Ibanez wrote:You've never been in the military or been involved in military logistics. So allow me to explain something to you. From 2008-2011 I was tasked with helping several units with II MEF return to the United States. We were bringing a shit load of stuff home. However, due to some sales and agreements with the Iraqi Gov't, we gave them tons and tons of gear from copiers, scanners to HMMWVs. This is quite common. Ask any of the Marines here and i'm sure they can tell you the same thing. A lot of gear, to include vehicles, never make it back home.
Furthermore, the United States military isn't the sole owner/operator of HMMWVs. So, to suggest, as your post is, that they are driving in US provided HMMWVs is pure speculation.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/multimedi ... ipment.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This link shows you everything we gave/sold to the Iraqi gov't, which includes approx. 10,000 HMMWVs.
Ibanhammerez...you should probably quit while you're ahea...well, not behind.
Sure, the U.S. military leaves gobs and gobs of equipment all over the place...because the suppliers will say it is too costly to bring the stuff back, and, not coincidentally, the suppliers will say they have a more costly upgrade that needs to be purchased to replace the used stuff.
It is comical...except that it is out tax money (meaning our time and labor) being wasted.
If you seriously believe that we did not know that our equipment would end up in the rebels' hands, then I don't know what to tell you. You claim to be a historian, and you specialize in military conflicts, but you can't see the completely obvious things in front of you. Our military hardware is all over the world...in other people's hands. The Iraqi army was doomed to fail...and we knew it...when we allowed the majority Sunni's to reign hell over their Shia minority. Hell, we even spelled it out for everyone. Saddam's army was full of his buddies...and we knew they would not go quietly into the night. Heck, we even put them into positions of leadership because they were some of the only qualified people. The army, and government were fractured from the start. We trained their police...and those guys often just took their weapons back to their villages and signed up in their militias...after we trained them to fight.
And now we are surprised that the army simply fell back and gave a ton of equipment to a small rebel force...and suddenly that, "small" rebel force is 20,00-30,000 strong?
Saudi Arabia is funding, and supplying, the Syrian rebels...and providing assistance to their buddies in Iraq from the beginning. All they want is for Iran to be controlled...and we go along with that. There really is no doubt about any of that. Hell, Saudi Arabia admitted publicly to funding and supplying the Syrian rebels with arms from early on. Yeah...only the moderate rebels.
espandos is correct...we've wanted to destabilize Syria from the beginning. Obama even targeted Assad as the biggest, baddest target...ooops, before ISIS.
Pipeline, anyone?
This is one of the biggest con jobs in American history.
Can anyone here let everyone know what exactly the threat is from ISIS?
Bueller?
Seriously...anyone? I'm all ears.