Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that the U.S. is working to resume "in the coming hours" communication with the Russian military to avoid confrontation in Syria, after Moscow warned it will treat U.S. jets that venture west of the Euphrates River as targets after a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian fighter jet.
"We'll work diplomatically and militarily in the coming hours to re-establish deconfliction," Dunford said, indicating that a hotline between Russia and the U.S. to deconflict their military operations is still functioning.
"We have an effective link between our operations center in Qatar and the Russian Federation on the ground in Syria. That link is still ongoing here this morning," the nation's top military officer said at an event sponsored by the National Press Club. "When I left the building this morning, [we had] still been communicating over the last few hours."
More:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/19/russia-syria-us-general-joe-dunford-239720It's in neither side's interest to stop talking to each other right now. That's why they haven't - news that they have is for domestic consumption and follows the standard formula. In this case, the US shot down a proxy state's jet, therefore the Russians had to be indignant and take their ball home, and the US has to be apologetic and wheedle the Russians back into the game. When the Russians hit our proxys (call them what they are), they do the wheedling.
It'd be almost funny if people didn't keep getting killed.
