How SHOCKING...people in armed conflict being resourceful...there are FAR DEADLIER weapons from the former USSR that are now in the hands of islamists that we need to worry about...

What about the weapons that Col. Oliver North sold Iran in the 1980's during the Iran Contra Affair? How many of those weapons have been used to kill US troops?

If you sell as much as US does all over the world, then stop whining when some lands on your own head.

Better ask yourself how many suicidebommings there were before the US invaded Iraq.

None.

JK wake up!
The Palestinians had used suicide bombers (and Sadam paid their families $25k) years before the US war in Iraq!

The article is about the Soviet (or former Soviet) sale of weapons, not the US. BUT, of course American weapons are used around the world, as well. Superior product quality rules a free market.

The weapon sold to Iran, via Israel in the 80's was the BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missile. I'm no weaponry expert, but maybe US military people in Iraq would be able to tell what they're getting hit with, and this particular weapon hasn't been mentioned in the same reports of other Iranian munitions used on US troops.

The USA is the leading exporter of weapons, followed by Russia, Israel and Britain, so any discussion of where the weapons being used AGAINST the USA originate has to start with that admission. Further, any outrage by any Americans, or Russians, or Isralis or British, over where weapons come from is certainly misplaced.

It doen't matter the subject, some people are always going to blame the U.S. instead of the terrorists responsible. Under their scewed up line of thinking, I would be responsible for the robber robbing my house because I have things he wants. Give me a freakin break!!!

sinkntired: Actually, the proper analogy would be "having one's house robbed after selling lockpick sets to the neighborhood hoodlums".

The U.S. has made poor decisions in the past. That does not absolve other parties of blame, but to pretend we have no responsibility in the matter is both foolish and dangerous. (Analogy: walking through a bad neighborhood with a fistful of c-notes.)

No, a more definitive analogy would be if one of the students shot and killed at VA Tech, their father owned the gun shop that sold the Korean boy the weapon that he used to kill the students with...

Does anybody know what specific points were agreed upon at the meeting between Iran, Iraq and the US this past weekend in Baghdad?

And NZ, there's no pretext for nuking anybody...

Having watched the videos, all I can say is - right or wrong - those poor bastards chucking those WW2 vintage grenades at the over-armoured, over-armed, over-there US invaders sure have some stones.
Time to leave, USA, time to leave.
Your administration has sown enough bad seed in Iraq to feed hatred for a thousand years, way to go, what a success...

There's only one way to win a war and we are not willing to go there morally. ...

The U.S. needs to strike Russia preemptively before it has a chance to do further harm to our troops or to our nation. What's more, the U.S. needs a preemptive strike against China, North Korea, Colombia and any other nation that the Bush administration does not like. The U.S. cannot afford a preemptive strike gap.

Wow, so people who have had their country illegally attacked and invaded by the USA and reduced to garbage, are fighting to get rid of the invader. How dare you call these people terrorists? They are doing nothing different to any of the WW2 resistance movements, such as the French Maquis, in killing as many Nazis as possible. If the USA wants to see the end of US troop deaths, then it should apologise for its illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, withdraw its forces entirely and pay the Iraqi people reparations for destroying their nation on the basis of fabricated allegations and blatant lies from the White House. Dragging Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld before the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague would be a good idea too. If they don't do this, the USA can expect to be bled to death slowly until it cuts and runs, because it never had any business invading Iraq, it has no business occupying Iraq and heaven help the USA if it launches an assault on Iran, because the Iranians may bring their reaction to the US mainland that will make 9/11 look like a walk in the park.

Munky states here, "There's only one way to win a war and we are not willing to go there morally. ..."

Munky, I have some news for you. The only way to win a war by invading a nation in the modern era is to win the hearts and minds of the invaded populace. If this does not occur, then the invaders are doomed. They will be bled to death slowly until they are completely wiped out or they cut and run.

This is what happened in Vietnam and is now occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan. The USA, the most powerful military entity this planet has ever seen, was humiliated in Vietnam by a bunch of ragtag guerillas. It is now being given a thorough drubbing in Iraq, despite "surges" of troops and every other ploy tried in the past five years.

Why? Because the USA is hated by the very people it claims to want to "liberate", because those very same people know damn well that "liberation" by the Americans means becoming a subjugated client state of the USA and being raped for its resources for the benefit of the US military-industrial machine.

There is only one way the USA can actually win any war these days, and that is by completely annihilating its enemy by nuking it. This is self-defeating, simply because the USA will have nothing to left to pillage and it will just spur every other nation to arm themselves with nuclear weapons.

The other problem the USA has is this crazy "War On Terror" - simply because nobody can fight a conventional war against a philosophy, especially something like a hatred of the USA and a willingness to die for an idea. However, the USA is not winning any friends in the world by running a concentration camp reminiscent of something the Nazis would have been proud of, illegally "rendering" (call it kidnapping) citizens of other nations for torture, perpetrating atrocities such as "waterboarding" on people who may be innocent of any wrongdoing and so on. Can you imagine the outrage in the USA if for instance the same was done to US troops by the Mehdi Army? The USA would be trying to invoke every international law possible, however when the USA condones and perpetrates such , international laws and treaties are completely ignored.

The writing is on the wall. Warfare has changed completely and those that commit atrocities will pay the penalty for them eventually.

Excuse me people, I forgot preemptive srikes against Iran and Syria. Hey, why not go ahead and strike Pakistan while we're at it. They aren't doing anything to capture bin Laden. And if we don't do something about India, they will soon take all of our jobs, so let's strike them, too. Everyone knows that the U.S. is the only superpower in the world, so let's get on with world domination while we still can.

I'm certain Bush, Cheney, Rice and what's left of the neocons can come up with the justification to kill off seventy-five percent of the world population so that the U.S. will own the vast majority of the world's oil and other natural resources. I am just as certain that the die-hard political, social, and economic conservative republicans would enthusiastically support such a takeover of the world.

"The writing is on the wall?"...cheeeezy...

Seems like we pulled the same thing on the Russians in Afghanistan.

How many US made weapons killed Russian troops when they were occupying Afghanistan and we were supplying arms and training to the likes of Osama Bin Laden? Sad to say what's goes around comes around.

I have never read more tripe in all of my life. Everything that happens is the fault of the US. People are dying, our people are dying and all that I read is that it is all out fault.