When modern armies fight in close proximity, lethal incidents are almost inevitable, because events happen much faster than human beings can react.  Sane nations therefore work out very careful flight rules to avoid accidents and provocations.

Not anymore.  A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet bomber was just shot down by two U.S.-made Turkish F-16 jets, about 30 miles from the Turkish-Syrian border.  This is the first time since 1952 that a NATO member (Turkey) has shot down a Russian military plane.

The reason it never happened before is that both sides made damned sure that it wouldn't.

Now Turkey and Russia are blaming each other.  Moscow is reported to be "infuriated," and Obama is trying to shrug the whole thing off.  Putin calls it a "a stab in the back."

The actual flight speed of the three jets is not known, but with zero margin for error, the Russian jet was bound to stray into Turkey.

What's worse, the "Free Syrian Army," a U.S.-supported gaggle of jihad groups fronting for the Muslim Brotherhood – Obama's close ally in the Middle East – appears to have shot down a Russian helicopter that came to the rescue of the downed pilots, using a U.S.-made TOW missile and killing a Russian Marine.  The FSA also seems to have shot at least one Russian pilot who ejected from the Sukhoi.  Just to make sure the world paid attention, the rebel group also uploaded a YouTube video of their heroics.

"This is the Russian pilot, this is the Russian pilot.  God is great!  The tenth brigade has captured the Russian pilot!  God is great!  There is only one God.  All the mujahideen!"

In its reporting, the Washington Post fails to even mention President Obama or his "close friend," Turkey's Recip Erdoğan – as if they had nothing to do with it.  NATO is speaking for Turkey and the U.S., just as it did when Obama destroyed Moammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya.

But military jets don't pursue and shoot down their opposite numbers without orders.  This was no accident.  It wasn't even claimed to be an accident.

Russia just lost a civilian airplane over the Sinai Desert due to a terrorist bomb.  Putin responded with massive bombing of Sunni rebel groups and ISIS.

Just to make sure the world got the message, Russia fired cruise missiles from the Mediterranean and the Caspian Seas, sent its biggest long-range bombers from Russia itself across Iran to Syria, used flights of jet bombers in Syria, and has now landed tanks.  Unlike Obama, Putin didn't drop leaflets on his targets to give enemy combatants 45 minutes to run away.

Both Putin and Obama are playing with fire.  Putin should have directed his jets away from the border.  Obama should have told "his good friend" Recep Erdoğan, not to mention the "Free Syrian Army," to avoid any clash with the Russians.

As for the U.S., it's beyond obvious that we are in bed with jihadist killers, who praise Allah when they destroy a Russian rescue helicopter with U.S.-made TOW missiles and then boast about it on YouTube.  There are no good guys in Syria, but under Obama, the United States is now complicit in war crimes.