Best for Easter. Back to posting on April 19, in line with my conviction that Easter Monday should be acknowledged.
Comment sections, at least when it comes to important news stories or political issues, are known to be arenas of bantamweight intellects, to put it politely. So I’m always glad to find more astute comments now and then.
Such as commentary on a news video produced by CNN, “General explains significance of possible strike on Russian ship,” which was posted earlier today. It might not be wise to be too much an armchair general, but I don’t think you need to be a general to see it as a pretty big damn deal.
The ship is the Russian warship Moskva, which recently found a new home on the bottom of the Black Sea. Some choice comments:
The warship Moskva has not sunk it has simply been reclassified as a new type of one-way submarine and is on a special underwater mission. — RickTheClipper.
For me, claiming that ‘as a result of a fire, ammunitions detonated onboard Moskva cruiser’ is more embarrassing than admitting it was a Ukrainian missile hit because it would mean the Russian navy is run by clumsy, drunken sailors. — Almond Trees.
This is what happens when [a] country’s resources are embezzled and turned into super yachts and private jets. — Ian Home.
A wry, obscure joke:
It was, of course, a complete co-incidence that the ship went on fire. The fact that there is a war going on had nothing to do with it. I believe that. — PanglossDr.
There’s also a lot of good material for paraphrasing. Well, I’m pretty good at that, so here are some paraphrases. I haven’t made any effort to verify any of them. I’m just citing them as well-done comments, not as part of a news item.
In this war, the Ukrainians clearly understand the power of propaganda, says PCBacklash. They could have targeted any of a large number of Russian vessels in the Black Sea, but picked the flagship of the entire Black Sea Fleet.
Moskva had the best anti-air and anti-missile defense in the fleet, says Leprecon Zeleniy, with S-300 mid-range missiles. He adds that with the sinking of the flagship Moskva, all remaining Russian ships anywhere in Black Sea are now more vulnerable, since they all only have short range anti-air protection or none at all.