Russian President Vladimir Putin marveled today at Turkey’s decision to call a NATO meeting after they shot down a Russian plane over Syrian airspace. After all, Putin noted, it was the Turkish planea the attacked the Russian one, not vice versa. He also expressed annoyance with Turkey contacting NATO before any attempt to discuss the situation with Russia.
And while President Obama seemed to express support for the Turkish attack, NATO envoys seemed largely uncomfortable with the incident, urging Turkey to show “restraint” in the future with planes along their border.
Moreover, some of the diplomats present at the meeting are said to have expressed serious concern about Turkey’s actions, saying there are “other ways” to deal with an incursion beyond just shooting the plane down. Indeed, the Pentagon says they can’t even confirm the plane ever entered Turkish airspace.
Joint statements from NATO nations seem to be more or less uniformly urging against further escalation on the part of Turkey, and while no one wants to overtly “blame” them for the incident, it’s kind of hard not to when they’re the ones who launched the attack, and appear to show no remorse for it.
I doubt they would have attacked the Russian jet without the approval of the U.S. and you can bet there is a neocon behind the approval. And, as usual, Obama is spineless at the neocon strategies to get the U.S. into a war with Russia and in Syria.
Classic American racism.
My sentiments exactly!!! Took the words right out of my mouth.
What? Didn't Erdogan phone ahead and just decided to escalate on his own accord? And Turkey's military went along? How about a new military coup?
This is in fact an assassination of russian pilots acting against islamic terrorism.
Covering this, NATO covers turkish business with islamic state. Turkey sell the petrol of the islamic state and print their money (till recently). USA sue some football leaders for bribes and don't care about the business interests between Turkey and the islamic state and now even support the shot down of the russian plane,1 km from the turkish border. This means clearly that NATO and USA support international terrorism.
The umpteenth convoluted argument trying to blame this on the US! the number of authors and bloggers tying themselves in knots underscores what an enormous disaster this is for Putin. If he had kept his nose out of Ukraine, people might have some sympathy for him.
Even the Empire's Mouthpiece BBC World Service admits that *at most* the Russian jet was over a tiny spit of Turkey for 15 *seconds*, and that if the Turks had warned the Russians for 5 minutes, then the warnings were obviously given while the jet was over Syria.
They also mentioned a Russian marine had also been killed, but left out the part about a Russian helicopter being attacked by a US anti-tank missile.
The first sentence sounds true but changes nothing. The point of a "warning" is to prevent something happening. Logically, therefore, the Russian pilot had to be warned before he entered Turkish airspace, otherwise the Russians would argue that the Turks lured their pilot into Turkish airspace just to shoot him down.
Given the small size of the salient of Turkish territory involved, there probably was no time to escort the Russian plane, even if it was willing to be escorted. The pilot was probably taking a short cut back to Latakia and that is probably common practice among the Russian pilots. They zoom into Turkish territory and have zoomed out before the Turks have time to react, thereby, of course, deliberately thumbing their noses at the Turks. There certainly is no point in further escalation on NATO's part. The whole thing is an enormous humiliation for Putin, all the more so as he can't react without escalating the conflict. Logically, the NATO leaders will now just sit back and let Putin escalate if he's fool enough to do so.
This is a perfect example why NATO should be abolished competely.
Great Minds Think Alike 😉