Russia Matters, 4/14/23
A Russia-NATO war may have been more likely than you thought: Few paid attention when UK defense chief Ben Wallace said in October that a Russian jet fired a missile in the vicinity of a British plane. It now turns out that the firing resulted in a “near-shoot down” of the British surveillance plane off the coast of Crimea on Sept. 29, according to the leaked U.S. intelligence documents. Two U.S. defense officials quoted in the leaked documents said the Russian pilot had misinterpreted what a radar operator on the ground was saying to him and thought he had permission to fire. The pilot, who had locked on the British aircraft, fired, but the missile did not launch properly. Had the missile struck the plane, the UK could have invoked Article 5 of the NATO treaty in a move that may have led to a full-blown war.
My first reaction was to think that aircraft have been shot down before without triggering WW3. Francis Gary Powers, U2, (no, not the band).
Then I thought again about the current composition, (and apparent incompetence), of the UK government, and decided this might have caused Armageddon after all.
…plead or beg article 5…
Article 5 only requires members to consult, it’s up to each of them to decide if they will do anything.
Even if the treaty did not give the USA an out, which it does, the USA never honours any commitment unless it is profitable to do so.
I think this sentence should be in the present. Something stupid can happen every day!