Pages

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Impulse Shopping

Evidently Iran is not much concerned with customer service:

Venezuela is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, perhaps Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chavez's government, a military official said Tuesday.

Gen. Alberto Muller, a senior adviser to Chavez, told The Associated Press he had recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela consider selling the 21 jets to another country. Muller said he thought it was worthwhile to consider "the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes."

Even before the U.S. announced the ban on arms sales Monday, Washington had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F- 16s.

Chavez has previously warned he could share the U.S. jets with Cuba if Washington does not supply parts for the planes. He also has said he may look into buying fighter jets from Russia or China instead.

We can understand why Chavez wants to unload them since they're useless without spare parts, but we can't figure out why Iran, without access to parts, would want to buy them.

Besides, what does Iran expect to use them for? Oil exploration? Surely, the Iranians don't think those planes would be in any way a counter to American air power. The Iranian pilots who fly those F-16s against American fighters, assuming they'd even be able to get the planes off the ground, would be either very brave or very stupid.