RT
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
As Turkey beamed out images of Russian S-400 air defense systems being delivered, US lawmakers demanded immediate sanctions against Ankara, while the Pentagon and the State Department remained strangely silent.
House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Eliot Engel (D-New York) and ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) reacted to the delivery of the missiles by declaring that Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “must face stiff consequences.”
“President Erdogan was given a very clear choice. Unfortunately, he has clearly made the wrong one. That a NATO ally would choose to side with Russia and Vladimir Putin over the alliance and closer cooperation with the United States is hard to fathom,” the duo said in a statement on Friday.
They demanded of the Trump administration to “terminate” Turkey’s participation in the F-35 stealth fighter program and “sanction Turkish individuals doing business with the Russian defense sector, as required by law.”
Under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), passed in 2017 over President Donald Trump’s objections, the US has to penalize countries that buy weapons systems from Russia.
Their pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears at the Pentagon and the State Department, however. The Department of Defense only confirmed that the subject of the S-400s came up in the 30-minute conversation between Acting Secretary Mark Esper and his Turkish counterpart, but offered no further details.
https://twitter.com/rabrowne75/status/1149784767723909122
The Pentagon has not done on-camera briefings for a while, and the press corps got excited when they heard one was scheduled for Friday, expecting it would address the issue. To their great disappointment, however, it was “postponed indefinitely.”
Lara Seligman on Twitter: “A rare on camera Pentagon press briefing on Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 has been postponed indefinitely, DOD says. Nothing from State or WH. So even though the missile system was delivered this morning, it seems no one in the US administration is prepared to comment. / Twitter”
A rare on camera Pentagon press briefing on Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 has been postponed indefinitely, DOD says. Nothing from State or WH. So even though the missile system was delivered this morning, it seems no one in the US administration is prepared to comment.
Washington is taking Ankara’s “betrayal” especially hard, since their anti-Soviet alliance predates even the founding of NATO. Following an attempted military coup in July 2016 – which Erdogan blamed on the cleric living in the US under CIA protection – he began turning towards Russia, negotiating the purchase of the S-400s and justifying it by the US withdrawal of Patriot missile batteries.
Ankara has responded to US threats to cut it off from the F-35 program by saying that it would go against the terms of the deal to manufacture the fifth-generation fighter. Turkey is part of the multinational consortium developing and producing parts for the troubled Lockheed Martin jet, and was expected to buy 100 of them. Dropping it from the program might negatively impact production and further increase the cost of the already overpriced war machine.
Observer on Twitter: “Welcome to #Turkey Russian-made #S400 air defense system: Tough times for #Greece ahead. pic.twitter.com/Jat8kITJr9 / Twitter”
Welcome to #Turkey Russian-made #S400 air defense system: Tough times for #Greece ahead. pic.twitter.com/Jat8kITJr9
Washington fears that the S-400 could reveal the ‘secrets’ of the F-35 to Moscow and render the secretive stealth fighter vulnerable to Russian countermeasures.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Washed-out-ton is shit scared that the S-400 will reveal that the shitbox f35 is a FAKE! That it truely IS an under performing, useless PIG.
Erdogan is right. The S-400 WILL benefit NATO. As soon as they turn it on while an F-35’s in the air, maybe in Romania (and you know they will), it’ll light up like a X-mas tree. Then the Pentagon will just ask Congress for another $ trillion to work out the bugs (which would likely mean scrapping them all and starting over). Sweetheart deal all around.
“Washington is taking Ankara’s “betrayal” especially hard, since their anti-Soviet alliance predates even the founding of NATO.” To that, I would say that Russia is Russia and not the USSR. Relationships change, don’t they, U$? And they are particularly likely to change when one of the partners is duplicitous and untrustworthy, and even tries to assassinate the other. As for “Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “must face stiff consequences” for daring to buy the S-400 air defence systems from Russia – why? Why should a sovereign nation be threatened because it happens to make its purchases at a… Read more »
They’re afraid of revealing that the F-35 is already ‘vulnerable’.
Boeing’s engineers have guaranteed that the thing is bulletproof.
What are these experts guaranteeing, that their F.35 or whatever it is, is bulletproof as long as it is locked in their hangers, where they will not be prone to S.400 attack?
When will Amazia realize how far they are behind the times, an obsolete, evil, dictatorship, whose moral standards, lust for power, world control is now as unreliable as their junk weapons of mass destruction?
I suspect Erdogan’s overriding motive behind the S-400 purchase is that he firmly believes Washington attempted last year’s coup against him and he wants to make sure they can’t turn off his defenses in case they ever decide to go to a Plan B.
2016 coup attempt that is.
What you propose might be a plan, but Mr Kebab Muncher is a cunning f**ker, and we cannot be sure to whom his loyalties truly lie, apart to himself. If I had been Pres. Putin, he’s the last guy on the block you should trust with such an advanced toy.
Mmmmmmmmm, so no one has considered that Mr Kebab Muncher has delivered to the Pentagon, an s400 system that NATO and MOSSAD techs will be swarming over of months, stripping it of its secrets ??????????? Sure hope Pres. Putin made sure it was fitted with a secret Kill-Switch.