'Sometimes NATO Ally' Turkey Pushing Washington to Head-on Collision With Russia?

'Sometimes NATO Ally' Turkey Pushing Washington to Head-on Collision With Russia? (RT).

Incidents like the Su-24 downing could bring the US into "direct conflict" with Russia, conservative political commentator Patrick J. Buchanan noted, calling what happened on Tuesday "a provocative and portentous act."

"Something US presidents conscientiously avoided through 45 years of Cold War – a military clash with Moscow – could become a real possibility. Does the White House see what is unfolding here?" he asked. "Was the US government aware Turkey might attack Russian planes? Did we give Erdogan a green light to shoot them down?"

Buchanan believes that the alleged airspace violation was used as a pretext. The real reason for downing the Russian warplane has more to do with geopolitics.

Erdogan was outraged "by Putin's success in securing the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, whom Erdogan detests, and by relentless Russian air strikes on Turkmen rebels seeking to overthrow Assad," the analyst observed.

Incidentally, Syrian Turkmen militants were the ones who fired at the Su-24 pilots while they were descending to the ground. One of them was killed.

Turkey has overtly supported rebel groups, who are seeking to change the regime in Syria, to the point when it has become evident that Ankara, as Buchanan put it, "is on the rebel-jihadist side."

"As of today, Putin supports U.S.-French attacks on ISIS. But if we follow the Turks and begin aiding the rebels who are attacking the Syrian army, we could find ourselves eyeball to eyeball in a confrontation with Russia, where our NATO allies will be nowhere to be found. Has anyone thought this through?" the analyst lamented. Hmmmm.....If the Obama 'admin' and the EU had not protected Erdogan all these years we would not have come to this point in History. Read the full story here.