— the amount of an arms sale by Russia to Iraq announced Tuesday in Moscow.
The deal, after a meeting between Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, reportedly includes 30 Mi-28 attack helicopters and 42 Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile systems.
It comes 10 months after an eight-year, U.S.-initiated war to remove Saddam Hussein from power that cost the U.S. about $1 trillion and 4,486 lives.
Now that the U.S. has sold Iraq 18 F-16s worth some $3 billion – “extra spares and services could drive the total cost to $4.2 billion,” Battleland reported last year — Baghdad is returning to its historic arms supplier.
Gotta believe Boeing (which builds the AH-64 attack helicopter), Bell (which builds the AH-1 gunship) and Raytheon (which builds the Patriot surface-to-air missile system) are delighted.
Thank God we got Iraq’s oil flowing again.