"Who Gave Hezbollah A U.S. M-1 Abrams Tank?" Topic

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A video uploaded to YouTube appears to show a large Hezbollah Brigades convoy transporting weapons, troops, and armored vehicles to the front to fight the Islamic State.

Several American-made military vehicles, including an M1 Abrams tank, M113 armored personnel carriers, Humvees, and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP), as well as Iranian-made Safir 4x4s and technicals (armed pickup trucks) are in the convoy.

The Hezbollah Brigades is US-designated foreign terrorist organization that has been involved in killing American soldiers in Iraq…"
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WAF?

Amicalement
Armand

Hezbollah is Iranian. Iran and Iraq are fighting The Caliphate. Not all of the U.S. equipment fell into ISIS's hands. I'm sure Iraq is just loaning it out to it's Iranian ally.

Hezbollah is not Iranian. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-Arab political party (or terrorist organization) that is funded and trained by the Iranians & Syrians.

Iranians are Persians. Arabs are not Persians.

Kinda funny that someone named "Cyrus" wouldn't have gotten that.

Apparently the US did, either directly, or indirectly.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have regular rotations through the "Lebanese" Hezbollah.

Iran's RG train Hezbollah, doesn't make Hezbollah turn into Iranians.

They don't merely train, but supplement Hezbollah's numbers with regular rotations as fighters.

Someone told me recently that both Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades are elements of an international Shia political organization named Hezbollah, but I still think the two are separate wings.

Both wings are sponsored, trained, armed and probably reinforced by the Iranians. Lebanese Hezbollah is fighting in Syria, not Iraq. Hezbollah Brigades is an Iraqi outfit that's allied with the Iraqi government, so has access to US weapons and equipment via the Iraqi government.

I realize that I'm splitting a hair that grows out of the ass of one rabid dog. But it clarifies how Iraqi Hezbollah got some of our AFVs.

We gave the Iraqis M1 tanks (god knows why. Yet another brilliant geopolitical move in the region) and when ISIS overran the Iraqi army early on they captured a few. Would not be surprised if they made their way to Hezbollah.

Why the hell we have not drilled them with Hellfires I could not answer.

Unless it's secretly a technology gift to the Iranians. We've been busily handing them most of the mideast along with the Bomb.

We gave the Iraqis M1 tanks (god knows why. Yet another brilliant geopolitical move in the region) and when ISIS overran the Iraqi army early on they captured a few. Would not be surprised if they made their way to Hezbollah.

Do you realize that ISIS and Hezbollah are bitter enemies? Hezbollah is Shia/Shiites organisation and there are seen as heretic that deserve to be killed by all means by the Sunni guys of ISIS.

The current Iraq government is lead by Shia, so there is no surprise here that the lend/share equipments with the militia that are allied to the Iraqi army.

BLOODY HELL! M-1s TO AN IRAQ?!! !!!!!(OH TO COSTLY TO SHIP HOPE?) I WILL SAY WHY THAT CONVOY WASN'T HIT BY OUR AIR AND OR DRONES IS BEYOND ME.

Like noted, the US gave/sold M1s to the Iraqis … I'm sure some were left behind when the Iraqi military ran away from Deash … Let's see how long the M1s last with it's maint. requirements. The forces in the region are known for limited maint. procedures.

The old, "too expensive to ship home" ruse is just silly.

Cut foreign aid, and/or other wasteful spending (bogus tax refunds to prisoners), if you have to, in order to bring the equipment home.

I'm sure they didn't pay for anything.

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It was not a Hezbollah group but rather one (of many) Shia militias in Iraq that have been given equipment from the largely ineffective Iraqi Army (that was given over 100 M-1's as we left in 2009). It is being used to fight Daesh (ISIS) which is, at the moment, in accordance with US foreign policy. In fact, I believe the US is currently sitting on an Iraqi request for more M-1's, Apaches and Hellfires and may sell those and more fairly sophisticated weapons. Iraqi pilots are in Arizona right now training up on Iraqi F-16's and should deploy back with those planes this year as well.

The US sent M1A1Ms to Iraq. The US Army/Marine M1s all left the country largely going to depots and the like to be refurbished (either to replace all the worn out bits, or be upgraded into newer models of Abrams). The M1A1M is a 1990's vintage Abrams with conventional vs DU armor.

As far as I can tell no Apaches were ever intended for the Iraqi military, they're mostly stocked with various Russian models. They do have some hellfire capable platforms though and they do want more of those missiles.

Either way there is something between a lot of reluctance, and A LOT OF RELUCTANCE to give the Iraqis more weapons after what happened with the last batch.

