Tell that to the people of Mali.
And what’s so good about Libya today?
The jets that Iraq received from Russia arrived disassembled and most likely from out of cold storage. IOW, just parts far from being mission-ready. Iraq’s latest delivery of Russian SU-25 jets were flown in, and almost certainly not from Russia, but from Iran, most likely by Iranian pilots who are much more likely to be their near-future pilots than Russians.
They may not be the *exact *SU-25 aircraft that used to belong to the Iraqi AF before they were flown to Iran pre-Gulf War 1, but it can be seen as a sort of “Return to Sender” gift from Iran after all these years. Anyway, it should be obvious why the Iraqi government isn’t too anxious to acknowledge such direct and material Iranian backing, since such could only serve to further inflame sectarian tensions. (Shiite Iranian foreigners being brought in to quell the Sunni Iraqis)
Yeah, that’s weird. Iraqi pilots defect to Iran and Iran says “finders keepers.” Now those same planes are back rescuing Iraq. Awkward.
Speaking of awkward planes rescuing Iraq, up until now, Iraq has been using Cessnas to launch Hellfires at ISIS.
OMG that’s friggin hilarious. A Combat Caravan. Fed Ex needs to convert a couple of theirs for when it absolutely positively has to be blown up overnight.