...We had every right to let Turkey know there was an illegal aircraft encroaching on their airspace...
But were they, or were they being set up? If the pilot of the aircraft had been warned, as Turkey and the Defence Department maintains, TEN TIMES, why would any pilot take the risk of being shot down?
It’s called intimidation .. and that’s how Putin operates.
While Putin may have assumed America would not interfere (because Obama appears cowardly to him), he forgot to separate Obama from the NATO Alliance agreement with our military.
I believe Putin mis-calculated our military’s lack of will; assuming we would not honor our commitment because of our CIC’s fear of Putin. No one should ever mis-calculate that.