Have any of you noticed in news photos and videos in Iraq that the “bad guys” are in posession of a large amount of M-16/M-4’s? It struck me a few months ago and even another friend commented to me “have you noticed those guys seem to have a large amount of the black rifle?” Normally, it is 100% AK when you see visions from this part of the world, but seeing an AR in their hands is pretty obvious (to us that know the differance between an AR and an AK).
Any one notice as well? Any thoughs on why? Looking forward to the relply’s. Happy Labor Day to all.
This. Also, the AK was a peasant gun to many of those dudes. If you saw someone rolling around with an AK-74 or an M4, they were somebody. That’s why a lot of times in these videos you’ll see the guy/s holding the M4 or M16 are the ones doing the talking or commanding while the nobodies in the background have their AK variants.
Though now with the amount of arms depots that have been captured it might get reversed. The pallets and crates of old A2 rifles we gave them could probably put a rifle and mags into every household on the east of the Mississippi. How long before they start complaining about their exploding rifles thinking we are planting self destruct bombs to use against them.
Luckily, yes. And then to make our luck even better, they refused to believe their range coaches when they were told to stop loading random ammo they get their poop-covered hands on into mags but all that frustration seems a little worth it now.
Like M4guru said, we supplied a lot of M4/M16’s to the Iraqi army( also M240 and M249s ), just a matter of time before we start seeing more bad guys rocking those.
Thanks to all so far…this now makes scense. Also, Dave thanks for this link on a previous discussion that pretty much talks about what I was looking for. Still, it looks so weird to see them (and a large amount I might add - just saw some video fotage with about a dozen riding in the back of a stake bed truck and 75% were M-16’s) in the hands of the bad guy. I knew I was not the only one that noticed this.
If I’m not mistaken the Chinese are producing an M4 clone now as well that they call the CQ. With the number of our M4’s available there probably isn’t much of a demand for them, but I’ve been wondering if/when they will start turning up in the mix.
But wait there’s more! When Afghanistan goes to shit, there will be plenty of M16’s and M4’s equipped with M203’s, ACOG’s, M240’s/M249’s, etc… fo them to sell or fire us up with.
Exactly. The armament we give to the “regime du jour” always comes back to bite us in the ass. It is a testament to the AR to see that so many are copying, and using them however.
I forgot all about the Chinese Golt. At this point I almost expect to see Chinese Hog Lube or Dog Lube someday, though neither brand would go over in the Middle East so well.
So I hear McCain calling for arming Ukrainians now. Not that I’m against any particular armed citizenry, but man these jokers in office have a terrible track record with these types of scenarios. So we give these guys a pile of weapons and who knows who has them a few years down the road…Russia, IS, etc.
Let’s face it, an AR-based weapon takes a little more TLC than an AK. If properly trained and sufficiently disciplined the using army shouldn’t have any major problems with an M16/M4. However, since the armies of the ME don’t exactly fall into those categories I expect to see AK > AR as time goes by as those dastardly American black rifles “jam” up on them and are cast aside for the less-disciplined-friendly Kalashnikov.
I must say, to be fair, that I recall seeing a photo of an old Burmese guerrilla (Karen?) with a beat-to-hell ancient M16A1. Guess if one could be kept running all those years by a third world jungle guerrilla then perhaps there is hope for it’s continued survival in the Sandbox…maybe.