| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| US watching Russian arms sales to Venezuela | |
| 2004-12-01 | |
| The United States is watching possible Venezuelan purchases of MiG fighter jets from Russia but doubts that such sales would destabilize Latin America, a senior US administration official said Tuesday. "Let me put it this way: We shoot down MiGs," the official, who spoke to reporters at a White House-organized briefing on condition he not be named, replied when asked whether Washington was worried about such sales. "It should be an issue of concern to the Venezuelan people. Millions of dollars are going to be spent on Russian weapons for ill-defined purposes," the official said. Prodded on the purpose of such purchase, the official replied: "My understanding is that they're looking to upgrade their fighter fleet, and they've decided that MiGs might be the fighter to purchase." White House national security spokesman Sean McCormack said Russian fighter jet sales to Russia "would be an issue we would monitor closely." Asked about the anonymous official's "shoot down" comment, McCormack winced and said "I would leave that part out." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed Friday, after a two-day visit to Russia, that Caracas would buy 40 military helicopters and an unspecified quantity of automatic weapons from Moscow. The Financial Times reported Monday that this was expected to be followed by Venezuela's acquisition of a fleet of the most advanced model of the MiG-29 fighter jet.
| |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 "Let me put it this way: We shoot down MiGs," Gotta love Rumsfeld. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-12-01 8:22:00 PM |
| #6 Whereas the infantrymen will probably FUBAR it and fail at their fleeing attempt ... |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2004-12-01 6:45:15 PM |
| #5 Think bombing the Presidential Palace, abode, hometown, :) The pilots can start it up and if it don't look good.... scram! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-12-01 5:52:33 PM |
| #4 Actually, an article on increased missile development by China compared to buildups in personnel (complete with cutbacks in army size) stated that whereas you can make an army look scary enough to hold down the population without them needing to be good, you need a higher level of competence to "fake it" with your air force. You can discount the loyalty of tens of thousands of infantrymen if they all suck compared to loyalist elites -- if your pilots sucked as bad, they'd crash 24/7. Missiles don't have loyalty issues ... |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2004-12-01 5:03:50 PM |
| #3 They always start the coup? I thought the whole point was that it was easier to vet the loyalty of a couple hundred pilots / knights-in-shining-migs than a couple tens of thousands of infantrymen. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-12-01 4:57:06 PM |
| #2 Not to worry, the Air Force always either: 1.) Start the coup B.) Can't fly |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-12-01 4:44:32 PM |
| #1 Emerging paranoid MSM Meme du Jour: The New Cold War |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-01 2:46:11 PM |