No, I don't think it's such a great idea. We really shouldn't be selling military hardware to countries who aren't very staunch allies. And even with those I'd hesitate to sell them our best stuff.
To be fair, their military operates autonomously of the gov't. They have seperate leadership chains. I still disagree with giving them the birds. Just sayin.
Fuel pumps are simple things. It would be hard to hide a switch or anything in that system. Better to embed it in the fly-by-wire system. That way there would be a plausible reason to have a wire linking it somewhere to the outside (to connect an antenna). The F-16 is an entirely fly-by-wire jet, no mechanical linkages, so you could have it disable that system and the plane drops out of the sky. It's what they call "negative stability," which makes the plane more maneuverable because it doesn't have to overcome it's own stability in order to move. But this requires a quadplex system to make thousands of computer controlled corrections per second. To demonstrate, grab a piece of paper and pull it through the air; it will follow behind you in a relatively flat line. Now, try to "push" the paper through the air from the back, and see what happens.
I wouldn't give Israel the code though. They could easily disable any jets within their range, or hell, any jet on any ramp anywhere if they smuggled a radio in. It would look like "an accident."
Oh yeah, I agree with you. Just pointing it out for those that didn't know that.I know they don't agree. I think the military wanted to hold on to power partly because Morsi was all ready to attack Israel immediately. An obvious stupid move. Luckily, the military nixed that idea. But who's to say the current military leadership will stay in power. Someone might have an "accident." So yeah, lets hold onto the birds for now and see how things play out.
What do you think?
“Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them," he said. "They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.”
Read more: U.S. gift of F-16 fighters headed to Egypt, despite Morsi's harsh rhetoric | Fox News
We should continue to fulfill our end of agreements to which we have already committed. But we should certainly be more cautious about making any such arrangements in the future.
Screw that, they are not keeping their end of the agreement why should we?
What have they done that implies that they "are not keeping their end of the agreement"?
Do you ever watch the news?
Screw that, they are not keeping their end of the agreement why should we?
What conditions of the agreement have they violated? I have no idea what the conditions were in this particular case, I'm guessing you don't either.
Look, NP. It's like this. You can't take a loan out from a bank, and then later decide you're not going to make payments any more just because you don't like the bank's policies. If the US government made an agreement, we need to honor that agreement.
It's important that the United States of America keeps its reputation of standing by its word, don't you think?
It's more like Egypt requesting a loan from the bank, and before the bank actually gives the money out, Egypt makes it clear the money is intended for use against the interests of the bank (USA). If we don't give them the F-16s, then they don't owe us the money for the sale. "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone," is a well understood concept. It should be employed here, just as is possible in any other business arrangement.
I could care less who they are we should not sell or give our weapons to any country.Allies can turn into enemies and they could use those against our own troops and civilians.
no. we should be sending food and medicine. that should be our new foreign policy.
The US sends more food and medicine around the world, in aid, than any other country. And no one is stopping you personally, be the change.
i try to spread peace and kindness where i can.
Ok but expecting the government to take care of things when you don't personally, and ignoring that the US is doing so better than any country in the world, is kinda meh. It's a hollow objection.
And it's not like we can magically turn those f16s, and the R&D that went into them, into food.
it's my opinion that military interventionism has passed the point of diminishing returns, and that our next global mission should be humanitarian.
Actually, no it is not. International trade agreements don't operate like 7-Elevens. When you sign a contract, you cannot simply terminate that contract however you want - you can only terminate the contract under terms specified in the contract. Ever rented an apartment before? You can't just move out and stop paying rent. You are bound by the terms of the contract to pay rent until the end of the time period specified.
No one here is privy to the terms under which we are delivering F-16s to the Egyptians. Likely, it's not simple matter of saying "we don't want to give you F-16s anymore because we don't feel like it".
Destroying our reputation by not abiding to terms of agreements we make would be very damaging to us - equivalent to ****ing your credit score by not paying back your loans - no one will want to sign future agreements with you anymore if they don't trust you to hold up your end of the bargain.
Not selling outdated military equipment is economic and political suicide.
Ok but expecting the government to take care of things when you don't personally, and ignoring that the US is doing so better than any country in the world, is kinda meh. It's a hollow objection.
And it's not like we can magically turn those f16s, and the R&D that went into them, into food. Egypt is free to sell them, to approved countries, and buy food. Why is it our bad?
or, use them to put down that pesky uprising against a totalitarian regime. Once we give them to our buddy, Hosni, he can do whatever he wants with them.
Stripped of context, no consideration for how things coulda gone worse, no history or priorities, no consideration that things have changed... yeah... typical Che-t-shirt level analysis. USA baaaaaad.
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