Turkey Forces Down Syrian Commercial Airliner

Hell bent is a great term for it -

Confirmation that Turkey is hell bent on provoking conflict with Syria that could easily escalate into a regional war arrived last night when the Turks intercepted a Syrian commercial airliner bound for Damascus, falsely claiming the plane was carrying military equipment.

Despite the fact that the Turks could have asked to inspect the plane’s cargo and had it land in Turkey by consent, they instead chose to unleash a show of force by having Turkish Air Force F-16 jets aggressively intercept the plane and force it to land in Ankara as soon as the airliner crossed into Turkish airspace.

The airliner was en-route from Moscow with 30 passengers, 17 of which were Russian. Russia reacted angrily to the incident, saying it was refused access to the citizens for 8 hours and that their lives were put in danger.

Turkey initially claimed it had intelligence suggesting weapons were on board the plane but later admitted that all it had seized was communications equipment. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed the confiscated equipment was “illegal cargo,” a term that was later watered down to “objectionable” cargo.

According to passengers, masked men boarded the plane when it landed and proceeded to beat four people.

 This isn't just bad, this is horrific. Where to start?

Saying you 'have intelligence' on something is one of the oldest tricks in the book. When you get control of the other persons effects, you can then drum up some sort of claim of subversive activity and then by proxy gain control of the other party. This is part of why we have a 4th Amendment in this country to prohibit this sort of nonsense. The reason we can see that it's nonsense is that inflammatory words are used to describe the 'contraband' that was seized -

military equipment
“illegal cargo,”
“objectionable” cargo.

This is not a descriptor of equipment that was found, it is a vapid declaration to enrage and galvanize the international community into supporting a Turkish and by association, NATO war.

For Turkey to use F-16 to force down a commercial jet is just a flat-out escalation.There is no danger here, no immediate repercussions outside of the norm. The fact that there were 17 Russians on the plane, which might have been beaten, is sure to enrage the bear even further. At this point, I believe Syria should avoid Turkish airspace if possible and if not, send military escorts to ensure their safety. If I were Russia, I'd be openly threatening Turkey at this point, something I'm certain Putin will do at least through back channels.

At this point, if Syria were to declare war on Turkey, I believe their actions would be justified.