Russia doesn't need to be conquered, but destabilized to the point where it is not an obstacle of US hegemony over the oil reserves in the Middle East. Contrary to popular belief, America hasn't lost any wars in the M E. It has not reached its objective yet is true, but anyone with eyes can see the bipartisan determination to demonize Russia/Putin, Iran, and Syria. Just as obvious, America has no legitimate beef with any of those countries, and it doesn't give hoot about Israel either. Strip away the rhetoric and all wars are fought for the control over resources, natural ones or the services of markets/people. If Russia was neutralized as an obstacle to achieving America's objective in the M E, Iran and Syria would have to either capitulate, or be destroyed. Killing selectively a portion of the M E population has been a difficult balancing act, but is only necessary as the ruse of "Humanitarian Aid" is a useful lie which is waring thin even in brainwashed America. Exterminating the population of the Middle East until its natural resources could be extracted unencumbered is not a difficult task for America with Russia out of the way. Turning Israel in to a sheet of glass, oops Iran really did have Nukes, but from where and who would be ample threat to any country that might object to the US extermination of those evil terrorists/fundamentalists/dictators, the usual hate with stories, isn't out of the realm of possibility, in fact what's expedient is what the US will do.

America's "Exceptionalism," Jewish "God's Chosen People," and the Third Reich's "Superior Race" are what I define as the Nazi Mentality. Pence is a Nazi psychopath not a Born Again Christian regardless if he claims that he's a christian or Christ himself. The Congress, Executive Branch, and the Judiciary are all dominated by Nazis. Contrary to popular belief, free will is an illusion. Homo sapiens have an inherent need to follow and obey authority figures that is so strong they will, and do believe obvious lies. Not only do these Nazi's like Pence conspire to commit mass murder on a scale similar to The Holocaust, they have infected the citizenry with a form of mental illness little different than a disease causing societal insanity. Do you have friends, family, or loved ones that believe obvious lies? Lies that imperil their lives, your life, not only with the risk of war, but real WAR? Not the chicken sh*t gangsterism of dominating defenseless countries and peoples that can't fight back, but with enemies that can decimate the population of American cities, including all of them, and you and yours too? Ever think that maybe you might also be insane? If you don't know in your bones, that what these Nazis have already done at minimum is inevitability catastrophic, just from their corrupting reality on an economic level, the probability high to almost certain that if America's military expenditures are not checked now or yesterday, the future long before mid century will be apocalyptic, then you have been infected with "unreality insanity syndrome" too. Nazis are to blame, you know who they are. Not shaking the hand of a Nazi by an English Prince won't do. Not when there's no popular support by even a minority of people that recognize reality for a potential leader to emerge. Americans that understand the danger we all face need to speak of arrests, prosecutions, trials, and even executing Nazi's like Pence, Bolton, Abrams, Graham, Pompeo, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. If we don't show the courage to publicly name and accuse these psychopaths for who they are, what they are, and have done, then we as a society that has already been swindled of our sanity, and stripped of our privacy, will walk naked in to a future featuring Zyklon B. Breath deep, it's only aroma therapy.

Americans being armed is just another illusion. Civilian firearms are no defense against drones, tanks, missiles, cluster bombs, etc. The second amendment is useless, and has been from its inception. The only way it could have worked is for all Americans to bare arms all the time. Thomas Jefferson is alleged to have said it was not just his right to bare arms, but his duty to be at all times armed. Americans then as well as now are/were not psychologically capable of understanding that baring arms is a duty required for them to have rights. A truly armed society would have no police forces, employers couldn't separate themselves from their employees with the guns of government or hired mercenaries like the Pinkertons, there would be no drug war, the iniquities that have already doomed the American Experiment wouldn't exist, and Americans as a society wouldn't be insane as they surely are now.

