Posted on 10/04/2007 6:36:08 PM PDT by blam
Row over Iraq's arms deal with China
By Ben Martin
Last Updated: 2:09am BST 05/10/2007
The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates yesterday said America should speed up its re-armament of Iraq, after revelations that Baghdad had ordered £50 million of weaponry from China.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates fears the Chinese weapons may fall into the wrong hands
Responding to claims by the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, that the US was unable to provide the weaponry and was too slow to deliver arms shipments, Mr Gates admitted he shared the fears of military analysts who warned that Chinese weapons could fall into the hands of insurgents.
"This is an issue that we have to look into and see what we can do to be more responsive and react more quickly to the requests of our friends," Mr Gates said.
"Unfortunately, the [foreign military sales] programme was set up in a way that was not intended to provide emergency or short-term supplies." The deal with China, which will provide light military equipment to arm Iraq's police force, was previously secret and alarmed analysts who said Iraq was already unable to account for more than 190,000 weapons supplied by the US.
Iraq's police force is notorious for being infiltrated by militia, and Rachel Stohl, from the Centre for Defence Information, an independent think tank, said it would be harder for US forces in Iraq to keep track of weapons from countries other than America.
• An investigating officer has recommended that no murder charges be brought against the US Marine accused of leading a massacre of 24 civilians in Haditha in Nov 2005. A lawyer for Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich, who admits shooting civilians in response to attacks on his men, said the recommendation was for lesser charges.
No worry. The lead paint on the Red Chinese weapons will kill the insurgents slowly but surely. It’s all part of the plan don’t ya know?
What's the problem? Are these weapons superior to our weapons that our Iraqi friends supply to the insurgents?
Since Iran has Chinese and Russian weapons, maybe they just wanna keep up with their neighbours.
/sarc
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