Another US copter down

just hearing about another us helicopter shot down, the insurgents seem to be getting better at it, I read a reuters report in which the Iraq Baath party boasted they scored some sophesticated sa-18 shoulder launched missiles from Hungary ; if this is true it underscores 1 very important point: that the US is not fighting AlQueda in Iraq because instead of using the missiles to shoot down US airliners in Europe, they smuggled these sophesticated weapons to Iraq to fight occupation.

Well it seems that now "Other Nations" will just have to join the Axis of evil list.

Hungary you said . . . Now we see that the money to be made in illegal arms dealings or no so illegal is very profitable.

I guess no everybody cares who this weapons will be targeting after all is all about making money.

Do you have a link please, this may be interesting news to debate.

a link to what?


>this may be interesting news to debate.

Heres an updated link on this, news.sky.com...

They are saying that the last 4 that went down all appeared to have been shot down,

Originally posted by corruptioninvestigator
a link to what?


>this may be interesting news to debate.

Well the issue of US helicopters been shut down and so many in a small amount of time is very debatable. . . but before we can claim that is from one particular made weapons or from one particular country we need more news on that for confirmation . . .

That is why we need links like Asala posted for references and not wild speculation.

Oh right; well I remember reading about 2 weeks ago on the yahoo news page either an AP or Reuters entry where it said that an Iraqi Baath party spokesman had boasted that the insugency had aquired advanced sa-18 missiles from Hungary and they would soon start 'surprising' the Americans with their new weapons. It was not clear how (appox.) many of these weapons had been obtained or how reliable the information was. maybe someone can find a thread with that thing i read on it.

My understanding of these shoulder launched weapons is:
The SA-7 missile is widely and easily available in the black market, the insurgents in iraq have thousands of them. although heat-seeking, it is a rudementary devise that is pretty much always countered by the counter-measures that US/British helicopters and big cargo planes employ.

The SA-16 and SA-18 missiles are an advanced versions of the shoulder launched missile that is more similar to the american stinger missile. these missiles are made in russia and cut through the chaaf released by the countermeasure and either stab into the aircraft or enter it's ungine and explode.

Originally posted by corruptioninvestigator
the insurgents seem to be getting better at it,

I agree. I think they realize what they're up against and that they have to 'go all out' to make it known that they're not giving up and they will fight harder and harder to end the occupation. We're not in "the last throes" of this thing by any means. With other countries coming to the aid of Iraq, even if it is just to sell them weapons, it's only going to get much worse.

that the US is not fighting AlQueda in Iraq ... they smuggled these sophesticated weapons to Iraq to fight occupation.

A very important point. The support for this 'war' hinges on the notion that "we're fighting them (terrorists) there so we don't have to fight them here". Well, if we weren't there, there'd be no occupation for the Iraqis to fight against.