Posted on 07/02/2014 12:29:19 AM PDT by Trapper6012
Russia may not have boots on the ground in Iraqyet. But it will have them in the sky; Russian pilots could be flying over Iraq within days. While the Obama administration struggles to speed up delivery of U.S. military assistance to the government of Iraq, Vladimir Putin has already delivered not only fighter jets but also the pilots needed to fly them, diplomatic sources told The Daily Beast.
On Monday, Russian television trumpeted the arrival of the first five of 12 promised Sukhoi Su-25 combat fighter jets to the Iraqi government, saying it had also sent trainers to help the Iraqis use them. Gen. Anwar Hama Ameen, the commander of the Iraqi Air Force, told The New York Times the fighter jets would enter the battle against ISIS within a few days, after which the Russian trainers would leave Iraq. He said Iraq had plenty of pilots with long experience flying the Su-25. The Russian ambassador to Iraq also said Russian pilots would not fly missions inside Iraq.
Perhaps. But diplomatic sources told The Daily Beast that Russian pilots will fly the planes due to a lack of Iraqi pilots with the proper training. Neither Russia nor Iraq as explained how the Iraqi air force could possibly have pilots trained and ready to fly the Russian fighters. The Su-25 planes were used in the Iraq-Iran war but have not been employed in Iraq since at least 2002, when Iraqs military was controlled by the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
this is great! I have long thought that we should team up with Russia and the Russian military and kick ass on Islam worldwide . This could be the beginning of that!
Forget about those whiners in Ukraine , they are Russians ethnically anyway . Their problem is they have gotten infected by Europitis .
To defeat radical fundamentalist islam is the foremost goal .
USA probably cannot do it alone , but in concert with Russia we can . Forget all the cold war BS . Team up !
We certainly teamed up with a much worse dictator in Stalin in WWII. Sure as hell we can find common cause with Putin.
No need for American boots on the ground.
Close air support with high speed fighter jets in open terrain like that would destroy the stupid ISIS savages.
In the cities where they are entrenched, WWII style indiscriminate bombing.
0bamao doesn’t have the guts to do it, but I venture Putin does.
Only one big problem with that, Obama, who does not want to defeat Islam.
we absolutely need new leadership
it exists within the ranks of the U.S. military
I’ll say this for Putin; he never misses an opportunity. The west has badly underestimated his ability.
The Su-25 ‘Frogfoot’ is a good little plane, btw. The design is similar (some might argue a little too similar) to the Northrup A-9 that lost out to the A-10 in testing trials). Like the A-10, it’s a tough, armored ground attack craft with a lot of bang for relatively little buck.
It’s also supposed to be very easy to maintain. During the Cold War, some versions supposedly had a compartment in the fuselage that held every maintenance tool needed to service the Frogfoot, making it easy to keep the plane running at remote airfields.
This is a fantasy that will never materialize. Putin is building his own little Islamic caliphate in Chechnya with the help of his buddy Kadyrov:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3162541/posts
The Iranians, in case people have forgotten, have Putin too who is helping them materially and politically in their quest for nuclear weapons.
Putin is no enemy of Islam. Well, maybe he, and the still living soviet structures in Russia, sees them as more of a very useful tool in their war against the West.
Unbelievable that Repubs are afraid to challenge Obama while European leaders dismiss him.
The foundations of World War III are now being laid out!
Don't worry America. I've got this.
Putin will not listen to wimp. Obama is toast now.
Amen.
Only the Obama administration could make things so FUBAR
Way to go Bronco Bama! You’ve taken the investment of blood and a crippling amount of treasure spent to usher IRAQ out of the dark ages and turned the spoils over to Russia, and all it’s costing them is a few airplanes.
Why don’t you just give up the ghost and abandon the whole damn place? Are you expecting to turn the palatial US Embassy complex in Baghdad into a summer Palace for your golfing vacations?
Iran, Syria and Iraq are teaming up with Russia- for now. Perhaps China, too.
This is not about Putin's fight against radical islam
It is about Putin securing a Russia's permanent security interests in the region. Which is not having muslim radicals in control of the oilfields and pipelines.
They are bad for business. Instability is bad for business.
what is obama’s national security policy and what permanent American strategic interests are being secured by this arrangement that our dumass State Department “doesn't oppose” and shrugs off as business-as-usual for Iraq?
(crickets)
There will come a time when Russia will team up with America against those muslims. But first there has to be a proper ‘team USA’. One that quits assisting Islamic grps as short term solution & starts to take back its leadership on the world stage. China & most of Southeast Asia, on the other hand, will be on the other side, muslims or not. We’ll see more of that in another decade.
So will the caliph now take Moscow?
LOL !
More reasons why the A-10 shouldn't be phased out imo.
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