Russian intelligence ship sinks off Turkey's Black Sea coast
Reuters 4 hours ago
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Russian naval intelligence ship sank off Turkey's Black Sea coast on Thursday after colliding with a vessel carrying livestock and all 78 personnel on board the navy ship were evacuated, Turkish officials said.
The rescued crew members of the Russian ship Liman were in good health after the collision with the Togo-flagged Youzarsif H, Turkey's Transport Minister Ahmed Arslan said.
The incident took place in fog and low visibility 18 miles (29 km) from Kilyos village on the Black Sea coast just north of Istanbul.
Turkish authorities dispatched a tugboat and three fast rescue vessels, the coastal safety authority said.
Advisers to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim conveyed his sadness over the incident to Russian counterparts, according to sources in his office.
Relations between the two countries have suffered from political disputes over the civil war in Syria, where Moscow and Ankara support different factions.
Russian warships frequently pass through the narrow Bophorus Strait, which cuts through Istanbul, on their way from the Black Sea to Syria's Mediterranean coast ... "
Except it didn't work so well.
Are we really that afraid of a country with a gdp 1/3 of California's?
Are we really that afraid of a country with a gdp 1/3 of California's?
Sure, if we are prudent. War should have a political goal. By that measure, a country whose greatest technological achiement was a wooden bicycle for moving high volumes of freight in local conditions (you can see one in the Smithsonian) managed to defeat the USofA.
Perhaps it is fear of losing face that makes for these kinds of wars that we get sucked into, rather than fear of objective harm to the people and nation. Tell me once again just what was our political goal when we invaded Iraq and why it was so important for the well-being of the USofA.
It is a basic principle of international relations that states with meager resources can threaten or even do almost anything, because they have so little to lose. Meantime, a super power has great vulnerability, just because it is such a big target. Consider the results if the USofA, the only nation to ever actually use an atomic bomb in combat, dropped the big one on North Korea. South Korea and Japan would take serious damage, and the ordinary people of North Korea would not get a life much worse than what they already have. And if North Korea managed to detonate even a small atomic bomb smuggled piecemeal into the USofA and detonated? Consider the results for USofA and the world.
Being the world's only superpower is not a comfortable place to be.
