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September 20, 2016

It's Probably Nothing:

U.S. Warplanes Mowed Down Dozens of Syrian Troops What’s unclear is how the warplanes could have mistaken the Syrian troops for Islamic State fighters.
Around 5 p.m. on Sept. 17, two A-10 Warthog ground attack jets, a drone and two F-16 fighters began attacking the Syrian troops around six kilometers south of Deir ez-Zor airport, according to the Russian military. Australian jets were also involved in the strikes, according to the Australian Department of Defense.
Of course it will be a long, long series of "regrettable mistakes" when Russia starts shooting down any American planes in Syrian airspace.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 20, 2016 8:30 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Fratricide.
Happens a lot more than you ever hear about.

7th Cav Bradley's opened up on my old unit, D Co 54th Engrs in 1994 and killed everybody, that unit no longer exists. Oh yeah, they killed them from a mile away, in the dark.

Glad I got out when I did. I saw the future.

Posted by: ghostsniper at September 18, 2016 8:02 PM

Syrian nationals killed? Perhaps God will sort it out.

The real crime is not a FF (so-called) incident. The real crime is the utter lack of initiative from POTUS. In that respect, you could describe all of our air attacks in Syria as pointless.

As it now stands, everything we do and do not do against ISIS in the MidEast is a failure. OTOH, since Putin's only goal is to have a presence in the MidEast (and to threaten the southern parameters of the Black Sea), then it follows that everything he does do, or fails to do, nets him success in this mission.

We suck much harder than you thought.

Posted by: Casey Klahn at September 18, 2016 9:02 PM

No charge for the editing on your last sentence:

"They suck much harder than anyone ever imagined."

Posted by: ghostsniper at September 19, 2016 8:03 AM

An "accident" designed to demonstrate to the Spetznatz how an A-10 can ruin your day?

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at September 19, 2016 9:06 AM

Since I recall that Russian warplanes have bombed rebels that the US supports, this may be an intentional accident to send the message that two can play that game.

Then again maybe not - but plausible deniability is very tempting.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at September 19, 2016 11:05 AM

Mikey NTH

You do realize that Russia is acting legitimately at the request of the duly elected and internationally recognized government of Syria and that the US is committing one more war crime in support of terrorism,
Don't you?

Posted by: Bill Jones at September 19, 2016 3:53 PM

Ghost: somehow you entirely missed my last sentence, which was admittedly crafted in a modernist way. We suck. We suck because we are in the losing box in Syria and in the ISIS ground war. We suck because, as noted, Russia has crafted the terms of their fight into a win-win.

Anyway.

We don't fight wars anymore, and as a result the wars have come to us.

Posted by: Casey Klahn at September 19, 2016 9:33 PM

Posted by Bill Jones at September 19, 2016 3:53 PM

Bill, I do. I also know that Great Powers do things others cannot or dare not do. I also know that Russia has fallen into the old Cold War act of infringing on other nations' airspace and crowding other nations' warships.

They want to start playing the Cold War games again, then others can take the hint and play the game also.

Posted by: Mikey NTH at September 20, 2016 8:27 AM

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