The U.S. recently air-dropped arms and ammo to Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Kobane, Syria. This despite/because of the Turkish government’s refusal to allow land deliveries of arms to the Syrian Kurds, linked as they are with Turkey’s outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The air-drop riled the Turks to the point where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had to reassure Turkey that it was a one-off. While he was at it, Barack’s billionaire majordomo had to admit to the media that some of those arms will end up in the hands of people who want to see the U.S. destroyed. But it would have been “irresponsible of us, as well as morally very difficult, to turn our back on a community fighting ISIL.” Speaking of irresponsible . . .
you do know that ISIS is using captured U.S. weapons to defeat U.S. weapons we gave to the Iraqi Army? But not tanks, apparently.
Earlier this summer, businessinsider.com revealed that the Islamic terrorists/militants/extremists/caliphate cowboys were deploying Russian T-55 tanks in the field, complete with a 100mm rifled gun and a secondary 7.62-mm machine gun. Around the same time, veteranstoday.org reported that “the armour on five of Iraq’s M1A1 Abrams tanks was penetrated by anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).”
More specifically, the “indestructible” M1A1’s were falling prey to the Chinese HJ-8s (based on the U.S. BGM-71 TOW missile). That would be the same anti-tank missile the U.S.-supported Free Syrian Army‘s been using against the Syrian Arab Army since June 2013. [See: clip above.] Somehow, strangely, ISIS now has them in stock.
Oops! Sorry. More cohort confusion! Anyway, reuters.com now reports that
The U.S. government on Monday said it had approved the sale to Iraq of $600 million in tank ammunition manufactured by General Dynamics Corp (GD.N), saying it would help the Iraqi government establish an integrated ground defense capability.
Congress now has 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare since arms deals are usually vetted carefully before a congressional notification.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, notified lawmakers that the State Department had approved the sale of 10,000 M831 120m, high-explosive anti-tank munitions, 10,000 M865 120mm kinetic energy warheads and 26,000 other munitions, as well as logistics services.
None of which will end up in the hands of the bad guys. I mean, ISIS’s bad guys. OK, some of it might, but it would be irresponsible of us, as well as morally very difficult, to turn our back on a country fighting ISIS. Again. Still.