Russian pilots have been menacing US pilots and unmanned drones for years. And they’ve been doing so with reckless abandon and impunity. So this comes as no surprise:
Russia downs US drone
The Kremlin said it would try to retrieve the wreckage of the surveillance drone, which the Biden administration said was crashed in international waters by its operators after a ‘reckless’ Russian pilot, perhaps unintentionally, caused a collision and rendered it unflyable.
Russia denied the assertion and said the drone’s presence in the area a day earlier proved that the U.S. military was ‘directly participating’ in the Ukraine war.
(The Washington Post, March 15, 2023)
America is like a schoolmarm. And Russia is like the class bully she’s trying in vain to discipline.
For example, Russia has been waging a genocidal war in Ukraine. America has been providing weapons to help Ukraine defend itself. So you’d think America would be providing the most effective weapons.
Instead, it’s only providing weapons it thinks will stop Russia from behaving like an even bigger bully.
The result has been a drip-drip strategy that amounts to Chinese water torture. I’ve decried that it will be the biggest blunder of this war. And, given the epic ones Putin has committed, that’s saying a lot.
Russian Fighter jets menacing US with impunity
Russia fears America’s military might, and it should. But Russia thinks it can exploit America’s risk-averse approach to helping Ukraine.
This approach has America avoiding escalation at the cost of Ukrainian lives and much of Ukraine’s infrastructure. It even has America providing a preemptive excuse for Russia in this case. It’s volunteering that the Russian pilot “perhaps unintentionally” caused that collision.
Instead, America should be warning Russia that it will neutralize any further menace. Further that it will do so with deadly force and without hesitation. Period!
Russia says it will salvage drone
Russia downed this drone in international waters. Yet America is allowing it to salvage whatever is salvageable. And the Russians are bound to display whatever they find as a geostrategic trophy. That is, just like the Iranians did when they downed a US drone.
The Russians were insisting the drone was trespassing in their airspace. But the Russians project and gaslight every time they open their mouths. They thrive on the “big lie.” So nobody needed video evidence to prove they were lying.
Meanwhile, America is complaining that Russia and China aren’t returning its calls. But why, for Christ’s sake! Those autocrats should be complaining that America isn’t returning theirs.
Not to mention that China is watching to see what Russia gets away with. Because that will enable China to calibrate its own menacing behavior.