Obama's Quiet Gift to Iraq: Hellfire Missiles and Surveillance Drones

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/26-0


People stand among debris at the site of a bomb attack at a marketplace in Baghdad's Doura District December 25, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Ahmed Malik)

The U.S. is quietly shipping hellfire missiles and surveillance drones to war-torn Iraq in an alleged bid to help the government fight the country's Al Qaeda affiliate.

The shipments, revealed in a New York Times report released Wednesday, follow early November requests from Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the Obama administration for an influx of weapons and spying technology.

According to The New York Times, Iraq bought 75 Hellfire missiles, which were delivered last week. "The weapons are strapped beneath the wings of small Cessna turboprop planes, and fired at militant camps with the C.I.A. secretly providing targeting assistance," the report states.

Ten surveillance drones will likely be sent to Iraq by March.

"American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say they have effectively mapped the locations and origins of the Qaeda network in Iraq and are sharing this information with the Iraqis," reads the report.

[judy]

1. Wow...I feel sick

thinking that I am paying for this...
Obama sounds like an intelligent guy, but maybe he is not.
Whatever told him that killing people stops terrorism or insurgents?
When was that ever the case?
Or do corporations that make missiles and drones really run the country and make sure that the US Government continues to buy them (targets can be found later)?

Any drone killing probably engenders 10 more future terrorist who swears that they will do anything to harm the U.S in any way they can. That's a no brainer...
It's like a game of whack-a-mole, when every time you hit one with the mallet, 3 of them pop up at a time. Not to mention the families killed in the same hit.

Sick and stupid..

[randome]

2. Because letting them suicide-bomb each other to oblivion is so much more moral.

Yes, we broke Iraq. Pointlessly. But to stand by and do nothing when our help is requested? I don't see the issue.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[Pretzel_Warrior]

3. Don't mess with these people's nice and tidy hypothetical

"best case" world full of moral absolutes. It will hurt their feelings.

[RC]

4. If we would have stayed out of there in the first place, none of this would be happening.

I wonder how long it will be after we leave Afghanistan we will be supplying high tech war toys to some group there too?