Anonymous
11/13/05 11:13 PM
|
There are quite a few old Iraqi aircraft scattered around the Al Taqqadum Airfield west of Baghdad. Here is a link showing a photo essay of a MiG-25R being excavated from beneath a sand dune where it and a dozen other fighters had been hidden:
http://www.defendamerica.mil/photoessays/aug2003/p080603b1.html
Interesting about this particular MiG-25R is that if post-dates the First Gulf War and was found with a treasure trove of current Soviet and French-made jamming technology, some never before seen in the west. Evidently this reconosence version of the Foxbat was procured despite the well known econcomic sanctions that were in effect at the time.
|
AKpilotEMT
11/15/05 09:33 AM
|
It's no secret that the economic sanctions against Iraq were but a mere nuissance for Hussein. High up officials from France and Russia and other nations made deals with Saddam & Co. to supply weapons materials and all sorts of items including a fleet of Mercedes Benz cars for Hussein's Baath Party chums. The only dealings that were supposed to go on were transactions within the Oil for Food Program to help out the people of Iraq as well as other transactions not having anything to do with banned items listed in the sanctions. Not only were deals made outside of the sanctions but the Baath Party kept much of what was given/sold to Iraq for themselves evidenced by UNICEF boxes of humanitarian supplies found in Hussein family residences and Iraqi schools turned into weapons storage depots. Hussein could very well have agreed to comply with the United Nations and have the sanctions lifted but instead he snubbed his nose at them and hurt and killed many people of his very own country. So since he didn't want to play nice with the world and have sanctions listed, he dealt outside of them as much as possible.
Why they buried their own fighter jets in the sand and not launch any air war is a mystery to me, though. Not like it would have mattered much... they'd have been next to no match for us.
|
