Turkey won’t apologize to Russia over warplane downing

[webfact]

Turkey won’t apologize to Russia over warplane downing
By JAMEY KEATEN

ANKARA: -- Turkey won’t apologize to Russia for shooting down a warplane operating over Syria, the Turkish prime minister said Monday, stressing that the military was doing its job defending the country’s airspace.

Ahmet Davutoglu also said Turkey hopes Moscow will reconsider economic sanctions announced against Turkish interests following last week’s incident. The Turkish resort town of Antalya is “like a second home” to many Russian holidaymakers, he said, but refused to yield on Turkish security.

“No Turkish prime minister or president will apologize ... because of doing our duty,” Davutoglu told reporters after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.

“Protection of Turkish airspace, Turkish borders is a national duty, and our army did their job to protect this airspace. But if the Russian side wants to talk, and wants to prevent any future unintentional events like this, we are ready to talk.”

Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian warplane on Nov. 24, sparking Cold War-style tensions between Russia and NATO, of which Turkey is a member. One of the Russian pilots was killed, while a second was rescued.

On Monday, the body of Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, the Russian pilot, was flown back to Russia following a military ceremony in the Turkish capital, Ankara, Turkey's military said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the international climate talks in Paris, on Monday said “we have every reason to believe” that the plane was shot down to protect what he described as Turkish profiteering from illegal imports of oil produced by Islamic State rebels in Syria.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the United States has corroborated that the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace, based on evidence from Turkey and from “our own sources.”

The Russian air force said Monday that its Su-34 fighter bombers in Syria were now armed with air-to-air missiles for defense. Air force spokesman Col. Igor Klimov said the missiles have a range of about 60 kilometers (35 miles), Russian news agencies reported.

Russia began airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30 that it says are focused on IS fighters. But some observers say Russia is targeting other rebel groups to bolster the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia insists that the plane that was shot down didn’t intrude on Turkish airspace.

Douglas Lute, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said he saw American data which “corroborates Turkey’s version of events. So the airplane was in Turkey, it was engaged in Turkey.”

Putin on Saturday called for sanctions against Turkey including bans on some Turkish goods and extensions on work contracts for Turks working in Russia. The measures also call for ending chartered flights from Russia to Turkey and for Russian tourism companies to stop selling vacation packages that would include a stay in Turkey.
___

Suzan Fraser contributed from Ankara, Turkey.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-12-01

[ezzra]

Putin has a big ace up his sleeve, the gas he supplies to Turkey for all it's domestic needs,

should he turn this off, me think the Turkish sultan will very quickly gravel and apologies to

the Russian tsar...

Edited December 1, 2015 by ezzra

[Estrada]

In truth Turkey shot down the plane because it was targeting the tankers smuggling cheap oil into Turkey from ISIS. Funny how the Russians could eliminate 50 ISIS oil tankers in such a short time compared with the few eliminated by the US in over 1 year of bombing. No wonder Turkey doesn't wan to apologize for ruining their nice little earner.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Estrada

[craigt3365]

In truth Turkey shot down the plane because it was targeting the tankers smuggling cheap oil into Turkey from ISIS. Funny how the Russians could eliminate 50 ISIS oil tankers in such a short time compared with the few eliminated by the US in over 1 year of bombing. No wonder Turkey doesn't wan to apologize for ruining their nice little earner.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-isis-oil-trucks-2015-11

On Monday, US planes destroyed an estimated 280 ISIS oil trucks near the border between Syria and Iraq, NBC reported, citing unnamed US officials. The strike was carried out by A-10 Warthogs and AC-130 Specter Gunships.

In a statement, the US-led coalition said that near the cities of Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, one attack destroyed 283 ISIS vehicles.

The reason for not doing this earlier was to avoid killing civilians who may not be part of ISIS. Can you imagine the uproar if the US had done this a few months ago and reports came out of civilian deaths? Now, they are being criticized for not doing it sooner. Can't win.

[Amr]

Putin has a big ace up his sleeve, the gas he supplies to Turkey for all it's domestic needs,

should he turn this off, me think the Turkish sultan will very quickly gravel and apologies to

the Russian tsar...

