Re: GPS

--- Derk Groeneveld <derk@cistron.nl> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, 4 Sep 2002, John Hamill wrote:
> 
> > Or, the simple fact that undoubtedly the systems
> will
> > be sold to parties that should NEVER have access
> to
> > precision information like that. Like Iraq, Iran,
> or
> > some of the other places of "enlightenment" in the
> > world. Giving potential enemies a leg up is a
> > traditional thing for some of the European nations
> to
> > do.
> 
> *snort* *chortle*
> 
> Who supplied the Taliban before they became enemy?

If you mean in the 80's when the Mujahadin were
fighting the Soviets, that would be true. However, the
Taliban as they existed were not being supplied by
ther US, on the contrary, their enemies were getting
some (very) low level assistance from the US. The
Taliban got much of its money from very conservative
Muslims accross the world, including the Saudi's.
Indeed much of the religious training that "inspired"
the Taliban came from Wahib religious schools, set up
by the Saudis. Plus the fact is that ALL of the
Taliban's equipment is either Soviet, European, or
Asian in manufacture,no Ford pickups, M-16's or M2HB
on the streets of Kabul, just your average AK's, Fal's
and Toyotas.

> Who supplied Iran befor they became enemy?

That point is given, before the Shah fell, the US
supplied him with lots of weapons and equipment.
However, just where did the Ayatollah Khomeni reside
in exile? Where did he plan the coup, organize his
backing, and finally overthrow the Shah? Why, France,
of course. Without the tacit acceptance of the French
and others in Europe, he wouldn't have been as much of
a problem.
 
> Who supplied Iraq when they were the enemy of Iran?

As I recall, even during the time that Iraq was
fighting with Iran, the vast majority of the weapons
systems used by Iraq were either Soviet or European,
with the Soviet equipment ahead by a wide margin. And
as far as supplying Saddam with "toys" wasn't it a
French nuclear plant the the Israeli's bombed? And I
think it was German and French companies who built his
chemical plants, right? And his bunkers, they were
built by a German company weren't they? (The only good
part about this was that, being Germans, they kept
very good records of plans and locations of the
bunkers, which helped when it was time to take them
out) 
> 
> In all cases the US is amongst the list.

On the list but, with the exception of pre-Ayatollah
Iran, not even near the top of the list. It annoys and
amuses me that post WWII Europe plays this game of
running around the world, buying and selling with
various shady types, then pointing fingers at either
the US or Russia when things go bad, like they never
had anything to do with it.
> 
> Anyway, this doesn't belong on this list, but I
> could not let this go
> unanswered.

The modern discussion may not, but I imagine the same
types of things go on between ostensible allies like
the ESU and FSE, or the NAC and NSL, where the
economic concerns of the one do various snarky things
the the foreign policy of the other. It would be
interesting to see how much cooperation there really
exists between erstwhile allies such as the ESU and
FSE. 
> Cheers,
> 
>    Derk

As always YMMV,
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

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