- #1
Skyhunter
At least our troops have equipment. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313538.ece is what the poor Iraqi's get.
Other links
http://proxy.unitedemailsystems.com/cgi-bin/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl/000101A/http/www.f28.parsimony.net/forum68059/messages/362.htm
http://www.mediavillage.net/test/mo...=article&sid=1099&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Most of the money was supposedly spent buying arms from Poland and Pakistan. The contracts were peculiar in four ways. According to Mr Allawi, they were awarded without bidding, and were signed with a Baghdad-based company, and not directly with the foreign supplier. The money was paid up front, and, surprisingly for Iraq, it was paid at great speed out of the ministry's account with the Central Bank. Military equipment purchased in Poland included 28-year-old Soviet-made helicopters. The manufacturers said they should have been scrapped after 25 years of service. Armoured cars purchased by Iraq turned out to be so poorly made that even a bullet from an elderly AK-47 machine-gun could penetrate their armour. A shipment of the latest MP5 American machine-guns, at a cost of $3,500 (£1,900) each, consisted in reality of Egyptian copies worth only $200 a gun. Other armoured cars leaked so much oil that they had to be abandoned. A deal was struck to buy 7.62mm machine-gun bullets for 16 cents each, although they should have cost between 4 and 6 cents.
Many Iraqi soldiers and police have died because they were not properly equipped. In Baghdad they often ride in civilian pick-up trucks vulnerable to gunfire, rocket- propelled grenades or roadside bombs. For months even men defusing bombs had no protection against blast because they worked without bullet-proof vests. These were often promised but never turned up.
Other links
http://proxy.unitedemailsystems.com/cgi-bin/cgiproxy/nph-proxy.pl/000101A/http/www.f28.parsimony.net/forum68059/messages/362.htm
http://www.mediavillage.net/test/mo...=article&sid=1099&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
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