Nnnnooppe .... Turkey wont apologize and USSR wont cut that gas supply .... Turkey have a good gas supply else where ... ( read into some oil and gas business and you would know) turkey can get the fuel from (guess who!)and USSR can shove that gas up it's ..... [emoji33] ... At a $18 billion that gets into the Russian economy ... I don't think it's Putin own decision to just cut it off .... And hey Mr.? Going into war against a country like turkey is not like going into war against country like Afghanistan [emoji6]

[Publicus]

Erdogan has not apologised because apologising is the same as allowing Putin to run free to impose his demented will. Erdogan easily recognises that Putin's way results in a severely diminished Turkey. Putin also means to discombobulate Nato. Wrecking Ukraine, wrecking Turkey, in turn wreck Nato. Europe.

Erdogan however just got 3 billion euros from the EU and Erdogan knows there's more where that came from. Putin is meanwhile doing everything he can think to do to reduce Turkey GDP in his attempt to force Turkey to its knees before him. CCP China meanwhile operates freely throughout the southern half of Iraq drilling and shipping oil free of any ISIS interference or obstruction.

The bottom line for the always up tight Erdogan is that there are more allies, security, stability, prosperity, global clout in Nato and with Nato countries then there is with Putin and his falling Brics. Brics are already in a pile around him..

Assad’s forces downed a Turkish RF-4 reconnaissance plane over the Mediterranean in June 2012. So Erdogan implemented new rules of war engagement against Damascus. For the past three-and-a-half years, Turkey has brought down more than half a dozen Syrian fighter jets, helicopters and UAVs for violating its airspace.

The latest shootdown of the RuAF Su-24 fighter jet by the US made TuAF F-16 "Fighting Falcon" is a culmination of the conflict. Turkey’s border interest includes its ethnic Turkmen in Syria. Moreover, since September and before the shootdown, one Russian Su-24 violated Turkish airspace, a Syrian MiG-29 locked on Turkish F-16s flying inside Turkey, and the Turks shot down what is believed to be a Russian-made UAV within their territory, on October 16.

During these clashes RuAF and Putin have set out to show Erdogan that his support for anti-Assad rebels has to cease. For Turkey, blasting the RuAF Su-24 out of the sky is a strong way to reassure the rebel groups Turkey and Nato support to keep fighting the Assad regime. It also tells the tsar-commissar Vladimir Putin to go fock himself.

http://nationalinter...ould-fear-14447

Edited December 1, 2015 by Publicus

[Amr]

Erdogan has not apologised because apologising is the same as allowing Putin to run free to impose his demented will. Erdogan easily recognises that Putin's way results in a severely diminished Turkey. Putin also means to discombobulate Nato. Wrecking Ukraine, wrecking Turkey, in turn wreck Nato. Europe.

Erdogan however just got 3 billion euros from the EU and Erdogan knows there's more where that came from. Putin is meanwhile doing everything he can think to do to reduce Turkey GDP in his attempt to force Turkey to its knees before him. CCP China meanwhile operates freely throughout the southern half of Iraq drilling and shipping oil free of any ISIS interference or obstruction.

The bottom line for the always up tight Erdogan is that there are more allies, security, stability, prosperity, global clout in Nato and with Nato countries then there is with Russia and his falling Brics. Brics are already in a pile around him..

Assad’s forces downed a Turkish RF-4 reconnaissance plane over the Mediterranean in June 2012. So Erdogan implemented new rules of war engagement against Damascus. For the past three-and-a-half years, Turkey has brought down more than half a dozen Syrian fighter jets, helicopters and UAVs for violating its airspace.

The latest shootdown of the RuAF Su-24 fighter jet by the US made TuAF F-16 "Fighting Falcon" is a culmination of the conflict. Turkey’s border interest includes its ethnic Turkmen in Syria. Moreover, since September and before the shootdown, one Russian Su-24 violated Turkish airspace, a Syrian MiG-29 locked on Turkish F-16s flying inside Turkey, and the Turks shot down what is believed to be a Russian-made UAV within their territory, on October 16.

During these clashes RuAF and Putin have set out to show Erdogan that his support for anti-Assad rebels has to cease. For Turkey, blasting the RuAF Su-24 out of the sky is a strong way to reassure the rebel groups Turkey and Nato support to keep fighting the Assad regime. It also tells the tsar-commissar Vladimir Putin to go fock himself.

http://nationalinter...ould-fear-14447

Well said ... I would have never put it that good as you just did [emoji120][emoji122][emoji106]

[ronwparker]

The Turks are a proud race and have been threatened by Russia many times,therefore I am not surprised!!

