I suspect I know why things have quieted down about this shootdown of the plane, the rhetoric is the sort of thing that gets fingers hovering over buttons, as in the button. I do NOT agree with Mr. Paul on this one. I suspect this shootdown was a big ol OOOPS on the part of ill-trained crews of that BUK SAM battery thinking they were popping a Ukranian government cargo plane given the fighter escort and the other Ukranian military planes they have been shooting down. Now the powers that be are trying to make this NOT turn into a major flashpoint, and I imagine that the red phones in the Kremlin/White House saw a LOT of use over this incident. I also imagine Mr Putin had some strong words about the concept of NATO troops rushing to the aid of Ukraine, and building up in other former Eastern Bloc nations (which is why we got all quiet about that too and just keep beating the sanctions drum) Short version is I think we found out that the Russkies are not foolin, and I think they gave some strong signal that basically said BACK OFF before we start running the risk of US and Russian forces accidentally finding themselves in direct contact/conflict. Those bomber probes they are sending at us are not happy fun-time good will messages. They are pretty much saying further NATO eastward expansion = NYET
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 05:05:15 +0000