Your tax dollars at work - buying arms from Russia for Afghanistan

[Malone LaVeigh]

This is almost as strange as Saddam selling oil to the US right before the invasion.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0522-02.htm

Published on Monday, May 22, 2006 by the Telegraph / UK
US Sets up £215m Deal for Afghan Arms - from Russia
by Thomas Harding

American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements.

The Bush administration is said to want the deal because of worries that the next president could be a Democrat, possibly Hillary Clinton, who may abandon Afghanistan.

White House insiders fear that Afghanistan could "drift" and consequently, they want heavily to arm President Hamid Kharzai's government before the 2008 US presidential election.

Diplomatic sources also believe that the US may be offering the estimated $400 million (£215 million) deal, including transport costs, to the Russians as an inducement to embargo its arms and nuclear technology exports to Iran.

Defence specialists said Russian arms chiefs at first "fell about laughing" because they thought the order was a joke when it arrived this month.

But with the Americans said to be pressing for a price and earliest delivery date, the request is being rapidly processed and exports could begin before the end of this year.

<SNIP>

 

[Seminole]

Well, at least now we have a reason for the unavailability of 7.62x39.

 

[2TransAms]

White House insiders fear that Afghanistan could "drift" and consequently, they want heavily to arm President Hamid Kharzai's government

That makes no sense to me. If a future President pulls out of there,why does Bush care what will happen? Because he knows he may take the blame if something bad happens? Does he want the Afghans to take over where we left off? I think that money could be much better spent elsewhere,like say,our troops.

From the article:

A senior British officer said: "The point of getting Afghanistan up and running is so they can take on their own operations.

"This deal makes sense if we are going to hand over military control to them."

Well I'm not there,so I wouldn't know.I know the Afghans are kind of our allies,but that's a lot of cool stuff if Pakistan or the Taliban gets ahold of it.

 

[crazed_ss]

Well, at least now we have a reason for the unavailability of 7.62x39.

Wal-Mart has WWB 7.62x39 for like 17 bucks for a box of 40

 

[Preacherman]

Actually, this makes sense, for a number of reasons.

Afghanistan is largely equipped with Russian-designed weaponry, and the US doesn't produce ammo or spare parts for it. To buy them from Russia makes sense.

The Russians are probably way cheaper than any other nation on a deal this size. Not only are their costs in rubles, which gets a good exchange rate to the dollar for the purchaser, but they're likely to deliberately low-ball their bid in order to get the business and keep their factories running. This way, Afghanistan gets good prices. (If the Russians didn't co-operate, there are Eastern European nations who would gladly take the business - not to mention the Chinese!)

And finally, with the stockpiles in place, if there does come a time when the US or NATO presence is reduced, the local armed forces are well-positioned to take over.

Not a bad deal all round, I'd say.

 

[CAnnoneer]

Who wants to bet that that ammunition would be fired at Americans one day?

Our dumbass gov never ever learns... Imperial hubris.

 

[El Tejon]

This makes a lot of sense.

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

Well, here's the (predictable) result of another idea that made a lot of sense. I was surprised I never saw anything about this around here when it came out. It's certainly gun related. I guess somehow the "liberal anti-Bush" MSM missed this one...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0512-01.htm

Published on Friday, May 12, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
US in Secret Gun Deal
Small arms shipped from Bosnia to Iraq 'go missing' as Pentagon uses dealers
by Ian Traynor

The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.

According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient.

Senior western officials in the Balkans fear that some of the guns may have fallen into the wrong hands.

 

[El Tejon]

Malone, yes, that wonderful news was posted on THR a while back.

 

[Thin Black Line]

The Russians are probably way cheaper than any other nation on a deal this size. Not only are their costs in rubles, which gets a good exchange rate to the dollar for the purchaser, but they're likely to deliberately low-ball their bid in order to get the business and keep their factories running. This way, Afghanistan gets good prices. (If the Russians didn't co-operate, there are Eastern European nations who would gladly take the business - not to mention the Chinese!)

+1.

And as far as the big picture goes, this helps the continued consolidation
of Russia with the European Union and the North American Union (aka
Canada, US, and Mexico) as part of the Northern Empire.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Who wants to bet that that ammunition would be fired at Americans one day?

Our dumbass gov never ever learns... Imperial hubris.

I wouldn't touch that bet. You can virtually guarantee it's going to happen, because that's simply too much materiel' for it NOT to happen. Even if the current government hangs in there and remains friendly towards us, it's a VERY poor country and there aren't enough honest guards to keep that much ammo in the armories and out of the black market.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Published on Monday, May 22, 2006 by the Telegraph / UK

That's the point at which I have to assume everything that follows is a lie.

 

[wingnutx]

We want the new govt to survive in our absence.

Makes sense to me.

 

[seeker_two]

The Afghans have a long history with weapons provided to them by the Russians....

Seriously, why spend the money & effort to retrain the Afghans on US or Euro systems when they already know the Russian equipment and can get it on the cheap?

Too bad we can't get together a group buy like that....

 

[c_yeager]

So you would rather the U.S. spend massive quantities of money tooling up to make RPGs and ammunition for Russian made tanks, just so we cant make a deal with a nation to supply a prospective ally? Does that really make sense?

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

That's the point at which I have to assume everything that follows is a lie.

Alternatively, you can close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears, and yell LALALALALALALALA at the top of your lungs.