[dabhand]

In truth Turkey shot down the plane because it was targeting the tankers smuggling cheap oil into Turkey from ISIS. Funny how the Russians could eliminate 50 ISIS oil tankers in such a short time compared with the few eliminated by the US in over 1 year of bombing. No wonder Turkey doesn't wan to apologize for ruining their nice little earner.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-isis-oil-trucks-2015-11

On Monday, US planes destroyed an estimated 280 ISIS oil trucks near the border between Syria and Iraq, NBC reported, citing unnamed US officials. The strike was carried out by A-10 Warthogs and AC-130 Specter Gunships.

In a statement, the US-led coalition said that near the cities of Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, one attack destroyed 283 ISIS vehicles.

The reason for not doing this earlier was to avoid killing civilians who may not be part of ISIS. Can you imagine the uproar if the US had done this a few months ago and reports came out of civilian deaths? Now, they are being criticized for not doing it sooner. Can't win.

So, for well over a year, the US could not work out how to go after the illicit oil trade that was generating $1m per day for ISIS? Despite the US making huge noises that they were making all efforts to degrade and destroy ISIS and their sources of funding.

Yet, as soon as the Russians started taking action against the oil trucks, someone in the US military command had a brain wave and had leaflets printed warning drivers they had 45 minutes to 'flee the scene' before the US attacks started!! It took them over a year to think up that complicated game plan?!!

Sorry, but your argument 'does not compute'.

The US were protecting the business interests of one, or more, of the elements in this conflict until, after the Russian actions, it became too obvious to ignore. The who and the why are, as always, wide open to speculation. But, whatever the reason, a $1m per day buys a whole lot of arms and ammunition for the bad guys and, for that alone, the US should be held fully accountable.

Really disgraceful that it has taken Putin to start pointing fingers on this issue - just where was the western media on this issue? Even now, the serious press seem strangely quiet on such a serious matter.

[retarius]

Our debates here are futile; our opinions are baseless, and our comments ill-informed because our prejudices have been formed by propaganda provided by our governments and reported without critique by our supine press.

I have seen the numerous daily lies coming out of Washington and no longer believe anything they say; no rationale they give can be considered to be a real reflection of what they think or can be use to predict what they will do next. Can anyone seriously believe that a nation that has bombed weddings and hospitals with a callous disregard for human life, didn't bomb an IS oil convoy because of a threat to civilians?

Cameron, another inotorious liar, said in Parliament there were 70,000 moderate rebels whom he implied, were willing to spring into action against IS if Britain were start Syrian airstrikes. Total nonsense. He was rightly ridiculed in parts of the press, but this notion of just generating 'facts' that bear no resemblance to the truth has become so commonplace nowadays; and likewise notion the US airstrikes rarely kill anyone but the terrorists and that they didn't shut down the oil trade because of risk to civilians is likewise nonsense...a PR story used as a fig leaf to cover their obvious complicity.

Whatever else I know or don't know is that Putin, love him or hate him, is more likely to do as he says and what he says is more likely to be true, good or bad, than any western leader. Indeed Putin is a true leader, popular at home and abroad and vastly superior, as a leader, to anything in the EU or US.

Putin's response to the Turkey shooting has been sober, measured and scary. It has been a logical response aimed at avoiding a potential clash with NATO and doing as much longer term harm to the Turkish economy as Russia can do. When the Turkish economy goes south, Erdgogan will be unpopular as pooh in a perfume factory, whereas Putin remained popular in Russia despite a huge downturn in GDP as a result of EU/US sanctions.

It actually doesn't matter whether Erdgogan apologises or not, he has lost this round with Putin, he's been totally outsmarted and the next round coming up will be much much worse, with Putin either allying with and arming the Kurds, closing the borders, or shooting down his jets in Syrian airspace. Erdogan's giant ego will compound the problem and I very much doubt that NATO will go to war over this maverick.

[Lokie]

I Think the Turks are well out of order..., they took a cheap shot at a a Russian aircraft that may or may not have intruded into Turkish airspace for a matter of 17 seconds (depending which side you believe) there was no threat to Turkish sovereignty, pity the Turks are not as sharp against ISIS? Or is it the fact that they do not want to destroy what appears to be a very lucrative trade in illegal oil shipments/sales, maybe a certain leaders son could shed some light on this or at least ananswear a few questions, and there lies another interesting point, why is the news media not all over this??

Vlad will have his pound of Turkey flesh, at a time and place of his choosing, if these Russian aircraft are now to carry Air to Air missiles then the Turks will be well advised to hang back (which is what they are good at anyway it appears...)

