Of a piece with Iran's arrest of the Navy-boat crew and milking it for maximum humiliation value, and North Korea's latest nuclear test, and Chinese hacking of the OPM database.A Russian Su-27 jet fighter came within 20 feet of a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea on Monday in Moscow’s latest military provocation involving dangerous aerial encounters.“On Jan. 25 an RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Black Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” Navy Capt. Daniel Hernandez, chief spokesman for the U.S. European Command, told the Washington Free Beacon. “We are looking into the issue.”Defense officials said the Su-27 flew alongside the RC-135, an electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft, and then performed what they said was an aggressive banking turn away from the intelligence jet.The thrust from the Su-27 “disturbed the controllability” of the RC-135, said one official familiar with details of the incident.A second official said the reconnaissance aircraft was flying 30 miles from the coast—well within international airspace and far away from any Russian territory—at the time of the encounter.The Pentagon announced Thursday that it has concluded a flight safety memorandum with Russia after holding a video conference with Russian Defense Ministry officials.The areas of discussion included air safety over the skies in Syria as well as “the means to avoid accidents and unintended confrontation between coalition and Russian forces whenever the two sides operate in close proximity,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement.The statement made no mention of Monday’s dangerous aerial encounter.The Black Sea encounter was the latest in a series of aggressive Russian military activities aimed coercing or harassing U.S. military aircraft and ships in both Europe and Asia.The provocations are not limited to U.S. forces. On Tuesday, Japan’s Defense Ministry revealed that Japanese interceptor jets were scrambled to chase two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers that approached the northern end of Japan and flew just outside that country’s airspace in maneuvers described by analysts as unusually close.Other incidents included a similar near-collision between a Russian fighter and RC-135, a militarized Boeing 707, over the Black Sea on May 30. Around the same time, a Russian Su-24 jet buzzed the destroyer USS Ross in the Black Sea near occupied Crimea.Earlier, on April 7, another Su-27 flew within 20 feet of an RC-135, this time over the Baltic Sea.
And don't bother briefing the Most Equal Comrade on this kind of thing. It bores him to death.
I no longer care what your other neo-con hotshots would do, the only question is now what would The Donald Do? Initiate World War III over it? If so, there will be a lot of double dares from those who truly want the world to end. Nevertheless, with the Donald there will be hell to pay and that is why the Dems will defeat all you crazed hawks wanting us to make America great again in the military sense.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you care what SH would do but not people who really understand why Western civilization is a unique blessing that must be preserved?
ReplyDeleteBecause SH is the hawkish and mawkish heir apparent to be the Republican candidate already. And it does not appear there are enough crazies left to carry him to victory over whatever Democratic opposition in November. P.S. this crap from the flyboys in all countries has been going on since the army coopted the Wright Brothers' invention. Not to worry to much, seriously. I ran into a guy about half a dozen years my senior who told me about the pre-Nam days of flying into Chinese airspace just to piss the Chinese off and dog fights (of course playing with their young lives) they would be rewarded for participating in. Macho asshole shit, just for giggles is all it is.
ReplyDeleteWhy it's fine with you that our civilization is in grave peril continues to astound me. These generalizations about "Macho asshole shit" going on since the Wright brothers days is the clearest indication yet that you have no interest in being a serious participant in the societal conversation about where we go from here.
ReplyDeleteWhat part of what I am saying don't you believe? So let's get bogged down and our undies in a big wad over these little blips of macho assholiness. They have indeed been going on since warriors took to the air. Humility is the way. Your view of our civilization is what is in peril. Many choose to disagree and will not be pushed around by you and your ilk.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not my view of it. It is the civilization itself, and that's because Barack Hussein Obama thinks the West, and in particular the country he rules over, has been a little too big for its britches on the world stage and needs to be taken down a peg. The result is going to add immeasurably to the sum total of human misery.
ReplyDeleteYou may have a shot at being taken seriously if you don't willfully ignore all the examples, which I repeatedly cite at this blog, usually under the title "They smell weakness - today's edition" of nation-states that feel the same way the MEC does, and have aims that run counter to Western aims, probing and testing and looking for possibilities to humiliate and threaten.
And if you say, "Don't we probe and test?" you are engaging in the moral equivalence that is based in blindness to the unique righteousness of the US and the West.
ReplyDeleteI think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.”
ReplyDeleteDwight David Eisenhower quotes (American 34th President (1953-61). 1890-1969)
“There was never a good war or a bad peace.”
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Franklin quotes (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)
Oh, for crying out loud. Of course peace is preferable to war. But look over the sweep of history. If there's one constant of the human condition, it's war. If you know your nation to be a force for righteousness and worth preserving, you'd best be constantly ready to deal with threats.
ReplyDelete