The US’s Stealthy Pro-ISIS Coalition

Turn to page 214 in the book “War-making for Dummies.” You will find: “plan air operations right on your neighbor’s border, zig in and zag out, make rude gestures at enemy pilots, and shoot them down if you can.”

On Tuesday this week, the inevitable air clash occurred on the Syrian-Turkish border west of Aleppo.  From what we know so far,  two Russian SU-24 bombers that had been pounding  anti-Damascus  forces on the border  briefly   intruded on Turkish airspace for all of  17 seconds.

Turkish  F-16 fighters, clearly pre-positioned in the area,  pounced on the Russians and downed one Sukhoi with an air-to-air missiles. One of the Russian pilots was killed – probably by pro-Turkish Syrian tribesmen while parachuting to earth. A  Russian Marine was killed when the helicopter in which he was flying to recuse the downed  airman was hit by a US-supplied TOW anti-tank missile.

Turkish  trigger-happy hotheads are to blame for authorizing deadly force when a few wing wags would have served to warn off the Russians –  if they were in fact intruding. Turkey is in no position to claim it’s the injured party when arms, munitions and logistics support for ISIS has been pouring across its border into Syria for almost five years.

Russia, which accidentally shot down a South Korean airliner in 1982, is no angel either. Nor the US, which downed an Iranian airliner in 1988.

Turkey is point-man for the odd coalition of stealthy ISIS backers that includes the US, Saudi Arabia,  the UAE, Egypt,  France and Britain. ISIS is their  weapon of choice against Shia Iran and its Syrian and Lebanese allies and, very soon, Taliban in Afghanistan. Problem is, they  back ISIS but can’t control its youthful members. The rabid  dog they helped breed is now running around biting people.

By picking a fight with Russia, Turkey is shooting itself in the foot. Russia and the predecessor of modern Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, fought innumerable wars from the 1680’s until World War I.  Russia has never abandoned its desire to seize the Straits, as Constantinople and the Dardanelles were called.

Turkey exports $4 billion to Russia, and imports large quantities of wheat, oil, gas, steel. Four and a half million Russian tourists come annually to Turkey. Shooting down a Russian warplane will  make hyper-nationalist Turks beat their chests  but the hangover will seriously damage Turkey’s unsteady economy.

Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan should meet asap to resolve their issue before it becomes yet another step on the road to World War III.

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