Overstretched US cuts aid to Israel

[xiinfaniin]

Overstretched US cuts aid to Israel

By Damien McElroy and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem

Last Updated: 2:15am BST 10/08/2007

 

 

America has been forced to withhold funding from its key ally in the Middle East amid the strain of paying for its expensive military campaign in Iraq.

 

 

Washington had promised Israel a substantial increase in its financial support to bolster it against Iran.

 

But US officials decided to amend their pledge because of escalating costs, including the need to spend $750 million (£375 million) to fly thousands of armoured troop carriers to Iraq to protect troops against Iranian-made roadside bombs.

 

The Pentagon has come under intense pressure to speed up deployment of the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP), which boasts a V-shaped hull and a raised chassis and is proven to withstand a range of explosive projectiles common in Iraq.

 

The army has ordered 8,000 MRAP vehicles at a cost of $12 billion. But a request by the Pentagon for an emergency transport budget illustrates the increasing danger faced by troops on the ground.

 

advertisementOfficials said extra funds would be used to get 3,400 MRAPs to Iraq by the end of the year.

 

The diversion of funds has caused a budget shortfall in Israel that forced Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, to convene an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday.

 

Officials discussed ways of dealing with the £250 million deficit in next year's budget, which Israeli commentators said would result in austerity measures.

 

More worryingly for Israel, there are fears the shortfall will have a significant impact on the ability of the country to defend itself as military training and procurement are cut back.

 

The tension over the delayed American money has tarnished relations between the two countries, which were boosted only last week when Israel confirmed it would enjoy a surge in American defence aid of 25 per cent over the next 10 years.

 

US forces claimed yesterday to have killed 32 suspected Shia terrorists and taken 12 prisoner in an operation involving air strikes on Baghdad's Sadr City district.

 

They said the militia members killed belonged to a group accused of smuggling weapons and facilitating attacks on Americans. However, regional satellite television channels claimed that women and children, not fighters, were killed in the raid.

 

America is under tremendous pressure to clamp down on Iran's allies in Iraq. Lt General Raymond Odierno, the US operations commander in Iraq, said Iran-backed attacks rose to 99 last month in response to American efforts to clamp down on Shia militias.

 

The pressure American forces are under in Iraq was further illustrated when they released photographs of insurgents setting up a battery of 49 rockets aimed at a US base outside Baghdad. One serviceman was killed and 15 others injured in the attack that followed.

 

United Nations staff yesterday unanimously voted against an expanded UN presence in Iraq. Their protest came a day before the Security Council is due to agree a resolution broadening UN involvement in the country.

 

The UN scaled back its operations after the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters in 2003 killed its envoy and 21 other staff. The organisation's staff association said it could not put up with "the unacceptably high level of risk to the safety and security of UN personnel".

 

Source:.telegraph.co.uk

[Fabregas]

The Talmudists will get their money somehow, believe me!

[xiinfaniin]

^^I would agree. This time though Iraq got in the way in a very ironic way...

[Fabregas]

Iraq is their war. They had their eyes on Iraq since the 80s. Sadly American taxpayer and poor young Black, Latino and white males have payed the price for their disastrous war. Not to mention the suffering of the poor Iraqis. All this talk of witholding money is designed to make it seem like a war fought in the interests in America, which it never was.

 

 

quote.Lebanon's total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precendent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula and is already following that track. The dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unqiue areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel's primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short term target

 

quote: Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization.15

 

from

 

Oded Yinon's

 

"A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties"

 

 

Published by the

Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc.

Belmont, Massachusetts, 1982

Special Document No. 1

(ISBN 0-937694-56-8)

[xiinfaniin]

^^That neo-conservatives in Washington promoted this war in the interest of Israel is not a moot point here yaa camel boy--they did that, and very successful at it they were. Their strategic objective was to destroy Iraq and take it back in time for at least few decades. The Jeffersonian democracy talk, which we have been accustomed hearing from the media, has always been a ploy to intellectualize their hidden and evil intent. So lets agree on that adeer. That’s to say the project of vandalizing Iraq and destroying the livelihood of its people has been superbly done.

 

Now what’s ironic is how Iraq turned out. For one, the utter destruction of Iraq exposed inherent intuitional anomalies in the American empire. America though vast and great in many ways is utterly ill equipped to play the role of world’s supper power. From budgetary and fiscal issues, stressed fighting forces, not to mention emboldened legislative bodies, the boys on the top of this current admin are getting the heat from different directions, and with that, the would-be American empire is being ambushed from within. When pushed against the wall, survival is the only thing in their mind, and naturally, fending for own self seems the preferred strategy to get on to minimize its loses in Washington. And there comes in my second point; Iraq ironically is beginning to hurt both politically and economically those whom the war was originally designed to benefit, i.e. Israel. I trust your intelligence to complete that statement and say, the war in Iraq empowered some of the entities that the architects of the war sought to weaken, i.e. Iran. So Israel is about to feel the heat. And as Buchanan many times wrote in his essays the only way to deflect that heat is to start another, larger war with Iran. The rational of such a move would be to broaden the horizon of war theatre so the constant talk about Iraq and the obsession of media with it is significantly diminished. It remains to be seen when such a move is initiated whether it would it have adverse, again, on the parties it was designed to benefit.

 

Now what this article sheds light on is how serious fiscal constrains are in Washington. If you did not notice already the irony of the Iraq war as this piece reports, particularly as it regards to Israel, you need to take your xabatu sawdaa adeer …