Thursday, November 26, 2015

Putin has ruled out military retaliation for Turkey's military shoot-down of its military jet and is going the economic route, for example curbing grain imports. That is big of Putin. Bigger than I expected of Putin, who is a notorious saber rattler, bigger than I would be in his shoes. Given the de minimis, if any, violation of Turkish airspace, in the context of other airspace violations in Europe, Erdogan's rash reaction, resentment toward NATO,-the whole history here-know what I'd do if I were Putin? Order my jets to fly the identical flight path claimed by Turkey. Dare Turkey, and by extension all of NATO, to shoot down another one.