I noticed you cut off the part about friendship and loyalty. Since I was talking about the oil for food program......but that is ok, we can talk about real French made new weapons discovered in Iraq that were not suppose to be there because of the embargo. Unlike the French it does not look like we sold weapons to a country that was under a UN embargo.
Most of the weapons we sell to countries like these are a stripped down version easily taken out (we had also sold Iraq weapons before the 1st Gulf war just like you so they could defend themselves against Iran who was receiving Russian weapons of equal value(remember a little thing called the cold war?), they kept Iran from defeating them but were of no help when the world came knocking). The AWACS is obvious why it was sold nor was it completely up to date if I remember. The Egypt tanks while making Egypt feel powerful does not help them very much against Israel(we are not about to put Israel at risk) nor are they going to be a threat to Europe or America. Look at how fast Saddam's were taken out. Same with helicopters in China, which I am sure did not come with all of the up to date technology. As for F-16's to Pakistan, how many of Saddam's planes got off the ground? The Planes we sold to Canada could not even communicate properly with us the last time we did a mission together.
When we start supplying a country with weapons and taking money from them during a world embargo under the guise of oil for food program that was set up to help the Iraqi people not enrich wealthy counties,we will talk, especially if we also look down our noses at you and do our dammed best to stop you trying to take out the dictator, free a people and defend the world and your own country from a perceived threat that all have agreed on is there, after 3,000 of your citizens in France have been murdered for just going to work. Just so that we can hide our activities from the world or perhaps keep the situation as it is so that our leaders can keep that pile of money building up or maybe we did not want your influence in the middle east because we had prepositioned ourselves to have great influence over the 2nd or 3rd largest producer of oil because we positioned ourselves to be their best friend during their time of crisis, because we are of course setting ourselves up to be the next superpower and we for some reason can not do that and be your still be your friend.
I am sorry if this is harsh, but what has been done by France to us is harsh and despite what is written in the European press about Americans, we are not stupid, and yes we do read those articles. Are we just to forget it and buy French products and pretend you have been our friend when your leaders stab us in the back and deride our president at every opportunity??? Or do we buy Austrailian wines and thank a true friend?
This is not a personal attack from me to you, but from me to your leaders and what they have done and said about everything we do.
1) Let's talk friendship and loyalty, then, Madam. In the 20th century alone, French soldiers either fought or were deployed alongisde US troops in the following occasions :
- World War 1
- World War 2
- Korean War
- Lebanon, 1983
- Iraq, 1990-1991
- Somalia, 1993
- ex-Yugoslavia, 1995-1999
- Afghanistan, 2001
- Haiti, 2003
So all in all I don't think we have many lessons to be taught in terms of LOYALTY and FRIENDSHIP here, Madam. I really don't. Did US troops fight with French soldiers against Algerian rebels, even when those rebels used terror bombings against France civilians ? No, I don't think so, and IIRC the USA were busy looking for a UN condemnation of French operations then, what a coincidence.
2) French weapons supposedly discovered in Iraq and that would have been sold under the embargo : please provide a link to that, and please not just an excerpt from Bill Gertz's book or that Roland missile non-story that was killed as a mistake on this here forum.
30 US weapons sales to Arab nations : oh, the weapons were not totally up to date so it's okay ? And arming Egypt or Pakistan - countries which are just a coup away from becoming an radical Islamist state with 800 modern M1A1 tanks or F-16s isn't a problem ? Respectfully, Madam, I don't think either Israel or India would agree with you.