Either way, the Iraqis hopped into bed with Iran as the US left, largely as a result of the previous president's screw all for Shia approach. This actually is the root of a lot of why Iraq was so hosed at the end of everything because the Iraqi government basically alienated both the Kurds and the Sunnis, and the Sunnis being the terrorist welcoming idiots that they were, threw open the doors for the first Sunni group to come along and hell allah akbar loud enough.

So beyond that US provided military equipment winding up in the hands of Iranian supported militants is not surprising at all anymore. Either they're there because the Iraqi government handed them over, or because the Iraqis abandoned it, and Iranians/Hezbollah acquired it.

Don't underestimate the Iranian maintenance capability if they got ahold of Abrams. After all, they maintained and even upgraded the F-4E Phantoms and F-14A Tomcats we sold to the shah regime in the '70's despite the arms embargo which followed after the revolution.

Eeeeeeh. Some of the upgrades are dubious. Like there's a pod strapped to it, or they have photos with a HAWK missile strapped to an F-14, but the actual capabilitiy isn't well demonstrated.

They've certainly kept the platforms flying, but they've also sought out literally every loose spare part for the US platforms that's on the scrap market. The reason the F-14s are being scrapped so thoroughly by the USN is specifically to dry up what little availability of parts there are for Iran to keep their planes flying.

They might have better luck with the M1s, but the question remains if they could get their hands on enough of them to make it worth the effort.

Also worthy of note, if there's Iranians motoring around in M1s, then the Iraqis can kiss getting replacement tanks goodbye.

Not that it would STOP Them from giving over the tanks then turning around and asking for more of course

Either way, the Iraqis hopped into bed with Iran as the US left, largely as a result of the previous president's screw all for Shia approach. This actually is the root of a lot of why Iraq was so hosed at the end of everything because the Iraqi government basically alienated both the Kurds and the Sunnis, and the Sunnis being the terrorist welcoming idiots that they were, threw open the doors for the first Sunni group to come along and hell allah akbar loud enough.

That is the most succint and accurate description of the cluster that is Iraq I have seen in a while BUT…

The request for 175 M-1's and more is still alive and still being pushed by some elements in both the Congress and the Administration. It is unlikely but not impossible.

Well, the Iraqi Baath Party of Saddam Hussein was more sunni than shiite, and there was a purge after the invasion which tilted the balance clearly toward shia and Iran whether Chalabi or Maliki took over (it was the latter).

Yes, greatpatton, they are. And when the Iraqis lost the M1a1s, they were in a position to be "picked up" by Iranian led Hezbollah forces.

"…and the Sunnis being the terrorist welcoming idiots that they were, threw open the doors for the first Sunni group to come along and hell allah akbar loud enough."

I agree with your general premise, except you're too critical of the Sunni. They ended up supporting ISIS not because they wanted to, but because there was no alternative. It was either ISIS or the Kurds (who are using ISIS as an excuse to gobble up every last inch of Sunni territory in NW Iraq).

The various and sundry Shia militia are not Hezbollah. They are, to greater or lesser extent, affiliated with their Iranian co-religionist Shia but they vary wildly between the really closely affiliated al-Sadr types and the more Iraqi based followers of al-Sistani. Hezbollah is a Lebanese entity and have thier hands full in Syria/Lebanon while picking simultaneous fights with the Syrian rebels as they Hezbollah, support Asad, the Israelis because one fight apparantly isn't enough and a tense standoff with the Lebanese majority of Sunni, Druze and Christian who alternately are mad at Hezbollah, Asad and the various fanatic Sunni rebels.

No doubt the Al-Malaki government totally botched relations with the Sunni but, they (the Sunni) had experienced Al-Quaeda bloodthirsty nuttiness before and the Sunni Dawn movement every bit as much as the surge crushed AQ in Iraq. To invite in worse nutters was really stupid.

No amount of descriptive terms following the word cluster can begin to capture a fraction of the sucking chest wound that is the Middle East.

I wouldn't belittle the Iranians ability to keep those Abrams running. I mean, the engine is basically the same one as in a Huey, so parts are easily available, and it's not too hard to fix a T53.

No doubt the Al-Malaki government totally botched relations with the Sunni but, they (the Sunni) had experienced Al-Quaeda bloodthirsty nuttiness before and the Sunni Dawn movement every bit as much as the surge crushed AQ in Iraq. To invite in worse nutters was really stupid.

After Saddam was deposed thanks to the ill-advised invasion of 2003 as I pointed out time and again (no use crying over spilled milk), Iraq became a de facto proxy of Iran and the balance-of-power was shifted in favor of the shiites. There are no botched relations with the sunnis because they hate each other and believed their own interpretation of the Koran is the right one.

No amount of descriptive terms following the word cluster can begin to capture a fraction of the sucking chest wound that is the Middle East.

Agreed.