Re: The most expensive thing in the world
Old joke: Why did the Soviets give the Arabs so many aircraft?
Oldie but Goldie.
Here is a real one from a participant (not saying which country he is from). When the Israeli launched Mole Cricket 19 to clear the Syrians from the Beqaa valley they managed to take out ALL Syrian SAM sites in one day. Except one.
The one which was not yet handed over to the Arabs and had instructors from the Warsaw pact country (not USSR) doing the hand over.
It was not taken out because the head of the handover team immediately figured out what is going on and forced the issue for the site to relocate to the backup position.
In order to do that, he had to shoot at the ground in front of the feet of the Arabs so they f*** move instead of sleeping on the job. As a result the site relocated and was the only one the Israeli's did not take out. However, the Syrians took offense and got the team "evicted". With the expected result - that battery was taken out next day.
So the official lesson taken away by the Warsaw pact from the Becaa valley engagement in 1982 was completely different from the bollocks in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mole_Cricket_19
It was "move or die". I had friends who caught the last 1-2 drafts in the same country before the fall of the wall and served in AAA. They were trained on the lessons from that and they have some unpleasant recollections (moving a SAM battery 4 times in a day is not a walk in the park).
The other lesson is that whatever weapons you give to arabs they will still f*ck it up. Exactly as in the oldie but goldie.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
