Iran finally admitted that it shot down a civilian Ukrainian airliner, killing 176 people on board, and is echoing Democrats in blaming the United States for causing the event by escalating tensions.
Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in conceding what happened, wrote, “Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster.”
A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces:
Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster
Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.
?— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 11, 2020
This is quite similar to the line being peddled by Democrats since U.S. officials first confirmed that Iran had shot down the airplane, which took off from Tehran airport (and didn’t suddenly and thus didn’t unexpectedly fly into Iranian airspace).
After the news broke, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg blamed the event on an “unwanted military tit for tat.” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, went further, more directly blaming President Trump. She told CNN, “This is yet another example of collateral damage from the actions that have been taken in a provocative way by the president of the United States.”
In reality, as the Washington Examiner editorialized, shooting down the airplane was an example of malicious incompetence by the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Tom Rogan also had a helpful roundup of the days that Iran spent lying about the event in an effort to cover up its culpability for the innocent deaths.