[Publicus]

ISIS fights against Assad, resists the US & Coalition, explodes terrorist bombs in cities in Turkey, attacks Paris, gets bombed by France with more bombing coming from UK, beheads Europeans and Christians, blows up a Russian passenger airliner, threatens Russia to hit in Russia against Russians, Iran has forces fighting 'em with Syria and Iraq, yet ISIS ignore the CCP China drilling five major oil fields throughout the south of Iraq.

ISIS could grab those unprotected oil fields in a short order, very quickly and easily. Beijing has zero armed presence at the oil fields and has no ability to put a protective force there, or to put a force anywhere near Iraq or the Gulf.

Very peaceful drilling oil down there in the quiet areas from Baghdad to Basra and the Gulf. Sounds like Daesh might be getting some tea money and dumplings. Enjoying some dim sum. The fantasy caliphate does include all of Iraq. Then again, maybe not.

[Publicus]

I Think the Turks are well out of order..., they took a cheap shot at a a Russian aircraft that may or may not have intruded into Turkish airspace for a matter of 17 seconds (depending which side you believe) there was no threat to Turkish sovereignty, pity the Turks are not as sharp against ISIS? Or is it the fact that they do not want to destroy what appears to be a very lucrative trade in illegal oil shipments/sales, maybe a certain leaders son could shed some light on this or at least ananswear a few questions, and there lies another interesting point, why is the news media not all over this??

Vlad will have his pound of Turkey flesh, at a time and place of his choosing, if these Russian aircraft are now to carry Air to Air missiles then the Turks will be well advised to hang back (which is what they are good at anyway it appears...)

Vlad will have his pound of Turkey flesh, at a time and place of his choosing

In other words Vlad is pretty well screwed right now and for a while to come. Probably indefinitely. Turkey day came and went yet Vlad's still so hungry he could eat a horse. Or a camel.

a cheap shot at a a Russian aircraft that may or may not have intruded into Turkish airspace for a matter of 17 seconds

Putin wants to take Turkey out of the fighting against Assad. Putin had been trying to scare Erdogan away from it, to force Erdogan and Turkey out.

A couple of weeks before the shootdown, a RuAF Su-24 on the Syrian side of the border had locked fire radar on TuAF F-16s in Turkey, inside the Turkey border in Turkey air space. Classic bully crap that failed miserably when Erdogan swift kicked Vlad right between shoot and don't shoot.

Turkey is not going to quit the fight against Assad. Especially not in the face of Putin's brash and idiotic decision to get super directly involved.

Putin's calling in the S-400 air defense system (SA-21 Growler) is an over reaction to his own stupid strategic decision to begin with. No rebel groups have any air forces. So Putin is forcing an Order Of Battle on the many states that are increasingly involved in support of the armed rebellion against Assad. A combined if not a coordinated Order Of Battle based on the new radical factor of.....the Russian air defense system. State to state dangers in the skies.

Putin is trying to introduce another state-to-state dimension to the Syria civil war that had not existed before Putin threw himself in to it directly. Putin's problem here is that he's doubling up pieces on a checkerboard while he thinks he's playing chess.

[StasD]

it would be funny (in real not funny) if Russia will fight with NATO due to islamic fanatics Erdogan'c action. I think it is better for NATO to exlude Turkey. Then we will see if he shots any plane or not, exuses or not

Edited December 1, 2015 by StasD

[Morch]

Putin has a big ace up his sleeve, the gas he supplies to Turkey for all it's domestic needs,

should he turn this off, me think the Turkish sultan will very quickly gravel and apologies to

the Russian tsar...

Nnnnooppe .... Turkey wont apologize and USSR wont cut that gas supply .... Turkey have a good gas supply else where ... ( read into some oil and gas business and you would know) turkey can get the fuel from (guess who!)and USSR can shove that gas up it's ..... [emoji33] ... At a $18 billion that gets into the Russian economy ... I don't think it's Putin own decision to just cut it off .... And hey Mr.? Going into war against a country like turkey is not like going into war against country like Afghanistan [emoji6]

As far as I understand (and could be wrong), Turkey is bound by their gas deal with Russia. Meaning they have to pay whether they use it or not. Less clear on whether payment was already made, in which case guess a refund will not be forthcoming. The main reason for Turkey being eager to sign those deals were the low prices offered by the Russians. Don't think that there is a handy alternative source, at similar costs, which could supply all the Turkish demand.

