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Amid violent uprisings against autocratic Arab regimes, the Iraqi government says it has taken a novel step to head off trouble: shelving plans to buy 18 Lockheed Martin F-16s and diverting a $900 million down payment to buy food for its poor. Whether that decision was a consequence of the wave of street protests largely driven by poverty, hunger and unemployment, which toppled the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia in the last six weeks, isn't altogether clear.
"The contract was postponed and the $900 million that was allocated to it was transferred to support the people," government adviser Tahseen al-Sheikhli said last week in Baghdad.
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