Posted on 05/03/2009 7:48:25 PM PDT by Flavius
A line of M1A1 Abrams tanks sit in the Iraqi sun as Soldiers of the 9th Iraqi Army Division receive instruction on the basics of tank operation April 11 at Forward Operating Base Hammer. The Iraqi government has purchased 140 Abrams tanks and these Soldiers will be among the first to become certified
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So when we bug out are we just gonna leave most of our stuff there?
now they should be able to shoot at a lot more US soldiers.
Probably.
Depends on how fast we do it too.
Oh, what an excellent idea! Give top-of-the-line military hardware to Muslims! Hey, it won’t be the first time...
I’m sure that there’s no way we would ever come to regret that decision!
A: Iranian armor just crapped their pants.
And worn out drive trains and a contract that says they have to buy spare parts only from america at a 50% premium.
1) That’s the A1, not the A2 or A2 SEP. So not quite top-of-the-line.
2) A bunch of these are already owned by Muslim nations (and some of them have the better models):
* Australia - 59 M1A1 AIM SA tanks were bought from the United States in 2006, to replace the Leopard AS1 in 2007.[49]
* Egypt - 1,005 (755 M1A1 to be brought to M1A2 SEP standard + 250 M1A2 SEP) M1A1[50]
* Kuwait - 218 M1A2[50]
* Saudi Arabia - 315 M1A2 - 73 M1A1 - 388 Total[50]
* United States - Over 9,000 built, including foreign sales [51]
o 1,174 M1A2 (Army inventory)[52]
o 4,393 M1A1 (Army inventory)[52]
o 403 M1A1 (Marine Corps inventory)[52]
o Unknown number of M1 (Army inventory)
* Iraq - The Iraqi Army has requested 140 M1A1M tanks as of 2009. 700 may be planned. [46][53][54]
No.
These are new purchased tanks. Payed for with the Iraqis own money. Just like Egypt, Saudi, and Kuwait also bought M1A1s from the US.
US only has ~900 A1s left and they are being rebuilt to A2/A3 standards. The other 8,000 in our inventory are M1A2/A3 varients...
M1A1s are 30+ year old designs. Top of the line are A2/A3 versions.
These tanks are being sold to Iraq, Not being given away.
Five countries in the world build 75% of the weapons. The US is one of those five. Selling weapons to other countries is a major part of the US economy. And we never sell them with all the upgrades that we use...
This bothers me too.
According to a report in the Financial Times, fledgling microfinance projects are helping to revive the Iraqi economy after years of public sector dominance, a decade of sanctions, and six years of violence. The US, and specifically its military, is actively involved in these microfinance schemes as part of its war on terrorism. The projects typically involve loans of a few thousand dollars given to people with between one and three employees. By the end of January 2009, the US had made 41,728 loans, totaling USD 59.7 million.
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