These are still early days for this Turkey-Russia tension, and based on both sides previous incidents, the rhetoric displayed is as expected. There would have to be some serious pressure on Erdogan, rather than Turkey, if any apology is to materialize. The list of all countries and leaders he managed to fight with is quite extensive, and most were rather friendly before things got pear shaped. Seems to be less focused on Turkey, and more on Turkey-under-Erdogan. Dragging the country through yet another damaging conflict is not beyond his pride.

[Morch]

Our debates here are futile; our opinions are baseless, and our comments ill-informed because our prejudices have been formed by propaganda provided by our governments and reported without critique by our supine press.

I have seen the numerous daily lies coming out of Washington and no longer believe anything they say; no rationale they give can be considered to be a real reflection of what they think or can be use to predict what they will do next. Can anyone seriously believe that a nation that has bombed weddings and hospitals with a callous disregard for human life, didn't bomb an IS oil convoy because of a threat to civilians?

Cameron, another inotorious liar, said in Parliament there were 70,000 moderate rebels whom he implied, were willing to spring into action against IS if Britain were start Syrian airstrikes. Total nonsense. He was rightly ridiculed in parts of the press, but this notion of just generating 'facts' that bear no resemblance to the truth has become so commonplace nowadays; and likewise notion the US airstrikes rarely kill anyone but the terrorists and that they didn't shut down the oil trade because of risk to civilians is likewise nonsense...a PR story used as a fig leaf to cover their obvious complicity.

Whatever else I know or don't know is that Putin, love him or hate him, is more likely to do as he says and what he says is more likely to be true, good or bad, than any western leader. Indeed Putin is a true leader, popular at home and abroad and vastly superior, as a leader, to anything in the EU or US.

Putin's response to the Turkey shooting has been sober, measured and scary. It has been a logical response aimed at avoiding a potential clash with NATO and doing as much longer term harm to the Turkish economy as Russia can do. When the Turkish economy goes south, Erdgogan will be unpopular as pooh in a perfume factory, whereas Putin remained popular in Russia despite a huge downturn in GDP as a result of EU/US sanctions.

It actually doesn't matter whether Erdgogan apologises or not, he has lost this round with Putin, he's been totally outsmarted and the next round coming up will be much much worse, with Putin either allying with and arming the Kurds, closing the borders, or shooting down his jets in Syrian airspace. Erdogan's giant ego will compound the problem and I very much doubt that NATO will go to war over this maverick.

Not clear if the assumption is that Putin's (or Russia, interesting that the two get interchanged that often) actions are not guided by some underlying agenda, or simply that such an agenda is deemed irrelevant. Same goes for claiming Western media is a sham - doesn't exactly make the other side of the fence a beacon of truth and accuracy.

[craigt3365]

In truth Turkey shot down the plane because it was targeting the tankers smuggling cheap oil into Turkey from ISIS. Funny how the Russians could eliminate 50 ISIS oil tankers in such a short time compared with the few eliminated by the US in over 1 year of bombing. No wonder Turkey doesn't wan to apologize for ruining their nice little earner.

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-isis-oil-trucks-2015-11

On Monday, US planes destroyed an estimated 280 ISIS oil trucks near the border between Syria and Iraq, NBC reported, citing unnamed US officials. The strike was carried out by A-10 Warthogs and AC-130 Specter Gunships.

In a statement, the US-led coalition said that near the cities of Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, one attack destroyed 283 ISIS vehicles.

The reason for not doing this earlier was to avoid killing civilians who may not be part of ISIS. Can you imagine the uproar if the US had done this a few months ago and reports came out of civilian deaths? Now, they are being criticized for not doing it sooner. Can't win.

So, for well over a year, the US could not work out how to go after the illicit oil trade that was generating $1m per day for ISIS? Despite the US making huge noises that they were making all efforts to degrade and destroy ISIS and their sources of funding.

Yet, as soon as the Russians started taking action against the oil trucks, someone in the US military command had a brain wave and had leaflets printed warning drivers they had 45 minutes to 'flee the scene' before the US attacks started!! It took them over a year to think up that complicated game plan?!!

Sorry, but your argument 'does not compute'.

The US were protecting the business interests of one, or more, of the elements in this conflict until, after the Russian actions, it became too obvious to ignore. The who and the why are, as always, wide open to speculation. But, whatever the reason, a $1m per day buys a whole lot of arms and ammunition for the bad guys and, for that alone, the US should be held fully accountable.

Really disgraceful that it has taken Putin to start pointing fingers on this issue - just where was the western media on this issue? Even now, the serious press seem strangely quiet on such a serious matter.

