Iraqis to Pay China $100 Million for Weapons for Police

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

Iraqis to Pay China $100 Million for Weapons for Police
Experts Fear More Will Go to Insurgents

By Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 4, 2007; Page A12

Iraq has ordered $100 million worth of light military equipment from China for its police force, contending that the United States was unable to provide the materiel and is too slow to deliver arms shipments, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said yesterday.

The China deal, not previously made public, has alarmed military analysts who note that Iraq's security forces already are unable to account for more than 190,000 weapons supplied by the United States, many of which are believed to be in the hands of Shiite and Sunni militias, insurgents and other forces seeking to destabilize Iraq and target U.S. troops.

"The problem is that the Iraqi government doesn't have -- as yet -- a clear plan for making sure that weapons are distributed, that they are properly monitored and repeatedly checked," said Rachel Stohl of the Center for Defense Information, an independent think tank. "The end-use monitoring will be left in the hands of a government and military in Iraq that is not yet ready for it. And there's not a way for the U.S. to mandate them to do it if they're not U.S. weapons."

News of Iraq's arms deal came as Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top U.S. commander for day-to-day operations in Iraq, told editors and reporters at The Washington Post yesterday that he expects a U.S. troop presence will be required in the country for a minimum of "at least three to five more years" and will involve 25,000 to 50,000 troops, depending on security conditions.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100302464.html?hpid=topnews

[Dr.Phool]

1. Can it get any more bizzare?

How fast will those disappear to the insurgents?

And where are they getting all this money from?

George W. Bush's clusterfuck from hell.

Edit:
I see my donor star has expired (Will take care of that today), and I see a Google ad to buy Dinars. Are those worth more than dollars too?
:wtf: :rofl:

[Deja Q]

2. Nice to see China finally help in the global war on terror.

[Kagemusha]

3. So what's the US going to do, try to seize the shipments?

That'll go over well.

[atreides1]

4. This is funny

"The problem is that the Iraqi government doesn't have -- as yet -- a clear plan for making sure that weapons are distributed, that they are properly monitored and repeatedly checked," said Rachel Stohl of the Center for Defense Information, an independent think tank. "The end-use monitoring will be left in the hands of a government and military in Iraq that is not yet ready for it. And there's not a way for the U.S. to mandate them to do it if they're not U.S. weapons."

And the US military under General Petreaus kept meticulous records of 190,000 weapons issued to the Iraqi security forces, NOT!!!!

[acmavm]

5. That takes guts. The least they could do is pay a US company

for guns. We're probably paying for 'em already.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. They are probably using our money to buy them. n/t

[bulldogge]

7. How about this

groups in the US are screaming to bring the troops home, others are saying that the Iraqi government has to step up. So which is it? Provide guns for your police but don't buy from them....I thought we were over there to instill the democratic viewpoint...is;nt free trade part of that whole deal?

Second of all of course some of the guns are going to end up in the hands of insurgents. Does it really matter if the weapons are chinese or american? Whose weapons do you think they have been using for the last 3 decades any way?

This whole thing is a horrible joke. It is all about real estate and economics. Record breaking profits for fortune 500 companies and the rest of us struggle to buy fuel for the winter.