The Russians weren't operating SU-24s near Turkey thinking they were a match for NATO F-16s, so how could they be provocative?

It's almost as if the chuckleheads out there are gloating that an F-16 bested an SU-24:

"Russian 'antique' falls to tricked-out F16s".

Everyone who knows anything knows the old swept-wing SU-24 is long obsolete but is still useful for low altitude ground operations. It's not like Russia committed its very best resources to this conflict, only the appropriate ones. These aircraft were not threatening to Turkey.

And that's the whole point. The Russian jets were operating against Turkish opponents of the Syrian regime on the ground inside Syria, and trigger-happy Turkey didn't like it.

Turkey is not an honest player, whether as a member of NATO or in the fight against ISIS, funneling extremists to Syria

From The New York Times, here:

"Turkey wants Mr. Assad gone, and has allowed its border with Syria to be an easy crossing point for Syrian rebels, including those the West regards as terrorists or radical Islamists; Russia wants to prop up Mr. Assad and his government. While Moscow says it is attacking the Islamic State, for the most part Russian planes and troops have been attacking the Syrian rebels, some of whom are supported by the United States and the West, who most threaten Mr. Assad’s rule."

Obama is a complete hypocrite defending Turkey's right to secure its border against air incursions by Russia. Turkey's border is deliberately porous, feeding fighter after fighter into the flames of the conflict. Turkey is a main point of entry for ISIS volunteers.

No wonder it appears to Putin that the whole of NATO is in support of ISIS.

And to others it will appear to be a grand anti-Semitic conspiracy orchestrated by a pro-Islamic American president, with the notorious Jens Stoltenberg at the helm of NATO defending Turkey's downing of the Russian SU-24:

"At a huge demonstration in central Oslo to protest Israel's independence on April 20, 2002, former Labor Party prime minister Jens Stoltenberg addressed pro-Palestinian groups waving Nazi flags. Without blinking, he endorsed their cause. 'There is one occupant, and one occupier,' he told them."

World War III: The stupid Turks, supposedly our friends, shoot down Russian interceptor in airspace dispute over Syria

Reported here:

'Footage from Turkey's Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before it crashed. The fate of the pilots remains unknown but broadcast media has shown footage of Russian helicopters above the crash site. ... The plane went down in area known by Turks as "Turkmen Mountain" in northern Syria near the Turkish border, Haberturk said.'

The entangling foreign alliance in this case is NATO, and Turkey shouldn't be in it.

What hath the Dardanelles to do with the English Channel?