Iraqis Buy $100 Million of Weapons from Chinese

[Bronco Bob]

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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100302464.html


{Guess the Iraqis aren't worried about the lead paint.}

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

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.

That's funny - Saudi Arabia and the UAE didn't have any complaints.

http://www.bartcop.com/dumber-la-rock.jpg

[Cito Pelon]

The Pentagon sure as heck does not want to arm the Iraqis. They know that those weapons will be turned on US forces PDQ. The US is between a rock and a hard place on arming the Iraqis, and not just the police forces. In order for the Iraqis to maintain their present borders they have to have some heavy duty armament - tanks, helicopters, artillery, mortars, F-16's - but the Pentagon can't do that until they are able to withdraw our troops, or else our troops will be getting shot up when they try to withdraw. So it will be a real war trying to withdraw.

Like Ricardo Sanchez said, it's a nightmare that we can't wake up from.