Recipe for a Conspiracy

[BrAinPaiNt]

Let me start off by saying I am not claiming this is a conspiracy. I am just saying this in the idea that I can see other people thinking this and typing it out on some conspiracy sites. Who knows maybe they already have. But I am tired and a little bored so I figured I would waste a little time to make the work day go by a little faster.

Here are the ingredients for our recipe.

1. Around 14K weapons missing in Iraq (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15474042/)

2. US to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia (http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20070727/wl_mcclatchy/20070727bcmideastarms_attn_national_foreign_editor s_ytop)

3. Chinese threaten US (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml)

Now once again I do not believe in this conspiracy. I realize that the weapons missing is probably different than the ones being sold to S.A. so once again this is just a thing that I could see others putting together for a conspiracy theory.

Here goes.

We take the three ingredients to our recipe.

We are in Debt to China.
We need to gain some cash.
We take a large portion of the weapons that we were going to give to the Iraqi troops and sell them to Saudi Arabi.
We take the profit of that to pay to the Chinese.

Would anyone be shocked if someone came up with this but meant it as a real conspiracy theory?

Like I said...I am bored.

[ABQCOWBOY]

But I am tired and a little bored so I figured I would waste a little time to make the work day go by a little faster.



I have plenty and am happy to send you some of mine if you think that would help.

:D

[ABQCOWBOY]

Well, I don't think it's a Conspiracy, per say. I think that American weapons sell for significantly more on the Black Market, then do any other weapons with the possible exception of German Weapons. In that environment, a Russian made AK is probably easier to use, more reliable and more desired. Those weapons probably got stolen and sold, to be replaced with cheaper weapons that are better suited to the region. As horrible as this is, the money those guns costed were probably not enough to off set what we owe to the Chinses.

However, it is always comforting to know that we are still the biggest arms dealers in the world. Nothing like setting off another Arms Race in the Middle East to try and kick start the old economy.

[Vintage]

Well, I don't think it's a Conspiracy, per say. I think that American weapons sell for significantly more on the Black Market, then do any other weapons with the possible exception of German Weapons. In that environment, a Russian made AK is probably easier to use, more reliable and more desired. Those weapons probably got stolen and sold, to be replaced with cheaper weapons that are better suited to the region. As horrible as this is, the money those guns costed were probably not enough to off set what we owe to the Chinses.

However, it is always comforting to know that we are still the biggest arms dealers in the world. Nothing like setting off another Arms Race in the Middle East to try and kick start the old economy.

Yeah, but arms race falls under the MAD principle.

Any action take to increase arms is futile in competition. The other actor will do the same, and effectively, you just manage to stockpile the same stuff without doing anything.

Neither side will attack because of MAD.

But we get to make a buck or two out of it.


Edit: That's implying that the actors are rational.

I forgot for a second Iran was involved. Oops.

[ABQCOWBOY]

Yeah, but arms race falls under the MAD principle.

Any action take to increase arms is futile in competition. The other actor will do the same, and effectively, you just manage to stockpile the same stuff without doing anything.

Neither side will attack because of MAD.

But we get to make a buck or two out of it.


Edit: That's implying that the actors are rational.

I forgot for a second Iran was involved. Oops.

No, not with small arms, which is what we're talking about here. For Nuclear Weapons or the like, that's true (Or so we hope) but small arms are used all around the world every day. If there purchased, they will eventually be used somewhere.

[Vintage]

No, not with small arms, which is what we're talking about here. For Nuclear Weapons or the like, that's true (Or so we hope) but small arms are used all around the world every day. If there purchased, they will eventually be used somewhere.


Yeah, I see that now.

To be honest, I saw nuclear in the link about China and didn't pay much attention to it.

Didn't realize it wasn't actually nuclear weapons until I just read the article....

[ZeroClub]

The numbers don't add up for a China connection. The value of those 14,000 missing weapons is chickenfeed compared to what the Chinese have invested in U.S. bonds.

But, really, the missing weapons story is suspicious enough on its own merits. 14,000 weapons go "missing" and it just so happens that only 3% of them had registered serial numbers? The brazen incompetence and/or dishonesty is difficult to fathom ....

I'm not a big fan of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but I'm guessing there are some members of the current administration who could use some time there.

[ABQCOWBOY]

The numbers don't add up for a China connection. The value of those 14,000 missing weapons is chickenfeed compared to what the Chinese have invested in U.S. bonds.

But, really, the missing weapons story is suspicious enough on its own merits. 14,000 weapons go "missing" and it just so happens that only 3% of them had registered serial numbers? The brazen incompetence and/or dishonesty is difficult to fathom ....

I'm not a big fan of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but I'm guessing there are some members of the current administration who could use some time there.

It's not really clear on how or where the SER#s were to be recorded and how the weapons were to be distributed and by whom. Before we can throw our own Gov't under the bus, we have to first acknowledge that our own Armed Forces turned these weapons over. As a point of reference, there are never any weapons that are shipped to American Armed Forces that are not tagged and cataloged. That simply doesn't happen. I'd guess that the weapons were probably serialized and cataloged by our troops but were then turned over to the local Governments to be distributed etc. The local Governments probably did not do any asset tracking of the weapons and so, do not have record of where they went. The truth is that they were probably sold to whomever and some local offical made a boat load of money on the deal. I'd imagine this was one of the things that our Armed Forces expected the local Government to handle and they didn't. Instead, they turned a proffit.

[Mavs Man]

Correction: It wasn't 14,000 weapons - it was 190,000 weapons!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/06/iraq.weapons/

By the way, when did the American army start issuing AK-47s?

[ABQCOWBOY]

Correction: It wasn't 14,000 weapons - it was 190,000 weapons!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/06/iraq.weapons/

By the way, when did the American army start issuing AK-47s?

This makes much more sense. We are not outfitting them with American made weapons. We are buying Kalishnikov's from a third party and distributing them. That is how the whole none registered thing comes into play. I didn't get that before. In that case, I can totally see how they up and walked off.