Keep your friends close...
I see Trump has been watching The Godfather again.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has expressed a willingness to work directly with Russia on cybersecurity and other issues. The proposed partnership is surprising, given the continued controversy over allegations that the Russians interfered with last year's US presidential election – a serious accusation at the center of …
"...Russia's belligerent warning that it was prepared to treat US warplanes as potential targets following a recent attack on a Syrian regime aircraft".
Let me get this straight: the US shoots down a Syrian plane in Syrian airspace while claiming that it was protecting US and Allied troops stationed on Syrian sovereign soil without permission of the Syrian government or a UN mandate, and it is Russia that is being belligerent?
Where 'shot down' < 'belligerent warning' in strength of act?
And where US flies by tolerance and not by invitation of the sovereign state?
And this after the US bombed and killed around 100 Syrian troops in Deir ez-Zor?
Yup, gotta be missing the irony quotes.
Oh that is easy to answer - it was polite warning. This is how I would defined them:
A belligerent warning is when you shoot down the foreign plane when it has intruded on your airspace for ~17 seconds and is so close to re-entering their own airspace that the wreckage lands on their own soil.
A polite warning is when you DON'T shoot down a foreign plane in your airspace, even though they have recently shot down one of your planes in your own airspace.
Lots of quotes needed at the moment.
Most newspapers published this along with "Russian pilot unprofessionally approached a NATO aircraft over the Baltic" on the same day based on a NATO press communique which deliberately came out together with the press release for this one.
The communique missed the fact that the NATO aircraft was a RC135 SigInt airplane, that it came within several hundred of meters of Russia defense minister jet and it was while two NATO F16s were harassing that jet by coming within 5m to provoke it to use emergency comms protocols so that the RC135 can listen and record. The actual incident quoted by NATO was the escorting Su-27 jet pilot inserting itself with missiles facing the F16 within the 5m between the Russian government jet. In the meantime the other escort did the same to the RC-135. That is ... what? Flying a bloody big heavy air superiority fighter "on its side" within 2.5m from two aircraft on both sides. Insane - yes. Unprofessional, I beg to differ.
While I understand the desire of some idiots in the Pentagon and NATO HQ to get some listen in on latest Russian coded comms, can we do it without:
1. Lying in a press communique reprinted by all newspapers (El Graunidad corrected it later though).
2. Attaching the communique to a clear case of violating other country's sovereignty in at least 3 different ways as a distraction. Dunno which bit of bad news where they trying to bury in which, but it is definitely a case of "bury bad news".
3. Trying to start WW3.
I do not know who is at the wheel at the moment in the Pentagon (if anyone is at all), but they definitely need to be removed and diplomats be put to work to deescalate. Otherwise we will all end up as radioactive ash at this rate.
"Pot, kettle, black" happened BEFORE any alleged Russian hacking of the DNC (dilate and cauterize?) when Obaka *OVERTLY* tried to interfere in Israel's election process.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-netanyahu/
The DNC hacking was (from what I can gather) from Assange's practical admission when a (now murdered) Demo-Rat insider, a Bernie supporter, was APPALLED at the level of collusion that was being done to elect Mrs. Clinton, and so he basically "leaked" everything. Couple THAT with a poorly chosen password of a high-ranking Demo-Rat and you've got yourself a nice document dump for WIkiLeaks, just in time for the election.
So you too feel it's okay to fake negotiation while secretly arming, as long as you can convince yourself it's justified by your subjective opinion of an adversary? Would it not be more honest and ethical to simply say "I won't deal because I don't trust you, Mr. Rabid Dog."?
If that were the case the US would be totally isolated!
As for "The first of these ambitions is particularly difficult in the wake of Russia's belligerent warning that it was prepared to treat US warplanes as potential targets following a recent attack on a Syrian regime aircraft.".
The potential collaboration is likely because of the Russian establishing a No Fly Zone.
NATO uses them as a tool all the time why shouldn't Putin when he is helping an ally and protecting his own borders?
Would it not be more honest and ethical to simply say "I won't deal because I don't trust you, Mr. Rabid Dog."?
Even if you're sure your adversary is actually rabid, then it can still be advantageous to try and buy some time and make sure you have a nice firm grip on the 2x4.
And if you're not sure the dog is rabid, treating it as such may well eliminate your chances to turn it into a companion.
Tillerson, get your head out of your ass, stop taking Russian money and do your goddamn job. Shut them down. Don't pussyfoot around with the Russians, just shut them down. I give absolutely no fucks what it takes to knock the Russians off of the interwebs, just make it happen. That's how to deal with an enemy of the State. Did you forget they were the enemy? They are. No matter how much money they're giving you, they are the bad guys. We're not much better, but for the people, our hearts are in the right place, it's just that we're stuck with the Toddler in Chief's motley crew as our adult supervision. You are one of them TIllerson. Just do your fucking job and take care of the Russians, think of your country before your bank account.
I apologize to folks not from America, that was a tad ranty. I'm just sick of the bullshit. Every morning I just open up some news site to find out what Trump fucked up overnight. This is a sorry state of affairs. Again, my apologies.
Find your dried frog pills. You need them.
While at it, it will be nice if Clinton stops taking Ukrainian mob's money as donations to her foundation and payments of 1M per appearance for speeches - it is in her and her foundations accounts. While the Russian money trail to Tillerson specifically is yet to be proven, that does even need proof - it is in her foundation published accounts and in the tax return information she has published before running for President. Same for Blair and several other "democracy leading lights".
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He is doing his job, like many on the trump team he has been taking Russian money for years.
His job is to make life easier for trumps benefactors from the late 90s onward when all the western banks wouldn't loan trump money because he was such a credit risk.
And Clinton is not in office, you trumpers have to find someone else to blame, your guy is in charge.
Speaking as an American (now living in Canada),it is my firm belief that we must NEVER trust Russia, China or North Korea. They are long-time enemies of the West and have not been anything else since just after WW2.
We may sometimes be forced to deal with them, as the current circumstances dictate, but we must never allow ourselves to take their statements at face value, or trust that they will act in any way to our benefit.
To do so would place us in compromised circumstances, that might lead to a ferocious world war.
What a load of shit. China and Canada, US and Russia, and the halting of cyber attacks. It's just Bullshit. What incentive does China have to stop robbing orgs of IP. NONE!. The fool of these agreements will be the loser - Canada, US.
How about building and maintaining secure infrastructures, gear and apps; instead of meaningless agreements.
Step one, fire 90% of devs. Step two, stop buying Chinese hardware. Step 3, FUCK RUSSIA.