BESMAYA COMBAT TRAINING CENTER, Iraq — The Iraqi general grabbed the hull of America’s No. 1 battle tank and gave it a shake.
“It’s very hot,” said Gen. Mohan al-Furayji, the Iraqi defense minister’s top military adviser. “I’m afraid my soldiers won’t be able to operate behind these tanks.”
His concerns threatened to derail an arms deal worth as much $2.16 billion. That alarmed Brig. Gen. Charles Luckey, who, on this sweltering day in the desert, was a salesman of sorts.
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You could even say he is the U.S. military’s senior used-tank salesman. Luckey is the U.S. officer in charge of foreign military sales to Iraq. It’s his job to move the merchandise.
“For as little as $300 you can get a blast deflector to deal with the heat,” Luckey said.
“I might even throw them in for free for you,” he added, sweetening the deal.
Iraq is fast becoming one of the United States’ top customers for military sales. Since January 2007, Iraq has spent $3.1 billion on U.S. weapons. That number looks likely to grow exponentially as Iraq uses its vast unspent reserves of petrodollars to develop its army into a force capable of defending its borders against hostile neighbors.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:55 am
We own Iraq. Therefore, we are buying our own equipment from ourselves.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
This article goes to show what kind of a f*#ked up world this is.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Selling weapons to Iraq….hmmm…this happened once before with Saddam Husein….the bullshit never ends.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
History repeats itself yet again. Iran/Iraq War II.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Come on now guys the people of Iraq love us. They wouldn’t want to do anything to harm Americans. What reason would they have for that?
August 19th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
see how evil the Americans are they make money off war Jesus will come with his sword the Americans will be delt with …we will look back at America and say what were we thinking liberty is not freedom the goddess liberty is in hell with her sailors
August 19th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
The Iraq government aren’t puppets. The occupied always buy weapons off their attackers. What a joke it all is. We are pathetic for putting up with all this nonsense, and there is almost nothing going on in the world today that isn’t total nonsense. Are people really this stupid? I guess so! I’m starting to think the best thing to do is leave everyone to it. I can’t see any other way these fools will ever discover the error of their ways. Truth, Intelligence and reason certainly isn’t going to do it.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:28 am
imagine bandits rob your house then come back 2 days later and try to sell it back to you! jokes!
August 20th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Actually Iraq previously was a Communist client-state. We sold our weapons at that time to Iran for hostages despite the policy to never make deals with terrorists. Thank you for that one Ollie North.
My biggest issue with this is who is getting and making the money from this deal. If it is what I fear it’s more military-industrial complex profiteering. But don’t get all out of whack about this people, these things are barely minutes younger than another old proffession–whoring.