The Indian Air Force's Iraqi connections

Tom Cooper
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Re: The Indian Air Force's Iraqi connections

Post by Tom Cooper »

Originally posted by Rudra Singha:
so given the IrqAF had a whole range of instructors from all continents why do people like
chuck horner and tom clancy say in their books
that IrqAF was a 'worry' because they were Pak-trained and Fizaya was indias 'worst nightmare' in war planning ?

I distinctly remember reading that in a book by
one of the above two.
Well, the answer is pretty simple: PRBS.

Ever since 1965, the PAF did everything possible to plant into everybody's minds how good it and its pilots are and how terribly the "Soviet-equipped Goliath" of the IAF suffered on the hands of the splendid little "US-supplied David". The IAF never started any serious effort to counter such claims: everything that is meanwhile known is known thanks to private efforts.

Bit,
for all theoretical purposes, no, it would not illegal for the IAF to train Iraqi pilots even now, and it was certainly not illegal to do so in the 1970s.

It would be illigal now to supply them spare parts and weapons, but that was also not illegal in the 1970s. Supplying the Iraqis with arms was actually illegal already in the 1980s, but nobody cared about the UN-embargos, and everybody did that (even the USA).

It's only so, that NOW the USA have something against such actions, so they would not be opportune.

Regards,
Tom
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