Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg addresses supporters at a campaign event, Thursday, May 9, 2019, in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A little earlier today, US intelligence sources said that the Ukrainian airliner that went down near Tehran yesterday morning was not brought down by mechanical problems but was the result of a strike by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.

You already know that if you are a RedState reader. As my colleagues Brandon Morse and Bonchie as well as myself posited yesterday, the available evidence that was develop with just a few hours after the crash virtually ruled out mechanical failure and pilot error.

One would think that Americans, of all persuasions, could stand side by side in condemning this act and placing the responsibility squarely on the nation that launched the missile and then started bulldozing the debris field this morning.

You would be wrong.

Innocent civilians are now dead because they were caught in the middle of an unnecessary and unwanted military tit for tat.

My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of all 176 souls lost aboard this flight. https://t.co/zWaVgWxfdL

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) January 9, 2020

This is disgraceful.

There is virtually nothing there that is true or, if true, in the correct context.

Buttigieg is clearly placing the blame for the incident on the Trump administration for having the temerity to retaliate against an Iranian militia that murdered a US civilian contractor supporting US operations in Iraq

This is Nawres Hamid. He is the American killed in the Dec. 27 attack in Iraq that spiked tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

He worked as an interpreter for U.S. forces. He was a dad and husband, born in Iraq and naturalized as a U.S. citizen.

RIP.https://t.co/eTobIMLkSd pic.twitter.com/sJG0bwjBpW

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) January 8, 2020

That righteous response led to an attempt by the Iranian-owned militias in Baghdad to repeat either Benghazi or the Iran Hostage Crisis. A decision was made to kill Qasem Suleimani, a “specially designated international terrorist,” because intelligence indicated that he was involved in another plot to kill more Americans.

As to the the ‘tit-for-tat,’ the missiles Iran fired into Iraqi installations housing some American troops and contractors were nowhere near Baghdad. Those attacks were finished about five hours before the Ukrainian airplane was shot down. Iran, contrary to international law, did not restrict air traffic while carrying out the operation. Iran’s civil aviation authorities allowed Tehran to operate normally while the Iranian military command, or however that gaggle of chuckleheads styles themselves when they’re up and dressed, not only deployed air defense systems near Tehran airport but apparently gave them very, very, very liberal weapons control status (what, in the Army, we’d call “if it flies it dies” status). When the totally predictable happened, that is, the Ukrainian airliner being mistakenly identified as hostile, a preventable tragedy unfolded.

You can blame Trump for a lot of things. This is not one of them. Every part of this horrible fiasco was under the direct and total control of the criminal regime in Tehran. No American, much less the President, had anything to do with this. But, if he was to blame, he wasn’t acting alone

NOTE/ Per USA TODAY, Trump and Hannity speak "nearly every weeknight." Hannity *appears* to have provided nonpublic military intelligence during his 9PM show (see my feed for the exact quotes, and the video from which they come). We do not know his source. https://t.co/BnWew2DfGN

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 9, 2020

NOTE3/ https://t.co/vH03Wx6gSs

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 9, 2020

NOTE4/ We've no evidence one way or another as to whether anyone in Iran's military would have been monitoring a live broadcast by a top Trump adviser while expecting an imminent U.S. attack. If you say there's no chance of that, bully for you. I say it's possible but don't know.

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 9, 2020