US is now selling $11 billion worth of weapons to Iraq

THE OBAMA administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $US11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military, despite concerns Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is consolidating his authority in a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandoning the US-backed power-sharing government.

The military aid, including advanced fighter jets and battle tanks, is meant to help the Iraqi government protect its borders and rebuild a military that before the 1991 Persian Gulf war was one of the largest in the world.

But the sales of the weapons - some of which have already been delivered - are moving ahead even though Mr Maliki has failed to carry out an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalise the Sunnis and turn the military into a sectarian force.

More at source

 

Awesome... I predict people saying isnt this the same country that invaded iraq for WMDS and now showing contrast and Americans will say it wasnt for oil. So when you say it was not for oil read this. http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/iraq.asp

 

Iraq was invaded in order to control a weapon of mass disruption aka oil, he said this himself: "

“We can’t tolerate a new terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, with large oil reserves that could be​

used to inflict economic damage on the West,” George W Bush.

But it looks like Iraq is going to ally with Iran, so 9 years and billions of dollars have been flushed into the toilet by Mr Bush and Obama.

 

that money that we are dumping over there in iraq is killing many people and also saving many people's lives... really we cant tell if the moves are good or not

 

Well, For US they need to sell there weapons to the developing nations to equip there security.

Iraq is totally controlled by United States now. Arabs need to unit otherwise each country will go under US control soon.


example: Iraq, Libiya, Afhaginastan, future : Kuwait, Pakistan, and rest of the arab countries.

 

LoL. Iran's only ally in the region is Syria, and they ain't looking so hot. Apparently Syria's citizens have gotten fed up with being stepped on by their government. When even the Arab League abandon's you, you know you've reached rock bottom. Iran just has more money from it's oil to step on it's people, or it's leadership would be on it's way out right now as well.

In other words, the leadership of Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan have a lot more to fear from their own citizens than they do from the "great satan". I'm cautiously optimistic that the internet has made their citizen populations aware of that fact. Not sure how you missed it.

 

We will see as time goes by.

Those puppet regimes are being toppled one by one, the US will have no more influence in the region very soon.

 

This is good news. al-Maliki will very quickly be able to attain dictator status and the Shiites will have control of Iraq and suppress the minority Sunni. This will give Iran a very much needed ally in the region and the two countries will control a huge amount of oil. Iraq will be able to buy further weaponry from Iran, China, Russia, North Korea and together the two countries will become a superpower, possibly even with a nuclear deterrent. Once Iraq nationalises the oil companies and boots out the US oil companies and becomes even wealthier the Arab states will join together in a fierce Arab League.

The Iragi Sunnis will find happiness with their brothers in Libya, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and their increased strength will see foreign oil companies kicked out and the oil industries nationalised and the citizens rewarded.

Just wondering if the tender process for the military equipment was transparent. Did North Korea, China, Iran submit tenders?

 

I'm not sure on it being good news. With a supposed 10 to 20 year oil reserve left it will be at least 10 years before the ramifications will play out. They might be left with a decent army but dwindling reserves by then leaves them in another shithole. What will be the point of a huge army if nobody has any money to defend. I think it's more about us Allies raping the excess funds while they can.

The fact the world is giving them money for their oil will go a long way towards fixing all that's been destroyed but not if it's all squandered on weapons of war.

Having had one of the biggest armies under Saddam what good did it do once the Allies decided to attack? It is stunning to see how stupid they are (yes i'm blaming the Iraqi ppl who aren't out there protesting shit like ths going on) after all they've been through. Having a weapon IMHO gives even the unarmed opposition a chance of getting it off you.

Look at Japan's success once they made wars illegal. That's what the all-new Iraqis should have done IMHO. Sometimes I feel they deserve what they get, though my heart doesn't agree. Maybe they are the uneducated or backwards people that we are led to believe they are and a little more Westerner 'educashen' is needed?

 

Iraq has the largest oil reserves in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Iraq

Iraq had a severely depleted army after wars against Iran, Kuwait, US, and after 10 years of sanctions. The biggest army theory was propaganda and posturing.

Unfortunately they still have to have a military deterrent, Iran will help with this I'm sure now that the Shiites are in charge.

Iraqis would appreciate more westerner education as Australians would appreciate more Indonesian education.

Iraqis protesting? The general populace are basically afraid to leave their house - bombs, corrupt police, untrustworthy armed forces - a very nasty place now they haven't got a strong leader to keep everything under control.

Iraqis are as intelligent as any other human being.

 

The world currently uses 82 million barrels per day

So if there is 350 billion (the un-official amount, and that's being very generous), that's what, 35,000 million barrels of oil (officially 143 billion barrels according to the Wikipedia link) then just using the Iraqi 350b reserves would last all of 420 days? Fortunately the world gets its oil from all over the place, so in theory, taking the minimum amount, I've heard it bandied about that remaining oil worldwide should last between 10 to 20 years (but nobody knows that for sure).

At $100 per barrel Iraq will rake in $35 trillion from selling their oil so they can certainly afford to give away the 11b, but that's not my point. If it's about thanking America and the Allies then hire us to rebuild the hospitals and power stations rather than spend it on the tools for more war. Fix the place up first before going out to buy stuff that won't help your people anyway.

Even warmongers agree the war was about control of all that Iraqi oil (before it got squandered on more gold-lined palaces or was used to attack the Allies, as it was in the Gulf war). Today, with America / Allies so dependent on the oil there's not even a slight chance IMHO that some other country will try to take it. I think as it is, you could even take out all the Iraqi soldiers and the country will still remain safe from attack or takeovers for quite a long time, because no other country would be game to touch it now.

