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[Rolan7]

I can't tell his real tweets from parody ones

[Frumple]

I mean... neither can trump. So you're in company. Not good company, but not alone.

[wierd]

ahhh. The joys of Poe's law...

[TamerVirus]

A 737 leaving Tehran to Kiev crashed in the aftermath of Iran’s missile response.
180 people on board, no survivors

Iran blamed technical issues
Purported witness video shows the plane catching fire and falling to the ground
Conspiracy?
Accidental shootdown?

Definitely a complicating wrinkle in the whole scenario

[da_nang]

A 737 leaving Tehran to Kiev crashed in the aftermath of Iran’s missile response.
180 people on board, no survivors

Iran blamed technical issues
Purported witness video shows the plane catching fire and falling to the ground
Conspiracy?
Accidental shootdown?

Definitely a complicating wrinkle in the whole scenario

Doubt it's the US, though. 400+ km, Mach 7+ (Mach 10+ realistically)...

Short of an ICBM, which can't target a moving plane anyway, I don't know of an American ordnance that could do it.

That leaves onboard problems, Iranian AA, or US stealth fighter deep inside Iranian airspace. The first two are the most likely.

[sluissa]

Or a Russian plane in Iranian airspace. Or a bomb onboard the plane. Or sabotage. Or any number of other things.

That said, if the video I've seen is any indication. It does look like an engine fire that got out of control.

I wouldn't rule out hostile action. But without further evidence, it's going to be impossible to say one way or another. Unfortunately, it looks like Iran plans to keep a lid on the investigation.

[Frumple]

It being Boeing, technical difficulty would definitely be highest on the list of possibilities, for what that's worth.

Things like that happening is just another reason escalatory horseshit is a bad idea to indulge in, though. Things ramp and then random shit happens and no one's terribly able to tell wtf is going on 'cause multiple actors involved are losing their fucking mind.

It'd be morbidly amusing if Boeing's murderous corner cutting sparks off an active war, though

[Iduno]

Huh. Wonder why they would retweet Buttgieg.

[Folly]

The House has just concluded it's briefing on the Iran sitch.
As expected, R's are saying that the assassination was completely justified and necessary, D's are saying that there was no imminent threat and Trump had no right to make this move without Congressional approval.

[Naturegirl1999]

I agree that it was unjustified. It doesn’t bode well for us if our government can’t stop itself from killing people willy nilly. I’m not even sure why Trump/the military killed Qassim.

[wierd]

In some ways, it was justified.  In others, it was politically suicidal to do.

Soliemani has been involved in stirring up "insurgents" in the region for a very long time. The guy had a rap-sheet a mile long.


On the other, simply offing him to "Secure US interests", is acting with such callous disregard to the rationales and motives of the powers native to that region, and why they are producing such groups in the first place. 

While fighting fire with fire can be an effective strategy, it requires careful and metered exercise of that kind of operation. This, on the other hand, is dropping a few million gallons of JP4 jet fuel onto a tungsten fire.

[nenjin]

When you start whacking actual state actors, rather than non-state actors as was Obama's MO, that's when shit gets hairy. The only time you expect state actors and leaders to be targeted is when you're in a state of open warfare. Otherwise it's an assassination.

[sluissa]

https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/us-iran-soleimani-tensions-live-intl-01-05-20/h_7c821d1eb7c75ce4b103f0e8020a35e1

Interesting tidbit that flew under the radar for a couple of days.

Apparently the guy we killed was acting to defuse tensions between Iran and Saudis.

[Frumple]

And may have been where he was more or less at our request, from what I've seen of chatter. Basically we murdered a high level iranian official under the flag of truce, pissing on iraqi sovereignty as we went.

There's worse circumstances to have assassinated a top level political figure, but... not many.

[Cheesy Honkers]

There's a word for politically motivated violence intended as an intimidation tactic, but I just recall what it is. Was it freedom fighting? I can't be sure.