An amazing development:
American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements.
The Bush administration is said to want the deal because of worries that the next president could be a Democrat, possibly Hillary Clinton, who may abandon Afghanistan.
The story goes on to say the Russian arms executives nearly fell over laughing when the order came in, it was so very large. Kinda like working at a local Dominos and getting an order for 17,256 pizzas, by 8:00 pm tonight.
Some questions:
(1) Will this actually help persuade the Russians to support pressure on Iran or will it signal US weakness?
(2) How much of this gear will be looted by Islamicists?
(3) If President Bush is this fearful of a Democratic candidate winning in 2008, doesn't that signal an Iranian bombing campaign before he leaves office?
Other thoughts?