The Gun Counter

So this is happening.

Turkish warplanes have reportedly shot down a Russian military aircraft on the border with Syria.

Russia's Interfax news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying that a Su-24 had crashed in northern Syria, and that its two pilots had ejected.
Turkish military officials said Turkish F-16s had shot down the plane after repeatedly warning its pilots that they were violating Turkish airspace.

Other places are reporting that one of the crew was captured and the other is currently evading.

Oh joy: The Turks may have trouble with more than just the Russians. They are not that beloved through the Middle East and they may find Russian allies causing then grief. Let the games begin. "Say, nice port you have there, shame if it got mined."

"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."

Erdogan is counting on NATP membership for protection. The problem is a lot of NATO members hate his guts. There are those in the US Military who remember him blocking troop transit into Northern Iraq during the Gulf War. His desire to restore the Ottoman Empire and become the new Kalif is quite offsetting to many Middle Eastern Countries. He's screwed the Turkish economy up already.
There are a number of Turks that dislike him enough to finger his location for hits.
He may well face modern aircraft coming at him from several direction as well as Russian Cruise missiles.
His desire to wrap himself in NATO cover may not work. There could possibly be a lot of foot dragging, co-ordination meetings, memos, and such and by the time NATO got ready to come to Erdogan's rescue, Turkey could be split between Kurdistan and Syria..

He also knows the Russian military is a fairly hard, but mostly empty, shell.

This is a turf war, a longstanding one with these 2 countries, one that Turkey seems to be taking seriously thanks to Putin muscling in *big time*.

So any escalation here is partly on us, for leaving such a power vacuum that everyone and his cousin are scrambling to fill.

I'm more concerned about the US backed rebel groups shooting at the pilots and now taking down a russian rescue helicopter. Someone tell me this isn't going to turn into a proxy war.

[strike]http://news.yahoo.com/turkmen-forces-sy ... 18517.html[/strike]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-2 ... kish-media

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news ... wn-6891003

Now it sounds like the FSA has forced down a SAR Hind and then followed that up with a TOW (which they got from us...)

Shit's getting real interesting in a Chinese proverb kind of way.

Savages shot the pilot to pieces while under canopy.

blackeagle603 wrote:Savages shot the pilot to pieces while under canopy.

Unfortunately it was only a matter of time--that place is a boiler ready to blow !!

That's why I continue to ask, why the hell are we there ??

blackeagle603 wrote:Savages shot the pilot to pieces while under canopy.

This will not end well.