I've gone through the database because I'm a fan of truth.
First: Yes, this drop really happened. At least once to one person. There was also one case of 67 points, one of 52 points, and one each of 48, 47 and 46 points.
Second: At least for the 60 points case posted here, the character affected is currently a distance of 2128 miles or 3425 km away from his capital. That is almost precisely the distance from London to Jerusalem (2245 miles). Or in other words: It's a distance that happened twice or so in the history of medieval Europe.
Third: To answer the initial question more specifically: Yes, war over that kind of distance should definitely be as close to impossible as we can make it without drawing a "you shall not pass" line on the map.