As we discussed the other day, I believed strongly that the crash of the Ukrainian Airlines 737 was NOT caused by a mechanical failure.  Indeed, video showed something hit the aircraft and today, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau confirmed what we all feared:

Of course, Iran government officials are lying about the true cause of the crash, but finally bent to demands to allow others into the investigation including Ukraine and Boeing.  The truth will come out, and the Iranian government (along with Trump) look like idiots.  Trump kills the top military general for Iran and 7 others.  Iran retaliates to make a statement, warning the US three hours before the attack so they could clear out and have no casualties.  Purely by accident, the Iranians shot down a commercial aircraft filled with 176 innocents.  Tragic.  And stupid.

Using military strength gets people killed.  It’s high time the morons running these two governments finally figured that out.

I’m not buying the engine fire causes plane to crash explanation being given the media.  The Boeing 737-800 is highly reliable with sophisticated fire detection and fire suppression systems.  Also, this particular aircraft is only three years old.  An engine fire would not cause a loss of control of the aircraft unless an explosion would rupture the firewall between the engine itself and the wing structure.  The fire suppression systems on the 737 includes fuel and air shutoffs AND onboard fire extinguishers.  And the plane is designed to be flyable on one engine, which should have allowed it to return safely to Tehran or other nearby airport.

Watching the video, the plane was on fire all the way to the ground, which tells me that it was a serious explosion on board that got around the fire containment design.  This is very suspicious and I’m suspecting onboard sabotage or a shootdown.  Know what was going on at the time, I won’t be a bit surprised that Iran’s own anti-aircraft defense systems shot this one down.

Curiouser and curiouser – A Ukrainian airliner is reported down in a suburb in Tehran shortly after take-off .  180 people were onboard.

Iran retaliated for Trump’s idiotic killing of Qasem Soleimani last week, firing over a dozen ballistic missiles from Iran to two US bases in Iraq.  Casualties unknown as yet.  Crude price skyrocketed to over $65 on the news.  Expect it to be more volatile in coming days as Trump will do the next stupid thing.

In its best imitation of Emily Litella, the Defense Department inflicted whiplash on millions of Americans by releasing a letter to the Iraqi government that US and coalition forces were repositioning in preparation of withdrawing from Iraq.  Amidst the uproar that followed, defense secretary Mark Esper held a news conference to claim the letter was “an honest mistake”.  An “honest mistake”?  Oh, please.  This letter could only be one of three things:

1. Gross incompetence under Trump’s fake presidency.
2. A trial balloon to gauge public response to withdrawal.
3. Sabotage by someone high up in the defense department.

In the old days, way back in 2016 and before, official government communications were carefully vetted, going through many layers of approval before being issued.  Even then things weren’t perfectly communicated (like the explanations of the Benghazi attack), but mistakes were kept to a minimum.  Under Trump there is apparently so much chaos that it seems just anyone can turn the US government on its head with an unapproved (or completely botched) official communication.

Geez.

In a letter to the Iraqi prime minister today, Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq, announced that “in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq,” US and coalition troops will withdraw from the country.  So, in the last month, Trump has turned Syria over to Turkey, who immediately murdered hundreds of our Kurdish allies, then killed the military leader of Iran.  Subsequently, Iran announced it was withdrawing from the multi country nuclear treaty and that it was restarting its full scale uranium enrichment program.  Then, Trump threatened to bomb cultural sites in Iran.  THEN, Iraq ordered US troops out of the country to which we just agreed.  Oh, and Chevron has announced it is withdrawing ALL expatriates out of the country immediately.  Most other companies have already done that.

So, through Trump’s bungling, Iran has greatly increased its influence over this region of the Middle East, making Iraq basically a satellite of their own country.  Without coalition forces on the ground anywhere in the Kurdish areas of norther Iraq and Syria, Trump has opened the entire region to expansion by ISIS and other Islamic extremists.

So much “winning”.