Saturday, May 30, 2009

Squeezing Israel: It Can Backfire

Interesting point raised by the Yankee. Quoting, the newspaper article:

The Obama administration has blocked Israel's request for advanced U.S.-origin attack helicopters.

Government sources said the administration has held up Israel's request for the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter
.

Yankee observes:

Obama's Administration, which apparently has little knowledge of or use for military systems, does not seem to grasp that the use of the Longbow's mast-mounted sensor suite enables it to more carefully select targets that other variants of the Apache, which in and of themselves are a better targeting, surveillance, and attack system than most alternatives.

Nor do they seem to grasp that the close air support function of helicopters with lighter weapons loads is less likely to cause the collateral deaths of civilians than other weapons systems that would have to step into the suppression role that helicopters typically occupy.

The alternatives are 155mm howitzers or F-16s (or comparable). Neither of them is designed for "close air support," and neither of those options have nearly as controllable a blast as does the Apache Longbow.

Meaning that the Administration's complaint--that 'there were civilian casualties when the Longbow was employed'--will look silly when there are even MORE civilian casualties due to the nature of the weapons Israel will be forced to use.

3 comments:

Billiam said...

It'll take Israels destruction to wake up the Jewish lobby in this country that overwhelmingly votes for Democrats. For those who aren't aware, there is a Jewish lobby, and an Israel lobby in this country. There is a difference.

J. Strupp said...

...or maybe the administration doesn't see the value in selling Israel one more "precision" weapon that'll be used to level apartment buildings in the West Bank in the name of national security.

I love how this guy hits Obama about his lack of knowledge of military systems. You know, as opposed to the previous administration, who's great triumphs in creating a viable missile defense system to be used just in case "the terrorists" launch a nuke at us from a cave in Afghanistan.

Dad29 said...

Ignorance leads to deaths, Struppster.

The anti-missile systems were developed for use against (inter alia) the NORKs. And, of course, anyone ELSE with intercontinental capability and nuke tips.

Or don't you know that those systems were under development during the Reagan years, when actual "defense" was considered better than sloppy offense?