[blueash]

Originally Posted by DonH57

Didn't feel I'm being arrogant or being maverick. I don't believe it's wrong for our young men and women to defend themselves by any possible threat,I just have pride in my country and the service I was part of. By the way I forgot about our Army's air combat capabilities.

This incident has nothing to do with US forces defending THEMSELVES from any possible threat. It is so much more complex than that.

The US is supporting a Kurdish group that is fighting ISIS, the SDF. This group while fighting ISIS is opposed by the Assad government as SDF wishes to establish a new government in Syrian territory. And the Assad government is supported by Russia, in some part because Russia also opposes ISIS and sees the Assad government as the best military to defeat ISIS. So Russia, Syria, the US, and the SDF are all fighting ISIS. And by the way, so is our buddy IRAN which bombed ISIS this week. So that would make it seem they are our allies in the fight against ISIS.

But the Assad government is not just fighting ISIS, it is fighting the anti-ISIS militias that also want to defeat the Assad regime, like the SDF.

So the Syrian air force attacked the SDF and one of our pilots who was not threated in any way, and there were no reports of US forces on the ground, shot down the Syrian jet for attacking our unofficial ally. But the Syrians are Russia's official ally.

Turkey, our official ally and a NATO member, and whose government has been frequently praised by US officials, of course opposes the SDF which is our ally because the Turkish government is fighting all Kurdish forces.

So why is ok for our jets to shoot down a Russian ally's jet when that jet is not targeting US forces?

Here is the explanation given:

A statement by the American-led task force that is fighting the Islamic State stressed that it was taken under rules of engagement permitting the “collective self-defense” of its Syrian partners.

How would the US respond to the Russians shooting down a British or French jet, our official allies. Would the US accept such a reverse policy by Russia and allow Russia to use collective self defense to support its Syrian partners? That would mean Russian pilots would be allowed to shoot down US pilots who are operating in support of anti-Assad forces. See it is much more complicated than "we have air superiority"