On 25 November a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter, allegedly flown by NATO Turkish pilots, shot down a Russian Sukhoi bomber over Syria. The Turks claimed that the SU-24 violated their airspace, apparently by a few kilometers -- or seconds in flight time at most. The Turks claimed to have issued 10 warnings during an overflight which, if it occurred at all, could only have been brief. There’s no evidence that the Turk pilots were on Guard, or any radio frequency that would have allowed the Russians to hear warnings. NATO and DOD had previously refused to collaborate with Moscow to deconflict air operations against Syrian jihadi and mujahedeen. Turk and American governments quickly claimed that Turkey has a right to defend its airspace, yet neither Washington nor Ankara could say from what. How Russian airstrikes in Syria threaten Turkey is not really much of a mystery. Russians were known to be bombing terrorist oil targets south of the Turk border – too effectively it...(Read Full Article)