There Are A Few People Left In The World With Principles And Decency!

      With the sadness of yesterday, there was some very positive news. I found out that there are a few people in the world with principles and decency. They are not afraid to stand up to the very powerful, even if those powerful people have nuclear weapons.

    A couple of days ago, there was an announcement with great fanfare that Russia had placed an order with Iran for hundreds of their drones. To me, this was a nightmare scenario. Perhaps Putin was going to pay for all these drones with tactical nuclear warheads for Iran (?) In the best case, this order would be "a huge shot in the arm" for Iran's battered economy. Yesterday Iran had a change of heart. They declined to accept this drone order. The Iranian government went on record saying that it was neutral in the Russia/Ukraine war. Before I leave the subject of Iran, let me praise them. They are incredible engineers. When they went to war with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, they had a large number of F-14 fighters bought from the US. Sanctions prevented them from getting spare parts and technical support from Grumann Aircraft. Despite this handicap, they kept the F-14s flying. They got combat results with the plane that US designers and military planners did not think was possible. Here is a link if you are curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KaOQ0EQKfU

     Turkey is deeply beholden to Russia. They get all their grain from Russia. They also depend on up to 2.5 million Russian tourists who come to Turkey each year and spend a lot of money. Despite this dependence and the weak state of their domestic economy, Turkey did not like what Putin was doing by blocking Ukraine's grain exports. Ukraine produces 12% of the world's wheat. Only 3% of this crop is being exported now. Turkey is helping here. They also are hosting a major conference in Istanbul with Russia and Ukraine in negotiations to allow the export of this grain crop. The Financial Times of London published a very upbeat article this morning indicating that there could be a positive settlement next week. They also warned there still could be a lot of suffering from hunger and starvation even if the Ukraine wheat exports resume.