If I was a US tax payer I would ask myself why should my money be spent basing men and equipment on a contintent whose nations have savagedly cut their armed forces.

Same goes for the US; they also have savegedly cut their armed forces’ presence in Europe. So the US tax payer pays far less money than in the past.

That’s a great deal of money being spent just to get a point across.

The other way, via hollywood films, is not as credible.

Breaking news, suitcases and other debris was found by Greek oil tanker Elka Athina in the Malakka Strait.

Actually they were spotted, not found and not by the tanker, but rather by local fishermen who just assumed they were from the lost aircraft. The tanker was just the nearest vessel in the area and was ordered to assist the search effort. No luck so far.

Apart from the illogical “No, actually, it’s the other way round. Brazil’s economy is ten times as big as Greece’s, so the profit/bribe margin for olympic infrastructure contractors is ten times as big. “, as an argument against the affordability of the Olympics (Think, man, think!), your arguments are supportive of my case. You argue that Brazil buys fewer fighters than Greece because it doesn’t feel the need for them. That’s what I said.

Of course that’s what you said; but you chose a rather void argument to support it. “Ten times more affordable Olympics”, is not only irrelevant (then any country hosting Olympics should be a superpower) but also untrue.

BTW, it isn’t true that ‘the vast majority of Brazil’s population is extremely poor’. There are very many poor people, but not the vast majority. 94% of households own a fridge, 96% a TV, there are more mobile phones than people, a computer for every two people, & half the population is on the internet. There’s a motor vehicle for every four people.

I suspect that your image of Brazil is of peasants scraping a living from the earth. 85% of Brazilians are urban.

Assumption is the mother of all ****ups. I didn’t assume anything; if I did, my image of Brazil would be like a country with an infinite Rio-style carnival party with semi-naked female dancers all over the place 24/7. My image of Brazil comes mostly from brazilian immigrants in Greece, we have a strong latino community.

NB. Statistics on ownership of consumer durables from 2009 to 2012. Current figures will be a little higher.

The problem with statistics is that they can serve many purposes, depending on which numbers you choose to highlight, and which to hide.

The comparison with Greece isn’t appropriate. The scale is different.

Brazil’s economy is about ten times as big as Greece’s. The Olympics are therefore about ten times as affordable.

No, actually, it’s the other way round. Brazil’s economy is ten times as big as Greece’s, so the profit/bribe margin for olympic infrastructure contractors is ten times as big.

Just before the start of the Olympics, Greece took delivery of the last of an order of 60 F-16s, having previously bought 80.

Just before the start of the Olympics, Greece had a near-war event, the Imia/Kardak islet crisis. I don’t think Brazil had anything even close to that in the past ten years and, AFAIK, there isn’t anyone interesting in creating such an event. So from one point of view, why should Brazil be in a hurry? It’s not like their national sovereignty is threatened or something.

It bought another 30 after the Olympics, making a total of 170 bought over 18 years.

Yes, but that was the very last arms procurement since. Greece has not managed to buy anything beyond that until today.
Additionally, the man who made the deal, former defence minister Spiliopoulos, has now retired from politics to enjoy the longest private yacht in western Ionian Sea. Not with his pension money obviously.

I imagine it was a political decision, rather than one of practicality.

A political decision has to do with the selection of hardware from a specific country for specific diplomatic or other reasons. So country X provides something, and country Y buys from country X something in return. This was not the case with Luftwaffe and F-104. If it was, then Luftwaffe could easily select the best available hardware from a variety of American interceptors at the time, instead they selected the worst. There was a joke at the time, that Lockheed managed to bribe even Luftwaffe conscript airmen to forward the deal.

I guess they figured it made no sense to integrate that weapon in that aircraft without integrating JHMCS also (lots of extra €€€s for an aircraft to be retired soon).