Over the years, many people have asked me why I never became a “real” journalist, meaning why I never agreed to work for a government/company’s propaganda outlet.
The short answer is that I don’t want to work with idiots like Rich Smith:
Why Is the US Selling Billions of Dollars of Missiles to Romania?
From the Romanian border to the Russian naval base at Sevastopol in occupied Crimea is a distance of less than 200 miles by boat (or warplane). A Su-27 fighter jet stationed in Moldova’s breakaway Russian-backed province of Transnistria could reach the Romanian border — just 75 miles — in less than three minutes.
Those two facts tell you why NATO member Romania wants to beef up its air defenses, and why the U.S. government is going to oblige it with that request.
First of all, it’s fewer than 200 miles, dumbass.
Secondly, in English, surface naval vessels are referred to as ships. The term “boat” refers strictly to submarines, and Patriot missiles are useless against submarines.
Third, there are no Sukhoi SU-27s based in Transnistria. Nor will there ever be any. To begin with, PRM has no functioning airports, and you can’t “station” an airplane without a fucking working runway. Indeed, the entire PMR “Air Force” is composed of a half dozen helicopters.
And even if PMR wanted to rehabilitate one of its ancient airports for handling Russian fighter jets, the Joint Control Commission determines what kind of foreign forces can be stationed on PRM soil, and fighter jets (of any kind) are not permitted.
Simply parking an SU-27 on PMR territory would ignite a huge diplomatic incident, to say nothing of the fact that it’d have to overfly Ukraine or Romania to get there, something the governments of Ukraine and Romania would never allow.
And in case you think this “journalist” is just another clueless American, I refer you to his biography:
Rich Smith spent most of the mid-to-late ’90s in Moscow, advising U.S. and European companies eager to get in on the action of Russia’s emerging market. Segueing into Ukrainian law, he then did the same thing for Westerners investing in Kiev.
In other words, he should know better. Sigh…
My take on the Patriot missile sale to Romania can be found here.
All Things Romania 
Well Ukr is not part of NATO, so you never know!
Another option is that SU-27 can be transported in pieces to Md and assembled those back there.
However, these are not important issues for Ro. What matters is that we can’t currently defense our borders and have to pay others for that. And, of course, the americans have the opportunity to make some money (they have plenty of such missles and their industry is happy to produce more).
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