Why is it Hezbollah has tank destroying missles but Iraqis do not?

[Toots]

I thought Iraq was being overrun by foreign fighter. Why haven;t they brought the weapons with them to fight the Americans with? How can Hezbollah have such a large amount of these weapons but the Iraqis can not? Some one is not telling us the truth I suspect...

[NashVegas]

1. Does Hizbollah Even Have Tanks?

That could have something to do with it.

[drduffy]

3. that was my first thought too

[QuettaKid]

6. read it again.

ANTI-tank missiles. THe IDF has Tanks..Hizbollah does not.

[AngryAmish]

2. The Party of God has state support

Anti-tank missles are supposed to be only in the hands of a state. Ad hoc groups have to get them on the black market which is hard to do (unless it is the Reagan administration...)

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[Igel]

5. No.

That's not a necessary conclusion.

The foreign fighters aren't part of an organized armed militia that's been trained and organized by either a country that's licensed the anti-tank technology for domestic production (Iran/Kornets), or by a country that's known to have bought it (Syria, with slightly older technology). People keep saying you can buy anything on the black market, and while that's not far from the truth, it's not actually the truth; moreover, the fancier things cost a bucket of money and contacts.

"Foreign fighters" are self-selected fanatics from wherever they come from; they may get some training in various camps, but not a huge amount in technology. They probably don't have Iranian or Syrian experts telling them how to maintain the technology and implement it. Or providing it. It's not like they hand the things out at the mosque, or the khatib lectures on their use and maintenance.

The stuff used in Iraq is fairly low tech; the stuff that's not low tech in production is fairly low tech in use. Even things like shaped charges require some sophistication, but implementing the technology actually requires low levels of technology.

[endarkenment]

7. Foreign fighters in Iraq are mostly pr bullshit.

The insurgents are almost all home grown. They are using the weapons that they have available to them, which is why the IED is the anti-vehicle weapon of choice.

[paparush]

8. Bush: We should be selling tanks to Hezbollah so Israel could then

destroy the tanks and 'win' the war. Get Karl on this right away...

[warrens]

9. Iraq was under brutal sanctions when the Soviet Union imploded

They probably have a few, but when these things flooded the market, every boat or plane going to Iraq was searched for weapons. These things are big and heavy and not easy to smuggle in quantity. They have loads of small arms, but tank warfare weaponry was forbidden.