How the military industrial complex works.
 

(Reuters) – The Iraqi government is seeking to buy 36 advanced F-16 fighters from the U.S., American military officials familiar with the request told the Wall Street Journal.

This move could help Iraq reduce its reliance on U.S. air power and potentially allow more American forces to withdraw from the country than had been proposed.

The F-16, made by Lockheed Martin Corp, is the most sophisticated weapons system Iraq has attempted to purchase so far.

When, not if, Iraq is our enemy again this is gonna look as stupid as selling F-14s to Iran back in the day. On the upside, this will increase pressure to come up with better fighters for our side, keeping LM in high clover no matter who is in the White House. Nicely played.

Except the Chinese make all the semiconductors now, so any future fighter we make will be remote controllable by Chinese military as they wake up the sleeper controller in out fighters.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. We can occupy Iraq forever, or we can sell them weapons, so they can protect themselves from their enemies which just so happen to include us. But Bush and his oil company pals are sitting pretty, so who cares? As for our little red friends in communist China, we're probably going to have a war with them over oil somewhere down the road. But the stockholders in those semi-conducter companies are showing a profit, so who cares? I think we should just end the hypocrisy and turn our government over to the mega-corporations up front. :cool:

I am all for it. They owe us at least that much. We have no problem selling military equipment to any country. It is never sold with the most advanced techincal equipment to third world nations. Those closer to the heart can get the good stuff. I'm all for it.

How the military industrial complex works.
 

How it really works, is...
Congress approves the sale.
Iraq gets their fighters.
Lockheed Martin makes money.
Lockheed's lobbyists reward the politicians.

Oh, btw... our taxes actually pay for it, as an "aid" package. :mad:

hey look Israel did it too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/wo...06mideast.html

xoB:

Are you affected by the local Boeing / Union strike vote?

No, our contract has another year to go.