News Item: "The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is moving to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government. The military aid, including advanced fighter jets and battle tanks, is meant to help the Iraqi government protect its borders and rebuild a military that before the 1992 Persian Gulf war was one of the largest in the world; it was disbanded in 2003 after the United States invasion." [New York Times, front page (December 29, 2011)]
With this infusion of hardware, the Iraqi military will be just as it was before the Iraq War. Just like it never happened. Right?
Whatever. In any event, the regular U.S. military is leaving Iraq (sort of) and winding down in Afghanistan (maybe), but our good old military-industrial complex keeps right on hummin’ along.
Aren't we the greatest!
