Iraq to Iran; "Can we have our Air Force back?"

[HeyJoe]

During early stages of Desert Storm, Iraq evacuated roughly half its serviceable aircraft to Iran. It got the pilots back, but not the aircraft and is now hoping to get them back conceding that they may not be in flying condition. They could always make nice gate guards!

 

[usmarinemike]

None of them will be any good, and Iran is going to want something stupid in return just because they can.

I know somebody who's probably willing to sell them a bunch of F35s.

 

[Flathatter13]

Why don't they just hit up the French for Rafales, they seem to sell them plenty of exocets back in the day along with everything else.

Anyone remember a built once, bombed once Nuclear Reactor?
Courtesy of France and Isreal accordingly.

 

[Grant]

Are we going to allow Iraq to have fighters? Seems like so far all we've given them is a bunch of C-130's, Hueys, and Cessnas.

 

[raptor10]

Are we going to allow a sovereign nation to buy what they want for their country? Is that what you're asking?

 

[Flathatter13]

Are we going to allow Iraq to have fighters? Seems like so far all we've given them is a bunch of C-130's, Hueys, and Cessnas.

As raptor10 says at least we aren't flipping the bill for them.

 

[Grant]

Are we going to allow a sovereign nation to buy what they want for their country? Is that what you're asking?

We've done it in the past... arms embargoes, "influencing" what sort of constitution they adopt, etc.

 

[jamnww]

We've done it in the past... arms embargoes, "influencing" what sort of constitution they adopt, etc.

Seems to me that the sooner they build up their own air assets the sooner they have to stop relying on us; ie. we get to pull back a bit from the action and the population gets to calm down about us being there...

Besides a storng Iraq is not a terrible deterient against a less than sane Iranian leadership...

 

[Grant]

I agree, I'm all for re-equipping the Iraqi AF. As a sovereign nation, they have every right to have combat capable aircraft.

 

[xmid]

Besides a storng Iraq is not a terrible deterient against a less than sane Iranian leadership...

Isn't that all the more reason why Iran wouldn't want to give them back?

 

[eddie]

Besides a storng Iraq is not a terrible deterient against a less than sane Iranian leadership...

I'm waiting 'til the sand settles to make any surefire assumptions about future Iraq-Iran relations...

 

[Brett327]

We've done it in the past... arms embargoes, "influencing" what sort of constitution they adopt, etc.

Kind of hard to enforce an embargo on other 3rd party nations. I don't think the Russians would take too kindly to something like that, and since Iran and Russia both border the Caspian Sea, I don't think there's much we could do about it. What is this "influencing" power to refer to? I also don't think we're going to be dictating much of anything WRT the Iranian government. What are you smoking over there?

Brett

 

[jamnww]

Isn't that all the more reason why Iran wouldn't want to give them back?

Yes, which is one of the reasons why I doubt they will do it...unless of course they see a way of making Iraq more "friendly", ie puppet...Not saying of course that Iraq will become a military check against Iran or that it won't become an Iranian puppet, just saying that if we can do something to prevent it we should...

 

[Grant]

What is this "influencing" power to refer to?

I put influencing in quotations, alluding to the governments we've established in Iraq and Afghanistan. They'd be nothing without us; they borderline on puppets.

What it all boils down to is that we (the United States) are calling the shots, so far we've kept them hamstrung... much like we did with Japan and Germany 60 years ago.

All I'm asking is if we're going to allow them to rebuild their AF as they desire, not necessarily how we want them to.

 

[Brett327]

I put influencing in quotations, alluding to the governments we've established in Iraq and Afghanistan. They'd be nothing without us; they borderline on puppets.

What it all boils down to is that we (the United States) are calling the shots,

Yeah, I don't know if too many people in the administration would agree with you on that one these days. The Maliki government isn't exactly marching in lock-step w/ the GOP and they ultimately have their own agenda independent of what the US wants.

Brett