Congress May Block Air Force F-22 Retirement Plan - AVweb

As usual, an AvWeb article has ginned-up a spittle flurry of political commentary.

This seems to me to be a fairly straight-forward issue:

  1. Were these two aircraft bought legally and the manufacturers/brokers paid in full?
  2. Are these two aircraft currently on US soil or otherwise under US legal jurisdiction?
  3. Do these two aircraft present a threat to US persons or property?

If the answers are ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘no’, I fail to see how we have any legitimate authority over where they go. Yes, we can exert pressure on other countries to make such travel difficult, but that is a matter for the State Department, not the FBI or a US Federal judge.

What salient facts am I missing?

N.B. to (ir)Rational K.: You do your arguments no favor by conflating a political opinion with qualification for a pilot’s license.