US navy ship steams into port where Russian troops stationed

Times Online ^ | 09/05/08 | James Hider

[Sig Sauer P220]

A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region.

A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti.

[DAVEY CROCKETT]

ping

[Sig Sauer P220]

Scroll down to the comments made by U.S. citizens. Thats the best part.

[ken21]

the next conflict will be in the ukraine.

large country, and large number of ethnic russians.

[Sigurdrifta]

Yes,and there is a reason why “Ukraine” (the name translates as something like “on the border”, or “on the boundary”) has been called the “breadbasket of Russia”.

[cups]

I find it hard to believe that the Russians will allow their country to revert back to the “Commie” days. After experiencing freedom for the last 15’ish years. I would like to think they wouldn’t stand for it and have another revolution. It’s hard to imagine ANYONE wanting another Cold War.

What is it about being free that p*ses people off???

[ken21]

it depends on how you define “freedom”.

russia has always been an autocracy. the byzantine church and the feudal lords controlled it.

russia did not go through the european enlightenment, nor the industrial revolutions. as the brits, french and americans industrialized, russia was essentially still medieval.

even, mikhail gorbachev admitted that the russians had missed the “human capital of the information economy”.

from what i read in the wsj and nyt russian intellectuals privately decry the returning autocracy of putin, saying: people know what behavior is expected of them.

meanwhile, putin appeals to the nationalists; russia lost a lot of pride in the war of afghanistan and the dissolution of the soviet.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

country is run by the KGB in a one party system. I’m sure the majority of the country doesn’t want to go back to the days of the USSR, but the elections are all fixed, no free press, and its leadership have consolidated all the wealth and businesses under its control.
Putins game plan is filled with the usual communist paranoia about the west and democracy. He’s now using energy to thug the west and control europe. And its working pretty well judging from the way Germany threw Georgia under the bus all in the name of cheap natural gas and sellings its exports to Russia.

[TLI]

She was classified as the LCC-20 on 1 January 1969, and she was laid down on 6 January by Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia, Virginia. This ship is named for Mount Whitney, the 14,500-foot highest peak in the Sierra Nevada range in California.

· The Mount Whitney carries enough food to feed her crew for 90 days, and she can transport supplies to support an emergency evacuation of 3,000 people.
· The Mount Whitney's distilling units can make over 100,000 US gallons (400 m³) of fresh water a day.
· She was the first U.S. Navy combat ship to have permanent accommodations for women on board.


Considered by some to be the most sophisticated Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) ship ever commissioned, Mount Whitney incorporates various elements of the most advanced C4I equipment and gives the embarked Joint Task Force Commander the capability to effectively command all units under the command of the Commander, Joint Task Force.

The Mount Whitney can transmit and receive large amounts of secure data to and from any point on earth through HF, UHF, VHF, and SHF (satellite communications) communications channels. This electronic technology enables the Joint Intelligence Center and Joint Operations Center to provide the timely intelligence and operational support available in the Navy.

[VeniVidiVici]

bump for later

[Larry381]

I find it hard to believe that the Russians will allow their country to revert back to the “Commie” days

Never underestimate the submissiveness of the Russian character. Here's a people that stood by and did nothing while untold millions of its people were butchered like cattle and vast millions were sent to forced labor camps.

German troops when they invaded the Soviet Union were frightened, shocked, then horrified as whole Red Army divisions and regiments walked impassively with linked arms into German machine gun and artillery fire in 1941 and were mowed down by the hundreds of thousands. A German General said after the war that Germany was like a giant elephant stomping on an ant mound and at first the giant elephant with it's huge weight and giant feet would stomp on thousands and millions of ants and kill them but at the end the ants overwhelmed the elephant and wound up eating the elephant whole.

[Dosa26]

Elegant beuty that ship, mind you i’ld like to see at least a sm battery on her, but as long as she has some ageis destoyers hanging around she should be ok.

[MarMema]

It’s natural selection via the USSR. Anyone with the intelligence to question or urge to be free was killed in the gulags. Now the country is nothing but a gene selection of low-intellect barbarians who believe everything they are told.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thanks for the ping.