Cheering on World War 3
The recent drone incident over the Black Sea has evoked unhinged and dangerous responses from the interventionist warhawk crowd.
On Tuesday, a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed into the Black Sea near Crimea after an encounter with two Russian Su-27 fighter jets, highlighting the legitimate possibility of a direct military encounter between American forces and Russian forces. While U.S. officials maintain that the drone was on a “routine flight” over international waters, Russian officials have condemned the drone incident as an American “provocation,” insisting that the drone’s transponders were deliberately turned off to stealthily collect targeting data on Russian military installations in Crimea for the Ukrainian armed forces.
The fact that the MQ-9 Reaper drone was flying miles off the coast of Crimea with its transponders off in airspace that was declared by Russia to be “off-limits” due to its ongoing war in Ukraine is indicative of the possibility that the drone’s flight was hardly “routine,” as many U.S. officials have claimed.
Despite the potential ramifications of another such incident occurring between Moscow and Washington, statements from the Biden administration indicate that the U.S. will continue conducting surveillance operations in the Black Sea. “We’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters. The Black Sea belongs to no one nation, and we are going to continue to do what we need to do for our own national security interests in that part of the world,” White House National Security Advisor John Kirby said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin more or less repeated the same administration line: “So make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate military aircraft in a safe and professional manner.”
As the Biden administration and its figureheads in the corporate media portray the incident as a grave injustice perpetrated on America over international waters, other accounts offer a different perspective of the dangerous encounter over the Black Sea. Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, with information from friends and inside sources, offers a differing account as to what transpired.
“Based upon the reports that I have received from friends on the inside is that we turned the transponders off that are normally attached to the unmanned vehicle,” Macgregor said in an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano on Wednesday. The drone was attempting to move “close within the air defense identification zone (ADIZ) that belongs to the Russians.” Moreover, “when you move into that ADIZ, you’re supposed to acknowledge that you’re there, identify yourself. Obviously, we didn’t want to do that,” said Macgregor.
Col. Macgregor too endorsed the conclusion that the MQ-9 Reaper drone was there to collect data on Crimea: “Without the transponders, it was trying to be stealthy and gather intelligence on the Crimean installations.” If this was the reality of the incident, as Macgregor pointed out, Russia was within international legal boundaries to terminate the drone.
The notion that the drone was purposed to collect data on Crimea to help Ukraine lines up with recent statements made by U.S. officials. In February, undersecretary of state for political affairs Victoria Nuland declared that the U.S. is “supporting” Ukraine in its attempts to attack Crimea. “There are mass military installations on Crimea… Those are legitimate targets. Ukraine is hitting them, and we are supporting that,” Nuland said in an interview.
With the downing of an American drone after a quarrel with Russian jets, the neocon interventionist crowd, from cable news pundits to sitting U.S. Senators, has come out in full chorus demanding “accountability” for the incident, suggesting that the U.S. in turn shoot down Russian jets — a move that in all likelihood would begin a hot war.
Fox News’ Sean Hannity opened up his show on Tuesday night by practically calling for a third world war, declaring that Russia’s “aggression” has reached a “dangerous new height,” adding that Biden is “emboldening” Russia if the U.S. doesn’t retaliate in response to the drone incident. “What will your President Joe Biden do?” an angry Hannity asked. “America’s enemies are on the move” because of Biden’s inaction, a frightened Hannity said, warning of the new “Axis of Evil” consisting of China, Russia, and Iran.
After Hannity’s irritable monologue, he was joined by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for a discussion concerning the incident, asking the Senator what the proper response should be: “We should hold them accountable,” Graham responded, saying that if the Russians “ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters,” then that aircraft should be “shot down.”
According to Graham, if Biden doesn’t “up his game” and escalate against Russia, America is going to be drawn into a world war, obscuring the all-too-important reality that if Biden does escalate and take out Russian jets, the two nuclear powers will surely be in a hot war, a war that could easily destroy the Earth and kill billions.
By no means was the warmongering on Hannity finished on Tuesday night.
“We know that Russian jets are flying over Ukraine,” Hannity pointed out. “Why don’t we shoot down two of theirs and send a message?” According to Hannity, if such an event arises again, “we should shoot down two the first time and ten the next time.” “Do it now!” Hannity said sternly.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, also espoused the idea of American retaliation for the Black Sea incident. Cotton called on Biden to “make it forcefully clear” that the U.S. “will not tolerate this kind of provocative action” by Russia. In an insane suggestion, Cotton proposed that the U.S. Navy be returned to the Black Sea, a move that would undoubtedly increase the chance of a direct military confrontation with Moscow.
Cotton additionally called for the U.S. to conduct the same drone mission and flight pattern to antagonize Russia and “make it clear” the U.S. will not be “intimidated.” Adding to the neoconservative wish list of escalations, Cotton implored Biden to “provide” Ukraine with the weapons they need to “strike Russian rocket and artillery systems,” which, according to Cotton, “would avoid further escalation.” This is no doubt referring to the incessant demands of the Ukrainians for American F-16 fighter jets, which would mark a drastic escalation in the war.
The responses to the drone incident over the Black Sea from Hannity, Graham, and Cotton are devoid of reason and logic. Retaliating in a manner that would require U.S. forces to shoot down Russian jets would set up a direct military clash with the Russian armed forces, a clash that could quickly expand into a nuclear war. As they depict American innocence in the incident, the neoconservatives and liberal internationalists obscure important questions that must be asked: What was the drone’s true purpose on that day, and why was the unmanned aircraft so close to Crimea with its transponders turned off?
As America continues to wage its proxy war against Moscow, incidents like these strongly reinforce the need for diplomacy and de-escalation between the two powers, especially when considering the massive aid and weaponry the U.S. has sent to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
Advancing full steam ahead with their dangerous demands and suggestions, the neoconservative interventionists are cheering on World War III and the destruction of humanity over an event that should have never occurred in the first place, thousands of miles away from America’s shores and only minutes away from Russia’s. One only needs to take a look at a map to see who the provocateur is.
We should have expected this after Nordstream, you can bet there will be more to come.
How about taking just a little interest in what is going on in our own country! Our borders, high inflation, crime out of control, political corruption, bank failures! In other words, the destruction of our own country. Yet we are sending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine. WASHINGTON DC IS OVERFLOWING WITH IDIOTS!!