Pentagon: Lets Send $2 Billion of Weapons to Iraq

Jerry Robinson * FTM Daily

As if the Middle East is not already awash in U.S., Chinese, and Russian armaments, the military-industrial complex has sought Congressional permission to send another $2 billion in arms to war-torn Iraq.

FTMDaily.com – After years of American attempts to spread “peace and democracy” to Iraq through the barrel of a gun, it appears that the bloodshed in this war-wracked nation continues to increase. According to a recent report issued by the United Nations, over 1,000 Iraqis were killed in violence in the month of May alone. Not only is this the highest monthly death toll in years for the people of Iraq, but it also suggests that things within this oil-rich country are getting worse, not better.

Iraq is a broken country suffering from daily occurrences of car bombs, gun fights, and increasing oppression from the government’s growing dictatorship. Iraq’s current Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, heads the nation’s Shi’ite majority and has deep ties to the Iranian government. Maliki is yet another tyrant that has suppressed the media, murdered his opponents, and isolated the nation’s Sunni and Kurdish peoples. In addition to a mounting death toll, much of Iraq’s national infrastructure is in disarray.

The nation of Iran has longed desired to spread its Islamic idealism over the people of Iraq and the current instability appears to have played into Iran’s hands perfectly. Iran has become a primary exporter of electricity and natural gas to Iraq. In exchange, Maliki has opened his country to Iranian operatives who are using Iraqi airspace to deliver aid and comfort to Assad amidst the Syrian civil war.

And there are new worries that Iraq may be preparing to descend into a state of civil war. Just last month, reports of an Al Qaeda-led jailbreak from Abu Ghraib sent over 500 imprisoned jihadis on the loose in the country.

As the U.S. continues to finance and support anti-Assad forces in Syria, the U.S. has simultaneously condemned Maliki’s growing ties to Iran and its willingness to provide Iran with its airspace. 

Pentagon: Let’s Send More Weapons to Iraq

Not surprisingly, America’s military-industrial complex, which is headquartered in the Pentagon, has come up with a grand solution: To send another $2 billion in weapons to Iraq.

According to a new report from Wired:

Amid the most deadly month in Iraq in five years, the Pentagon notified Congress last week that it is nearing three deals with the government of Iraq worth nearly $2 billion that would provide military equipment, maintenance, training and general support.

With a $900 million price tag, the largest of the three Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) requests submitted to Congress would provide a package of 50 Stryker vehicles produced by General Dynamics, as well as additional equipment, parts, training and logistical support to provide the Iraqi Army with “reliable capabilities” for detecting “early warning of contamination by radiological, biological, and chemical material.”

So, once again, the military-industrial complex has strong-armed its way into sending more weapons into the most volatile region on earth. Will the U.S. ever learn from history?

America has been burned in situations like this before.

For example, consider Afghanistan.

Throughout the 1980′s, the U.S. covertly funded and supplied massive armaments to the Afghan mujahideen through Operation Cyclone. Through this U.S. taxpayer financed operation, the CIA stirred up the hornet’s nest within Pakistan and Afghanistan by seeking out the most radical “rebels” and arming them to the teeth with one hand and giving out Korans with the other to buy their trust.

These CIA-trained mercenaries, many of which would later form the Taliban, succeeded in stopping the Soviet invasion of the 1980′s. Also, one of these CIA-funded and trained “freedom fighters” was a man named Osama Bin Laden. He, along with a whole consort of radical Islamists would eventually turn the weapons given to them by the U.S. against America. 

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http://ftmdaily.com/global-issues/middle-east-crisis-global-issues/pentagon-lets-send-2-billion-in-weapons-to-iraq/