is the latest in a series of warplanes shot down in Syria, mostly by ISIS. It is unclear what sort of weapon was used, but the US has imported significant numbers of anti-aircraft weapons, ideally for “moderate” rebels, but which have been spread around to virtually all factions.
The CIA is said to be planning a massive new influx of such weapons as soon as the current ceasefire collapses, once again assuring that the weapons will only go to “vetted moderates.” It is worth noting, however, that materially all shootdowns have been by clearly unvetted Islamist groups.
At least the Syrian warplane won’t be able to slaughter children anymore.
And give ISIS an opportunity to slaughter more civilians.why don’t you join them if you have not done already.
I wonder what the whizzers in the Pentagon, State Dept, and US Congress (forget asking the CIA – they’re above the law anyway) will say when those “vetted moderates” start using those free anti-aircraft weapons against civilian aircraft? Do you think it’ll matter to them or will they just respond as Rummy did with, “stuff happens!?”
I think they’ve gauged Russia’s response to having its aircraft shot down and are ok with the risk of another shoot down.
US wars are heavily reliant upon constant use of aircraft that are completely safe from the people they kill.
That is not the historical norm. Significant loss ratios for strikes are the norm. That would cripple the US way of war.
The US aircraft are so safe because they are using hi tech bombing against people with no practical defenses. There are effective defenses in this world, those targets just don’t have them.
Now the US is sending such weapons into the region, into unreliable hands.
It is also threatening Russians, such as Kerry’s remark that shooting down Russian planes would be appropriate. The Russians also have effective defenses to American airstrikes.
Even the North Koreans may have countermeasures. For example, they recently showed that they can disrupt GPS across an area so wide it it causing problems in South Korea, and so could defeat GPS guidance systems.
The US is playing with cancellation of the advantage it has come to rely upon to make possible its painless wars. This is just stupid.