Russell Bentley seems to have raised some good points in his article. A transponder was on and according to Russell Bentley the missile system used has a safety feature that automatically searches for civilian aircraft transponders and that it would report the size, speed, direction, etc. of the target as well as provide an optical image of it. He mentions all the lights on the plane and that it was traveling in a direction that posed no threat when it was struck. How a regular scheduled flight leaving the airport could be mistaken for a threat is a mystery. To shoot something down in such close proximity to an airport would require more that the lack of information, but some kind of positive identification of a threat. The claim of only having 10 seconds to decide to shoot down a target 8000 feet up is to assume that there was no other missile defense units, of which their had to be many and all on high alert, available to shoot it down. Plus the fact that the missile battery alleged to be used only has a range a little more than 9 miles so it would had to have had it on its radar way, way, before it reached 8000 feet over flat terrain, so the only had 10 seconds story has to be bullshit.

You apparently missed this part: "make it perfectly clear to America's State Department and Executive Branch that if they sank your country, the US government wouldn't survive either?" The purpose of America's military presence in the Middle East is to control the flow of oil in that region of the world. Eliminating that means of control eliminates the benefits and the incentive for America to be there. America's Middle East policy has always depended upon being able to neutralize Russia as an effective deterrent to America's hegemony over the area. Putin came to power in May of 2000 and Russia was an economic basket case. What the Neocons didn't count on was Putin's ability to implement policies that were a spectacular economic success for Russians and the subsequent popularity and power that it gave him. George W was attempting to put a missile defense system in Poland in 2001 and claimed it was to protect European countries from Iranian missiles, that of course didn't exist. My best guesses are that within the US power structure there has been a stay the course vs. cut our losses and bail debate, and the "stay the course" side would have to depend on Iran not daring to openly attacking the American Military. This recent assassination was to resolve that debate, or it was to warn Saudi Arabia not to undermine US policy and try to make peace with Iran.

I read somewhere in the last few days that the payload for some of the missiles used was 750 kilos so that is more than 1600lbs. Add to that the energy of the missile striking the ground and that seems to me like a really big explosion. My first thought when I heard 0 casualties was the possibility of a coverup. I read an article in Foreign Policy that said America's reliance on its aircraft carriers to project military force since WWII is more or less over. The capabilities of the new anti ship missiles are such that to stay out danger from being hit by them, they used an example, that a carrier would have to be so far out in the Arabian Sea that land based targets would be out of reach for its fighter jets to strike and return. America can't win a conventional war with Iran because Americans won't tolerate the casualties, and the price and shortage of oil would crash the global economy including, and especially America's. What would Americans do without Walmart? If I was an official high up in Irans command structure I would have started development of self propelled submersible bombs that could lay in wait under water for incoming or outgoing super tankers transporting oil to the Western Hemisphere 20 years ago. Sanction any country that traded with America by sinking any oil tanker, or tankers of any shipping company that dared be apart of a supply chain providing the US with oil or any trade goods what so ever if the US waged a war to destroy Iranian infrastructure like it did to Iraq. Wouldn't you make it perfectly clear to America's State Department and Executive Branch that if they sank your country, the US government wouldn't survive either?

"the strong likelihood of Iranian retaliation against US targets, makes no sense from a US viewpoint"

Does it make sense what America has been doing in Ukraine? What about Libya? Afghanistan? Israel behind that too? Israel does Americas bidding, and does its best to squeeze every everything it can out of America. If by some miracle a trillion barrels of easily accessible light sweet crude oil was found under Americas midwest today, a year from now Israel would appear to have gone through a miraculous enlightenment and be getting along with its neighbors, and in no time the word "Israel" would virtually disappear from the American lexicon. America's government is by and for capitalism, and capitalists as well as their partners in crime, i.e., government never give anything to any country without first considering how much profit they can get in turn for their (primarily tax payers) investment. America hasn't given Israel a $120 billion+ over the last 40 years because the American establishment that for over a century barely tolerated Jews at best, and then inexplicably become best buddies with Israel, and get nothing in return. I've heard about the cunning jew bankers that control the world, and that nonsense can be dispelled with two words, Fiat Money. All wars are fought over the control of resources. Religion, democracy, humanitarian aid, whatever, it's just rhetoric for people to be bamboozled and indoctrinated with.