Yesterday I published an exceptionally short digest of some of the exceptional US atrocities and war crimes, culminating in the ongoing American invasion of Syria with the accompanying support of the ISIS terrorists, which came both through the arms supplies, air strikes, Tomahawk missile strikes, downing of Syrian planes that are fighting ISIS. The last bit happened yesterday, when an Amerian plane shot down a Syrian fighter jet.
We keep saying we’re ‘fighting ISIS,’ but on at least two occasions we’ve struck Syrian ground forces in southern Syria. Now we’ve shot down this Syrian plane, which we claim was launching strikes against the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, the mainly Kurdish force. But they insist that they were striking against ISIS. I don’t know how this cannot be seen as at least de-facto, if not intentionally, benefiting ISIS because we know that the Syrian is driving to the East in order to relieve the outpost at Deir ez-Zor where strong forces have been holding out for a very long time, completely surrounding by ISIS. And I don’t see how you could interpret this strike as anything other than trying to interrupt that progress to East. – Jim Jatras, former US diplomat
As Russia Insider so aptly describes the situation in their article Has Russia Just Grounded All of America’s Carrier-Based Aircraft off the Coast of Syria?.
The US plane which shot down the Syrian Su-22 over Raqqa province yesterday was a carrier-based F/A-18.
That means the American plane took off from a carrier (George HW Bush), flew over all of Russia’s radar and missile sites in western Syria, shot down the Syrian Su-22 in Raqqa, and then flew right back over all the Russian anti-air sites.
The reason Americans could do so without any worries is because having announced the flight to the Russians through the deconfliction channel (but not their intention to be shooting down Syrian jets without trying to contact the Russians again) the Russians were honor-bound to not molest the US plane.
You can understand then why Moscow might feel particularly furious today. The US made Russia look weak though its F/A-18 fighter was actually at the mercy of Russian air defenses for its entire foray into Syria and back.
A timely terrorist act in London diverted the public attention from this act of violation of international law.
But in a way, Russia is giving the USA all the rope that USA needs to hang itself by. Now, Australia wasely backs out from the madhouse aggression led by the US : Australia halts air strikes in Syria after Russia-US tensions over downed Damascus jet
US is not that easily deterred, though. When we thought that they reached the absolute bottom, US managed to knock from below, and, actually, once more treacherously kick below the belt.
This is what happened today! US jets shoot down ‘Iranian drone’ in Syria – coalition
An Iranian-made drone was shot down by a US F-15 fighter jet in southern Syria, near At Tanf, the US-led coalition said. It is the fifth time in the past month the US has struck at forces allied with the Syrian government in the area.
An armed Shaheed-129 UAV “displayed hostile intent and advanced on Coalition forces” at 12:30 am local time on Tuesday, the coalition said in a statement. The drone was observed in the same area where another UAV was shot down on June 8.
Tanf is the town on Syrian border with Jordan where US troops are training Syrian rebels, officially described as “partner ground forces.”
Again, the occupational US Air Force acted as a trusted supporter for the terrorists ravaging Syria, and targeted a force that is actually fighting the terrorists on an invitation from the Syrian government.
So, back to the title of this post… If you thought that ISIS does not have an Air Force, think again. US taxpayers are happily providing cover for ISIS from the air and training and arms on the ground.
Let’s round off this post with another Op-Edge from RT, interviewing Syria Solidarity Movement member Rick Sterling:
US continues to ‘stab Russia in the back’ with Syrian offensives
RT: General Joseph Dunford attempted to justify the shooting down of the Syrian plane earlier on Monday. What do you make of that? Is there a legal basis?
Rick Sterling: Absolutely not. General Dunford was referring to the Authorization for Use of Military Force that was passed in 2001 after 9/11. That was related to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. So, now he is trying to pretend that this somehow justifies attacking Syrian ground forces and Syrian air force inside Syria. So, it is preposterous.
RT: Can America claim to be acting in self-defense when many would dispute the legality of any US military involvement in Syria?
RS: That is exactly right and it is an exceedingly dangerous situation. The US has been funding a proxy army in Syria since 2011, and in April of this year the US attacked the Syrian air force base near Homs. In May of this year they attacked Syrian ground forces near al-Tanf and did that again earlier in June. And just on Sunday we had them attacking and bringing down a Syrian jet. So, they just keep moving the line and getting more and more aggressive. And all the while claiming it for self-defense. Just imagine of another country was to come in and say they were taking over part of Washington State and the US air force has no right to fly over Washington State anymore…