I've reported recently on the Obama Administration's instituting what amounts to a de facto arms embargo on Israel.
Well, there's a small bit of good news. The US is selling Israel three Hercules military cargo planes, in a deal worth about $210 million, which is chicken feed by the standards of arms deals.
It's also worth noting that these are unarmed cargo planes not weapons, and represent the first 'arms' sale at this level to Israel since Obama took over. As I've informed you before, one of the first things the Obama Administration did once they got in was to effectively cut Israel's aid by radically changing the Pentagon's rules as to how the IDF can use the money and what it can spend it on, so a lot of that money has simply been sitting. This is a way of using up Israel's military aid that has to be spent in America anyway without selling Israel actual weaponry.
But it's still a small glimmer of good news.
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2 comments:
Expect the "Left" and the news media to go bonkers with hysteria over the selling of even this system to Israel. If the American government waw being this heavy handed with regards to any one but Israel, the media would go bonkers with hysteria over the actions of the "evil imperialist American government" or something to this effect.
The thinking would be how dare the United States ever think of trying to dictate terms to a foreign government. This line of reasoning actually sells quite well to the American populace. After all we do have an anti-imperial, isolationist strain that runs through our citizenry. So if its not okay for us to dictate terms to foreign countries why should Israel be an exception? At best this is inconsistentcy on the part of our media, it is likely at least hypocrissy, and at worst it is down right evil on the part of the news media.
I think if most Americans were aware of how Israel is being treated they would be outraged at the behavior of our government. Afer all we do have an anti-imperialism streak and Israel has been largely friendly to us over the years.
I'm sure Israel has the technical expertise to manufacture this stuff or something simillar. Building the manufacturing plants might take some time though, if they don't have such plants already. Hopefully they would have something in the way of manufacturing facilities that could be converted to the manufacture of this type of plane.
Doesn't Israel have good relations with India. Don't they do military trades with India? Hopefully they can buy something like this from India. In any event the American systems are generally inferior to what Russia, China, and probablly India put out. Given the fact that the weapons systems that Israel will likely face on the battlefield are going to be of Russian or Chinese orgin or at the very least the people who built them had Russian assistance in perfecting the systems they will use against Israel. Unless one is desparate, I can't imagine why one would want inferior American technology when superior technology can be purchased from Russia, China, or even Arab countries who have become militarily self-sufficient in the building of military systems, with initial help from the Russians, the Chinese, or both.
For Israel, at this time, buying systems from Russia or China may not be an option. Perhaps India may be a viable option. There is no doubt that an Indian version of the same type of plane would be superior than the American version. After all, American companies are increasingly dependent upon the expertise provided by Indian labor to carry out their objectives.
At the very least, Israel should either work on getting the facilities in place to manufacture these types of planes or work on converting existing facilities. A completely militarily self-sufficient Israel is in America's best interest.
Finally, in any attack on Iranian nuclear facilties, the hardest part of the mission will be getting past the Iranian air defense systems and the Iranian Air Force. Assuming the Americans wished to undermine Israeil efforts, getting past Iraqi air defenses will be easy compared to getting past the Iranian ones.
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