The powers that be claim it was to stop Saddam using WMD and here they are selling weapons back to rearm another dictator-in-process. It's absolutely bonkers!

Why would they even want to arm themselves now? Surely that will only give the power hungry Iraqi people / leaders the tools to use them against their own people, as has been proven to happen time & again.

As the Aljazeera correspondent says at the 47 minute mark of this Empire episode, America makes friends using Mickey Mouse and makes enemies with its war machines. I know which one I'd prefer knocking on my door.

 

Time is going by. Syria is going to fall. Its not a matter of if, its a matter of when. At that point, it will be Iran, all by itself in the region. It will try and hide behind the skirts of it's distant allies, Russia, China, and Venezuela, though it is going to be hard to sell Islamic fundamentalism while pushing strong relationships with other heretics.

LoL. Yah, Iran is America's puppet, just like Syria and Jordan. Seriously pal, are you that stupid, or do you just think everyone else is? Those regimes all stand a shot at being toppled, though they are definitely not US puppets. When we get done truly isolating Iran's ability to move oil, its going to be a lot harder for the government to keep it's people from ripping their leaders to shreds. Obama's failure to do so more rapidly has perhaps been the centerpiece of his foreign policy failures. He got a lot of other things right IMO.

Fascinating to hear someone call the rise of a dictator who will oppress a Muslim minority "Good News". Exactly the opposite of what the Muslims in Egypt would call "Good News".

Keep in mind we just sold Saudi Arabian Sunni's 11 Billion in arms and fighter jets. The US won't have to deal with Iran. The Sunnis in Saudi Arabia will.

LMFAO. Hey Bushranger. Help me out with this one. Are the Australian's flooding to Indonesia for education?

 

Well it must be good news, the US are selling Iraq billions of bucks worth of big guns and we know that they wouldn't support a dictator who was bad news would they?

Your best mates in Saudi Arabia are getting big guns too? Aren't Saudis great devotees of sharia law, mistreat women, have humanitarian issues etc etc

My comment was "Iraqis would appreciate more westerner education as Australians would appreciate more Indonesian education."

You can take that to mean that Iraqis and Aussies hate interference in their own cultures.

 

Syria will fall, great news. That doesn't mean Iran will be isolated, Iraq has just been given to them on a silver plate, the Syrians people will probably still be with them, as will Hezbollah. Not too sure if the Iranians are capable of revolting either.

Obama is backing away from doing something about Iranian oil exports because he fears they might just close the Straits of Hormuz, they won't be able to do it for long, but just closing it for a short period of time has a devastating impact on the world economy.

Israel should try to take care of Iran, since they are the first once to be wiped off the map should they get the bomb.

 

Last time I checked, Iraq was not a dictatorship. That could change, but you seem to be the only person I've heard who is actually hoping it will change. Whats your point?

Not like you have a problem with any of that, and you suddenly expect me to? Remember just a post ago when you were hoping for a dictator who will oppress Sunni Muslims?

Not surprisingly, you have confused education with indoctrination. You might want to take a note for Qadhafi's sons, all of whom were educated in the west because, lets be honest here, there isn't a decent education to be found in the middle east.

Bringing up the level of education of the average citizen in Iraq would go a long way to killing off sectarian violence. Perhaps that is the "culture" you are trying to save. You might want to note that most civilized countries with "western" education have very different cultures they have managed to maintain, though I can see why you might view education as an enemy.

 

You make it sound like Iraq is incapable of determining it's own destiny. Sounds like exactly the type of thing most Iraqi's would not take kindly to. You also seem to have forgotten the long and bloody history between Iraq and Iran, and the racial divide, as Iran is not Arab. In other words, your cheer leading for a puppet state defies reality.

Uh, do you know the first thing about what is going on in Syria? Hezbollah is joined at the hip with the regime that is being toppled. By definition, if the people win, Hezbollah loses power. Yes, Hezbollah will still be with Iran, but they will become an increasingly outlaw organization within the new Syrian government, meaning they will have to start slaughtering women and children in their own nation instead of Israel. Oh wait, they are already doing that. You have an interesting set of heroes man.

More cheers for oppression. Go figure.

Iran hasn't got the muscle to jerk itself off. No friends, no muscle, and declining oil revenues from Isolation. Just an ocean of enemies outside, racially, religiously, and a population of enemies within, democratically. Please man, the laughter is killing me. Stop already!

 

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There's no racial divide, Hezbollah happen to be Arabs, their race doesn't prevent them from being friends with Iran. Iraq has a huge shia population and the ruling party (which really is a dictatorship) are shia too, this what they have in common. Give it sometime.

Its been decades of talking and more talking, why don't Israel or its subordinates (USA) gets off its lazy arse and actually do something about these lunatics in Iran? These guys with "no muscle" will likely get the bomb within 1 year, if anyone should be laughing its them.

 

I would like to tell "ALL THE BEST" to Iraq.

 

The people of Iran don't seem to be laughing right now. The leadership(dictatorship) of Iran, their scientists, and their nuclear program has to survive a year to get the bomb.


Yes, its been nothing but talk from the US, Israel, and the rest, yet still, the life expectancy of a nuclear scientist in Iran seems to be measurable in weeks instead of years. To make matters worse, Iran suffered a two year setback when some unknown group of hackers planted a virus in their enrichment centerfuges. A series of unfortunate events for Iran's nuclear program it would seem.

I'm not an odds maker, but I would probably be willing to bet on further "unfortunate events" befalling Iran's nuclear program before they acquire a bomb.

 

These amateur attacks on scientists, military bases and computers are not going to stop them from getting the bomb, it just delayed it a little bit. Recent reports show that they can have it within 1 year, the time has come to use a little more fire power.