Martel, you do not realize

Submitted by Yuval Brandstetter MD (Israel), Aug 25, 2007 at 14:46

Dear Mr Martel

You do not realize how deeply the Soviets were involved in the Egyptian and Syrian armies. We are talking of instructors active down to the Battalion level. We are talking Russians manning each and every one of the command centers of the the antiaircraft missile batteries. We are talking thousands of technicians taking care of the Migs which they allowed the Arabs to fly (Mig 17, 19 and 21, and various Sukhoys) and the hundreds needed to maintain the aircraft they did not allow the Arabs to touch, such as the Mig 25 dubbed FoxBat by NATO.

We are talking legions of Israeli listeners needed to keep track of the hosts of Russians in both Egypt and Syria. This went on in egypt untill 1974, when Sadat realized open warfare was not usefull and that America could wring Israel much better than the Egyptian military. It persisted in Syria till 1982, when the Russian air-defense system went haywire and collapsed due to the massive ECM Israel applied to it. Now, 25 years later, Russia is at it again, arming Syria, Iran Hizzbullah etc. and providing Iran with Nuclear know-how. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

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