The USS Truxtun has crossed the Bosphorus Strait today into the Black Sea, a deployment which officials presented as a reaction to the growing tensions around Crimean secession.
The Truxton is a relatively new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, launched in 2007. Its primary claims to fame were a 2006 fire during its construction, which caused millions of dollars in damage, and its role in the 2013 Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips.
The decision to deploy a single ship is puzzling, since Russia has an entire fleet there, and much of Ukraine’s own navy has defected to the Crimea. The Truxton clearly will not alter the balance of power in the sea.
Moreover, the 1936 Montreux Convention strictly limits how long the ship is allowed to stay in the Black Sea. The Truxton is expected to play a role in naval exercises with Bulgaria and Romania during its visit.
it's what we call a bait.
Well, that bait will be eating up before it touches the ocean floor.
I hope the young stud, Commander Andrew Biehn, on his first deployment as a ship's Commander, is not a cowboy who's looking to make a name in Naval history. It would not be good for his legacy to go down in history as the linchpin event to start WW3.
This reminds me of "Robocruiser" also called "USS Vincennes".
Never, ever underestimate the ability of the military collective mindset to create an atmosphere of allegedly perceived danger that can lead to precipitous actions that are unwarranted. El Tonno mentions above the USS Vincennes. I have looked at some length into that incident, and reached the conclusion that the subordinate officers inflated every factor into an imperative to shoot, so much so that it is quite obvious that most of them really wanted to kill Iranians and grasped at every excuse to do so. The commanding officer of Vincennes, in turn, did nothing to suppress the hysteria that his officers were displaying. A close parallel to the mentality that permeated the Vincennes's officers is that of police officers who shoot first and plead officer safety later, when it was obvious from video evidence that there was no cause for any use of force at all.
All of that, of course, applies to a situation where the commanding officer does not have an ulterior agenda – either his own or a superior's. An ulterior agenda might very well be in play, perhaps in tandem with the general hostile attitudes of the officers and crew. The US Navy has had its fair share of involvement in false flag operations.
I read a while ago that the whole crew received medals for BRAVERY.
I wouldn't be at all surprised. The US military has reduced the value of military heroism to the level that surviving a bowel movement while under fire is deemed worthy of a medal.
According to Wikipedia, the crew received the Combat Action Ribbon for being in a combat zone. Officially, this was supposed to have been a combat zone because the Samuel B. Roberts hit a mine that had broken loose from a minefield. So, it was a combat zone only in the general sense that the US Navy was strutting around someone else's war zone (the Iran-Iraq War), and in the specific sense that another US ship had hit a mine on accident and that the Vincennes created its own combat zone by opening fire on an airliner. Some of the officers, however, received more substantive medals, including the Legion of Merit given to the commanding officer. The citations were written in general terms to cover the entire period of duty on board the ship, but it is evident that the recipients were being rewarded for killing Iranians.
Israel will sink it, and the US government will blame the attack on Russia.
Perhaps. Or maybe Russia will simple because this US warship has no fvcking business being there…
Israel has no ships in the Black Sea.
Israel has German-built diesel-electric submarines and has a military relationship with Turkey.
" Given the present conditions, an American battleship is highly unlikely to get anywhere near the Crimea shores, let alone Sevastopol, without a risk of repeating a hasty exit from the past.
On February 12, 1988, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, the USS Yorktown, and a Spruance-class destroyer, the USS Caron, had to flee from Soviet territorial waters off the Crimean Peninsula. After the two American warships ignored the Soviet Navy’s demands to leave country’s territorial waters immediately, the Soviet frigate, Bezzavetny, simply rammed both American ships, forcing them to comply with international maritime rules." http://rt.com/news/uss-truxtun-black-sea-586/
These clowns are on a face saving cowboy mission for domestic consumption, or so Obombah think. A week ago another "dreadful" US war ship ran into a pier in the Turkish Black Sea port and if they come anywhere near Crimea, the Russian navy will undoubtedly jam their systems, laugh themselves silly and
ram them again. The arrogant US fascist McCain-brain regime has no idea what they are playing with and as usual they will only be fully aware when it hit´s them hard and they realize they have been played for fools.
"… they will only be fully aware when it hit´s them hard and they realize they have been played for fools. …"
They will never admit to that…to themselves nor anyone else.
There’s no reason for TRUXTON to be in the Black Sea. She won’t be asserting or defending any American interests, because there aren’t any. No, she’s there just for the hell of it.
My advice to TRUXTON’s skipper? Respect territorial waters, and observe the Rules of the Road. Otherwise, TRUXTON could end up like, say, BISMARCK on May 27, 1941!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdngnDdjCo