Posted on 12/23/2009 12:04:05 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East made an observation that the Gulf Arab nations wished he hadn't. General David Petraeus noted that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force, and it's 80 F-16E fighters could probably quickly destroy the entire Iranian Air Force. The Gulf Arabs would prefer the Iranians to believe their own propaganda, that the Iranian military is much more powerful than it actually is. The Iranian Air Force is mainly a mighty force only in terms of Iranian propaganda. The Gulf Arabs don't want the Iranians to make a strong effort to upgrade their air force and air defenses. The Iranian myth is much better for the Gulf Arabs than Iranian military commanders who plan and prepare on the basis of what they really have. The UAE occupies most of the western coast of the Persian Gulf, but has a population of less than three million and armed forces of only 65,000. There are 70 million Iranians, and about half a million of them are in the military. While the Iranian air force only has about 200 operational, and quite elderly, combat aircraft, sheer numbers can be encouraging to the Iranians. The UAE has a hundred, much more modern, warplanes, and it uses the training assistance from the U.S. Air Force, to provide a qualitative edge. The Americans also work with UAE commanders to figure out what kind of surprises the Iranians might try to pull. Arab nations fear the Iranians, who have dominated the region for thousands of years, and have a long history of coming up with imaginative tactics, and using them aggressively and often with success.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
UAE, Iraq and Saudi could (and should) take out Iran. What do they have to fear? The Iranian government will fight for a couple of days but then the Iranian people will probably cut the legs out from under the government.
And besides, if the Gulf States did do it, 100% guarantee that USA, UK, France and others would back their play - even reluctantly if necessary.
Too bad nobody over there except the Iranian leaders have any balls. Iran should be pushed over the edge. The west despicably abandoned the Iranian democrats and kiss the ass of terrorist supporting dictators who are close to the edge as it is. Push them off the cliff, and the nuclear issue will sort itself out, too, when the new Democratic government is elected.
The big problem the Arab Gulf states have is that their citizens are sloth and lazy.....most of the work is done by foreigners.
Iran may not have the advantage in materiel and wealth....but they have the personnel.....people who will fight.
How willing will some Arab in the Gulf States be willing to fight? You have to pull him away from his Mercedes and his trips to Bahrain’s casinos.
Gen Petraeus is correct on the material assesment of the situation....and I bet he is well aware of the manpower issues in the Gulf as well...even though this was no mentioned in this article.
Israel will have to take out Iran
Aw, come on; you don’t think that wasn’t staged for effect…GD could use the sales… Boeing even has a hybrid F-15, with “fifth-generation” add-ons, known as the “Silent Eagle” (SE) that is being promoted for international customers’.
They also hold their own population hostage. You may have noticed that the U.S. destroyed the Iraqi military in about three weeks and could do the same thing to Iran. The issue is “then what?” If we walk out, there are political and diplomatic implications. It will also inflame militant Islamists, but so what? They are always inflamed about something. If the Allies had moved into the Ruhr in 1935 to enforce the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, there may have been political implications, and Germanists (including a good number of Jews) would have been inflamed? But so what? Better to have Hitler ranting in beer halls than invading half of Europe.
It’s starting to seem like old times.
I’ve missed you guys.
Too bad there are no Iranian beer halls.
The Mideast is and always was full of lunatics ranting in the markets and the mosques. Most countries keep them out of palaces of power. Saddam was something of a ranter, but more like Stalin than Hitler. Not so much an ideologue as power drunk.
We take for granted the hard-won freedoms he enjoy.
Correct.
As I posted on the other thread on this topic:
The Iranian Air Force is one of the few air forces with battle-hardened veterans who actually participated in air-to-air combat... and the only one which did it succesfully for 8 years against an internationally pumped up Iraq... with increasing material and logistical difficulties.
The Gulf Arab “militaries” are mercenary forces consisting of South Asian slaves. The Arabs actually don’t lift a finger.
Odds are that if the shit hits the fan, the Arabs will ask us to fight for them. They will foot the bill at best.
Buying modern toys isn’t enough.
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