June 13,
2008: With some trepidation the U.S. is
selling Iraq 4,000 night vision goggles, similar to the ones used by American
troops. There was some resistance to this sale, by American combat commanders.
This was because the corruption within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense is pretty
bad. Any choice equipment the Defense Ministry gets, is basically for sale to
anyone (al Qaeda, Iran, warlords, gangsters) who are willing to pay enough.
Numerous attempts by the Iraqis to suppress these corrupt practices have
failed. However, the Iraqis have promised that the night vision goggles will
not go missing, at least not via the black market.
Meanwhile,
other U.S. commanders point out that lesser quality (but still adequate) night
vision goggles are available from many sources (Russia, for example), and some
terrorists have been found using these. But not many. The Russian goggles are
expensive, and most terrorists do not particularly care to use them. U.S.
troops, on the other hand, have long been big fans of night vision. Most of the
Iraqi goggles would be used by their commando and SWAT troops, who are more
trustworthy than the regular police and
soldiers.
So the
sale of the goggles to the Iraqis will go ahead, and we shall see what happens.
