Breaking: Iran admits to accidental shootdown of Ukrainian airliner

[Dennis Donovan]

Last edited Sat Jan 11, 2020, 11:41 AM - Edit history (2)

Link to tweet

On edit: Consequences for the IRGC's incompetence are being felt in Tehran today as thousands hit the streets to protest the regime:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212861948 Large protests spooling up in Iran over the Ukraine airliner shootdown

[MH1]

1. Wow.

First they denied it outright. Now, it was "accidental".

Hmm.

Note, from my perspective they were attacked. Not sure I understand why they would intentionally take it out on Ukrainians, but at this point there's a helluva a lot I don't understand.

[emmaverybo]

3. Why would they take it out on Iranian nationals? Does not make sense. What does is that this was

a horrible accident, fog of war sort of thing, purely reactive.

[C_U_L8R]

2. They had to.

Every plane part has explosive residue. There's just no way they could cover it up.

[napi21]

4. I STILL want to know why taall commercial flights out of Iran weren't grouded?

Iran was actively preparing to launch rockets in retaliation for killing their General. Of all the airports on earth, I'd think the one in Iran would have been grounded. I have to believe they have something akin to our FAA. Our FAA grounded all flights out of Dubai because of threats of war! I keep being told Iranians aren't stupid! Well continuing to fly commercial flights when they were launching ordinance sure makes me question their intelligence!

[Dennis Donovan]

8. Either the Iranian military failed to warn their civil aviation agencies...

...or, if warned, their civil aviation agencies failed to order a ground stop as soon as the missiles were launched.

Either way, it's a tragedy borne from a war fog set in motion by Trump's reckless actions.

[malaise]

17. That is the real question n/t

[coti]

5. Some people would call that integrity. Russia never admitted to shit. nt

[Drum]

9. +1

[bullwinkle428]

15. I posted in another thread about denial - not sure if you recall the 1983 case where

the Korean Airlines 747 was shot down by the Soviet Union, killing all 269 aboard. The Soviet fighter pilot responsible for that shoot-down still to this day insists that the plane was not a civilian passenger aircraft, but a military spy plane.

[malaise]

18. Agree -and don't forget the 1976 Cuban flight

or the 1988 Iranian Airbus with 290 people aboard

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. likely some soldier thought it was another Trump terror attack

We have a fool in charge of our weaponry.

[Turbineguy]

7. Wasn't Hannity crowing about

US bombers coming to blow up their refineries?

[Dennis Donovan]

10. Yep

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212857076

[dumbcat]

23. And those bombers would be taking off

from Tehran Airport to shorten the mission turnaround time.

[dware]

24. LOL.

I see what you did there.

[Heartstrings]

11. Would this be considered "friendly fire"?

Kinda, sorta?

[Midnight Writer]

12. I wonder if Russia has not been tamping down tensions on both sides here.

Two countries with leadership in thrall to Putin.

Two leaders who are notorious for capricious, irrational decision making.

A series of provocations from both countries, looking to be on an escalation spiral.

And suddenly, out of the blue, both parties pulling back and acting reasonably. Even somewhat responsibly, in the case of owning up to the airliner tragedy.

Like children who have been scolded by their mother.

The weird thing to me was the contrived no casualty, no major damage missile strike on our Air Base. Obviously, this "retaliation" was intentionally non-offensive. Why? I doubt it was a result of diplomacy. More like Mother Putin said "Go fetch me a switch off that willow tree." and the kids fell in line.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

13. This is exactly what Canadian PM Trudeau has been saying since it happened.

Canadian intel worked furiously to get to the bottom of this, reaching out to all intel agencies for info on this.

[BigmanPigman]

14. The airplane parts have already all been cleaned up

so they obviously knew they had to tell the truth and weren't getting away with hiding it. CNN has suggested that we are looking at two new things...

1. The Iranians may be trying to get a more respectable relationship with other countries.

2. Apparently they don't have as much, or as good, control of their weapons and military as we, and possibly they, thought they had.

[NutmegYankee]

22. We already know number 2 is true.

The Revolutionary Guard units have defied national leadership before.

[Sherman A1]

16. WOW

That is a huge step forward for them and while it had to eventually come to pass. I am still surprised that they did so this early on.

[dware]

19. Now that's leadership!!!!!

And despite what many here will say, this is on Iran, they should never have allowed commercial flights to take off from that airport because of the retaliatory strike against US bases in Iraq.

[Dennis Donovan]

20. Exactly. Yes, Trump's actions precipitated the events of the shootdown, but...

...it was on Iran's civil aviation authorities to issue a ground stop on all flights out of IKA, knowing there was a hot shooting war going on. Unless the military didn't share the info about the missile launches, then it's on them.

[dware]

21. Thank you.

This isn't a popular position to take here, but it's the correct position.

It would seem that the tensions have cooled somewhat, I wonder if this shootdown had anything to do with it?

RIP to all those poor souls on board.

[Dennis Donovan]

26. I think things have cooled because Iran is plotting its next move.

The ineffectual missile attack was more a "message" than attack. It was telling the US they can hit targets outside of its borders. It wasn't "proportional" to the assassination of Soleimani and (on the same day) the attempted assassination of Abdul Reza Shahlai.

[dware]

27. Geez, I hope not.

You're probably right, but I hope that cooler heads in Tehran take over and say enough is enough, let's not give the Mango Menace any reason to destroy our country.

[Dennis Donovan]

28. Their next moves will be via proxies - Hezbollah militias and sleeper cells

They'll put some distance between the state and their next actions.

[dware]

29. Sadly, I think you're right,

and the Mango Menace will use it as an excuse to hit Iran again, which will cause Iran to hit us again, and the circle just keeps going around.

Jan. 2021 can't get here fast enough to get this criminal out of office.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. The U.S. never formally apologized for shooting down Iran Air 655.

[MineralMan]

30. Good for them for announcing this.

We all knew it, after seeing the videos, but it's unusual for a country to admit such things. I see some promise in that.

[Dennis Donovan]

31. They made the right choice in coming clean, but is it too late?

Link to tweet

[MineralMan]

33. Since I have no knowledge whatever about things in Iran,

I don't know. Protests, in themselves, typically do not cause change. They let people know how some people feel, but they rarely make anything happen, unless it is an official attack on the protesters.

I have no idea about the stability of Iran's government. I truly know almost nothing about the internal affairs of that country.

I do know that it's rare for a government to admit such horrible mistakes. That will probably work to help defuse the issue there. Probably, but I don't know much about Iran.

[dalton99a]

32. I expect a swift trial and prison sentences

[Bonx]

35. and/or executions. For innocent underlings.

Somehow I don't particularly trust the integrity of their system of 'justice'.

[Blaukraut]

34. They should set up a fund for the victims' families

Of course you can't replace a life lost with money, but compensation paid to the families would go a long way in cementing the apology and proving it really was a mistake.