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Africa - Other | Daily Rapid Fire | Germany | Helicopters & Rotary | India | Iraq | Lobbying | Middle East - Other | USA

Germany to Send Missiles to Kurds While France Patrols Iraqi Airspace

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* A few allies are saying [US Today] they’ll join the US in its efforts against the Islamic State, though there are many reasons [AP] why Middle Eastern countries may offer little more than lip service. * Iran seems more motivated [BBC video] than Sunni Arabs, but they declined to attend an international meeting taking […]

* A few allies are saying [US Today] they’ll join the US in its efforts against the Islamic State, though there are many reasons [AP] why Middle Eastern countries may offer little more than lip service.

* Iran seems more motivated [BBC video] than Sunni Arabs, but they declined to attend an international meeting taking place today in Paris to conjure a global response to ISIL.

* Germany stands out [Defense News] as the most eager among European armament donors to Kurdish fighters.

* An unnamed official from the Syrian National Coalition denied [The Hill] a report from AFP that ISIL had reached a truce agreement with other rebel forces near Damascus in Syria.

Ukraine

* Reuters: Six killed in Ukraine’s Donetsk, ceasefire under strain.

Indian Navel Gazing Exports

* India’s DRDO listed 15 weapon systems for export [Hindustan Times], but through a typical Indian process focused on what they already have. Starting with likely customers and their needs instead would help them make good choices about which products deserve more resources.

Aircraft for Africa

* Russia inked a deal to sell Mi-171Sh and Mi-35 helicopters to Nigeria according to RIA Novosti (which used a MiG-35 picture for illustration – hey it sounds almost the same).

* Satellite photos [Chris Biggers] show MIG-29s and Su-25s at Chad’s N’Djamena airbase. Chad ran into an arms export problem with Switzerland last decade. This is the long-term result.

US DoD/Contractors

* The Government Accountability Office points out that DoD doesn’t have a plan in place to manage its sprawling real estate of 557,000 facilities worth more than $800B.

* The Nation asks who’s paying pro-war pundits. Some of the affiliations noted in the article are thin, and the Institute for the Study of War is winning its column inches (including here at DID) on pure real-time quality, but the point about disclosing personal business affiliations is a valid one. It may not always be practical in a 1-minute verbal segment, but it can and should be done somewhere on a news organization’s site. Many former high ranking officials quoted by the media are currently on the boards of defense contractors.

* Reporting about suicide within the military often suffers from poor statistical framing. But regardless of whether soldiers take their own lives more than civilians, they are part of an institution which can provide help. That’s the topic of today’s video through the experience of a sailor on CVN-71 and his chain of command:

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