Last night Israeli F-16s attacked the area near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia. It appears in the course of the attack, Syrian air defense missiles may have hit a Russian surveillance aircraft, killing 15 Russian service members. The Israelis blame the Syrians for using old air defense systems, while in fact they have been the loudest voices arguing against any upgrade of Syrian defenses (it would make it harder to bomb the country). Meanwhile the Russo-Turk agreement on Idlib has defused the threat of an imminent Russian attack on the province and has thwarted US and western government plans to retaliate against the Syrian government. What’s going on? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
OY VEY!
Contrary to knee-jerk Israel baiter Ron Paul, Israel is not saying the Russian plane got shot down because Syria’s anti-aircraft systems are outdated. It is saying the Syrian gunners were shooting wild, at anything that moved, when the fast Israel jets were long-gone. This is eminently believable. As the Asia Times analyst wrote (agreeing with the BBC analyst):
“Claiming you can hide four high-speed jets behind a huge slow-moving
surveillance aircraft already slowed down for a landing at Khmeimim is
illogical. Any competent radar can tell the difference between a
slow-moving platform and one that is operating at high speed. A more
likely explanation is that the Syrian gunners simply fired air-defense
missiles at anything that ‘moved,’ regardless of any classification
system.
“This suggests massive incompetence by the Syrian gunners, not an
effort by Israeli warplanes to ‘hide behind’ a lumbering Russian
turboprop.”