"U.S. taxpayer money makes a bit of a round trip: from Washington to
Baghdad, and then back into the coffers of American defense
contractors."
Slick. Alas, Xymphora won't be able to blame this racket on "world Jewry." Most
Jews aren't collecting funds from big defense companies.
--- On Fri, 9/5/08, Bond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Bond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [political-research] Iraq Looks to Buy New Fighter Jet Fleet
To: political-research@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, September 5, 2008, 11:01 AM
My, how quickly the usual suspects soak-up the $3 billion Iraq
stands to 'gain' from the recent Chinese oil deal.
"The deal would be worth, by my back-of-the- napkin calculations, about $3
billion."
Sent to you by Bond via Google Reader:
Iraq Looks to Buy New Fighter Jet Fleet
via Danger Room by Noah Shachtman on 5/09/08
Critics have blasted Iraq's government, for not spending more of its $79
billion surplus on rebuilding the country, while the U.S. continues to pour $10
billion a month into operations there. But Baghdad is finally starting to put
at least some of that money to work. It's "seeking to buy 36 advanced F-16
fighters from the U.S.," the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal characterizes the move as one that "could help reduce its reliance
on U.S. air power and potentially allow
more American forces to withdraw from the country than had been
proposed." (Which ain't that many, as we learned this morning.) The paper also
says the jets could serve "powerful new weapon[s] to use against the country's
Shiite and Sunni insurgents." (Although fighter jets aren't primarily thought
of as counterinsurgency- first tools.)
Iraq has quickly become one of the biggest arms-markets on the planet, as
Sharon noted in July. "The United States is funneling billions of dollars into
modernizing Iraq's army so that the country's government can fend for
itself after coalition troops withdraw." Some of the gear sold to Iraq has been
relatively low-tech hardware from the former Soviet bloc -- Saddam's military
was equipped by Moscow, after all. Other purchases are for more sophisticated,
American items, like tanks and attack helicopters. Which means U.S. taxpayer
money makes a bit of a round trip: from Washington to Baghdad, and then back
into the coffers of American defense contractors.
The F-16s would be "the most sophisticated weapons system Iraq has attempted to
purchase so far," the Journal notes. The deal would be worth, by my
back-of-the- napkin calculations, about $3 billion. If the sale goes through,
however, it'd hardly be the only case of an American ally using U.S. cash to
buy back our jets. Both Pakistan and Israel have bought F-16s of their own.
[Photo: USAF]
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