The US didn't bomb oil refineries due to the environmental disaster that would create. As well as the catastrophic consequences to world oil prices. Remember the fires in Kuwait years ago? Took a long time to put them out. The US didn't want to bomb the oil trucks as they are probably being driven by civilians, perhaps forced to do so by ISIS. Russia doesn't seem to care about ecological or collateral damage. For better or worse.

US business interests are ruling this? Seriously? The US doesn't want another war...and can't afford it. Nor can Russia.

[dabhand]

So, for well over a year, the US could not work out how to go after the illicit oil trade that was generating $1m per day for ISIS? Despite the US making huge noises that they were making all efforts to degrade and destroy ISIS and their sources of funding.

Yet, as soon as the Russians started taking action against the oil trucks, someone in the US military command had a brain wave and had leaflets printed warning drivers they had 45 minutes to 'flee the scene' before the US attacks started!! It took them over a year to think up that complicated game plan?!!

Sorry, but your argument 'does not compute'.

The US were protecting the business interests of one, or more, of the elements in this conflict until, after the Russian actions, it became too obvious to ignore. The who and the why are, as always, wide open to speculation. But, whatever the reason, a $1m per day buys a whole lot of arms and ammunition for the bad guys and, for that alone, the US should be held fully accountable.

Really disgraceful that it has taken Putin to start pointing fingers on this issue - just where was the western media on this issue? Even now, the serious press seem strangely quiet on such a serious matter.

The US didn't bomb oil refineries due to the environmental disaster that would create. As well as the catastrophic consequences to world oil prices. Remember the fires in Kuwait years ago? Took a long time to put them out. The US didn't want to bomb the oil trucks as they are probably being driven by civilians, perhaps forced to do so by ISIS. Russia doesn't seem to care about ecological or collateral damage. For better or worse.

US business interests are ruling this? Seriously? The US doesn't want another war...and can't afford it. Nor can Russia.

Bit of hyperbole there when mentioning 'environmental disaster' and 'catastrophic consequences to world oil prices'. Maybe that's the story that the US would like to project but it just does not stack up.

Oil production details for Syria can easily be found. Currently at 33,000 bbl/day. Even before the current civil war it was at a level of 360,000 bbl/day for the period from 2007 to 2011, not enough, even then, to be in the top 30 oil producing countries. Kuwait is currently at 2.8m (#11). so no real comparison there.

Loss of Syrian oil production would have absolutely no impact on oil prices. But, more importantly, would have hugely impacted on the finances of ISIS. How this is not being heavily featured by main stream press continues to be a disgrace, no matter who facilitated the oil sales the fact remains that the US could and should have terminated the oil trade right at the start of their airstrike campaign (2,800 airstrikes and zero against oil related targets in Syria until the Russians came into the picture).

I, for one, and I'm sure many others assumed that the US were targeting the main funding activities of ISIS from the get go. That they weren't needs to be explained and environmental / oil price issues just does not cut it. Will we ever find out the truth? Highly unlikely.

http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=sy&product=oil&graph=production

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production

My comment was 'The US were protecting the business interests of one, or more, of the elements in this conflict', not 'US business interests are ruling this'. Bit of a difference.

Apart from that, we seem to be in total agreement

[craigt3365]

So you don't remember the disaster in Kuwait? We sure don't want a repeat of that. Right???

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/09/25/coalition-will-not-hit-major-oil-wells-under-isis-control-in-order-to-protect-the-environment/

From a strategic perspective, the decision to leave ISIS oil fields intact makes little sense. A devil’s advocate perspective, however, would concede that it would not be wise to repeat of the devastation that was wrought in 1991 when Saddam Hussein set Kuwaiti oil fields alight. The environmental damage done by the Iraqi military’s maneuver was significant, and the move did reduce the efficacy of coalition operations.

The Pentagon seems eager to disabuse the press of the notion that they are conducting an environmentalist war. In a press conference on Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman suggested that the coalition forces were seeking to leave some revenue sources intact for the post-Assad regime:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-airstrikes-syria_564b1157e4b08cda348a6307

Asked why the U.S. had waited so long to hit fuel trucks, which are highly vulnerable and easily targeted by air, Davis said the U.S.-led coalition has been mindful of civilian casualties and sought to limit damage to Syria's oil resources to preserve them for future generations.

"We're balancing that with the fact that this revenue is presenting a clear and present threat to Syrians today, in that it's being converted into funds which are being used for military equipment, which is being used to kill innocent civilians," Davis said.

Heavens forbid the US should do anything altruistic.