Paranoia as a way of life.

Here's a hot one. Rather than simply mothball F-14 Tomcats, or sell them to client countries since the last were pulled from US Navy service earlier this year, the Navy is spending $900 000 each to have them chopped up into 2x2 foot cubes at an air base in Arizona. Don't believe it? Check it out at http://www.aviation.com/ap_070702_f14scrapping.html.

Which is a pretty expensive proposition. Pulling some numbers from Wikipedia, 712 Tomcats where built, of which 79 were exported. That leaves 633, for a total disposal cost of around 569.7 million dollars. That is a lot just to throw something away, in fact I suspect it is more than Canada's entire military budget (for equipment, anyway).

The justification for all this is out of fear that if they where sold, they would be re-sold to countries such as Iran ("the wrong hands" as the article put it). Which is odd, since Iran already has them. The 79 that were exported went to Iran back when they were all buddy-buddy with the US. Yes, there was a time, not long ago, when the US arranged for the current Iranian dictatorship to come to power because it fit with the foreign policy needs of the day. About 50 Tomcats are still in Iranian service. So like most official government excuses, this one just doesn't add up. Oh, and the nuclear reactors that Iran has that everyone is so concerned about? American-designed PWRs.