EckerNet.Com

Quite a bit.

Many were disturbed and a bit miffed recently to find out that Iraq currently has a $79 billion dollar budget surplus. To be fair, that budget surplus mostly exists because the process to approve spending is unbelievable difficult, in order to prevent corruption. And to be perfectly frank, a government that has problems spending money sounds pretty good to me (Congress are you listening??)!!

Also the United States hasn’t begun any new construction projects since 2004 and the Iraqi government is getting better and better at spending their money. Obama was just over there, perhaps he offered some pointers.

However, it looks like perhaps we don’t have to be too concerned with the Iraqi budget surplus because it appears that a very large chunk of it will be coming to the United States in the form of military equipment purchases. In the last two weeks alone, Iraq has made purchase requests totaling $10.9 billion.

And now comes a purchase request coming in at $2.16 billion. So just what does $2.16 billion buy us theses days?? Well according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency:

• 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks modified and upgraded to the M1A1M Abrams configuration
• 8 M88A2 Tank Recovery Vehicles
• 64 M1151A1B1 Armored High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV)
• 92 M1152 Shelter Carriers
• 12 M577A2 Command Post Carriers
• 16 M548A1 Tracked Logistics Vehicles
• 8 M113A2 Armored Ambulances
• 420 AN/VRC-92 Vehicular Receiver Transmitters
• 35 M1070 Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) Truck Tractors
• 40 M978A2 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) Tankers
• 36 M985A2 HEMTT Cargo Trucks
• 4 M984A2 HEMTT Wrecker Trucks
• 140 M1085A1 5-ton Cargo Trucks
• 8 HMMWV Ambulances w/ Shelter
• 8 Contact Maintenance Trucks
• 32 500 gal Water Tank Trailers
• 16 2500 gal Water Tank Trucks
• 16 Motorcycles
• 80 8 ton Heavy/Medium Trailers
• 16 Sedans
• 92 M1102 Light Tactical trailers
• 92 635NL Semi-Trailers
• 4 5,500 lb Rough Terrain Forklifts
• 20 M1A1 engines
• 20 M1A1 Full Up Power Packs
• 3 spare M88A2 engines
• 10 M1070 engines
• 20 HEMTT engines
• 4 M577A2 spare engines
• 2 5-ton truck engines
• 20 spare HMMWV engines
• ammunition, spare and repair parts, maintenance, support equipment, publications and documentation, personnel training and equipment, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics support

Wow….that’s a lot of bang for your buck (pun intended).

Let’s also consider that Iraq purchasing American made weapons means that not only are they likely to purchase the next generation from us. But the United States also gets the added benefit of the sale of ongoing maintenance parts/equipment.

Not exactly a bad added side benefit to having a stable US-allied democracy in the Middle East, that sells oil.