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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsex-Iraqi military training ISIL pilots
Its unclear how many Iraqi pilots have defected.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/17/ex-iraqi-pilots-training-isis-fighters-to-fly-captured-planes-in-syria-rights/
Looks like the folks we trained are teaching our new enemies how to fly the planes we bought.
When can we leave?
EDIT: here's a link that's not Fauxnews: http://ww2.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/17/saddam-husseins-former-pilots-training-isis-how-to-fly-three-captured-mig-fighter-jets-witnesses-say
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)for Assad and the Kurds to pick up and fight them with.
atreides1
(16,046 posts)But, it's from FauxNews...and we all know how they tend to play with the facts!
underpants
(182,273 posts)Yeah that's got "stink on rye bread" written all over it.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)"The United Kingdom-based SOHR is run out of a two-bedroom terraced home in Coventry by one person, Rami Abdulrahman, a Syrian Sunni Muslim who also runs a clothes shop".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Observatory_for_Human_Rights
underpants
(182,273 posts)underpants
(182,273 posts)In the war against Iran (with our aircraft and our training from The Shah era) the Iraqi airforce routinely got wiped out of the sky.
When we invaded we found a lot of Iraqi fighter jets buried. Not to hide them, Saddam saw how bad his airforce was and basically scrapped it.
With all that Saudi oil money finding them ISIS should be able to buy better training than that. Oh it's Fox News now I understand the point of this article.
JPZenger
(6,819 posts)That would be the most dangerous job in the world - flying 30 year old planes for ISIS. They would be an obvious target for US missiles.
In response to a comment above, I don't believe the US provided any jets to Iraq. These jets were from Syria. I had read that the US mainly bought Russian helicopters for the Iraqi army, because they didn't think the Iraqi Army could adequately maintain US-made helicopters, which are more complex.
* if you were referring to my post - I meant that the Iranians had our planes and our training not the Iraqis. We sold the Iraqis WMD back then not airplanes.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)Only viable targets would be in undefended airspace in Syria.
I'm pretty sure we have AWACS capability over the region to coordinate any response needed over our allies in the area.