I'd also hazard a guess that the US (and the UK) are fairly careful not to give too big a supply of spares "just in case". After all todays friendly government may not be around next year.

>I was trying to figure out how to add to what Michael said in a more 'pc' manner. I can personally attest to the same thing occurring in the early 80s with helicopters and helicopter parts. I am not going to mention which countries though. I personally trained soldiers from other countries to install, maintain, and repair components. It took 2 years. We shipped spare parts with every helicopter. However, there came a time when they needed to use their spare parts and those parts were no where to be found. They hadn't been used in the helicopters, but rather they had been sold on the black marke (or so everyone assumed since they were no longer in stock and could not be found). They were stuck with grounded helicopters and no spare parts. The soldiers who were trained to maintain them did not pass on their training. When their 2 years were finished, they left the service in their own country. In most cases, that was shortly after returning to their country after the training. It wasn't managed very well at their end. We ended up sending a group to those countries with spare parts and they stayed there for long periods of time to train new folks to install and maintain components. At the same time, others were sent here to the U.S. to attend the full, formal training with U.S. soldiers. The cycle went on and on that way. It is a problem in many countries which have compulsory service and the troops have little incentive to stay in military service when their contract ends. It has nothing to do with intelligence, ingenuity, or the ability to learn or retain information at all.
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>>I think that stating that a racial group is just to dumb to look after anything complicated is racist.
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>>>The swansong of the "enlightened", if I disagree I must a racist. Because I show justifable pride in my country for its leadership, benevolence, and innovativeness over the last 75 years and get tired of it constantly being called bad or intrusive I must be a cretin. If I feel no need to apologize for my country for anything it has done ( as do some of its ahem "citizens" ) I am tagged a terrorist by some in the government I chastise. Then I guess I am since I am for Americans before anyone else. I am not a globalist. Exactly how does me stating opinion that some countries in this world owe us their 21st century lifestyle "racist"? Do you actually think that without us ( or other western nations ) that the ME would be as advanced as they are today and actually have realized their natural resource capacity. If so you are a dreamer.
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>>>If you do not want the US to be part of future advances, squabbles, incidences then stop taking our money. Again I am not talking about trade I am talking about aid in the form of coming here and attending our schools or working in our industries then taking that free technology home.
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>>>That label has successfully demonized a whole section of people who prefer a more conservative approach to governement but have been quieted for fear of being outcast and made to feel they are in the minorty when in actuality we are in the majority ( here in the US ). The last election was not a good measure and many folks stayed home out of apathy or voted one way to be seen as "cool" by a loud media controlled minority.