Taipei, Sept 23, SPA -- More than 180 retired military generals voiced their opposition Thursday to a Taiwan government plan to buy 18 billion U.S. dollars worth of arms from the United States. The announcement came just three days after a group of Taiwan academics urged the government to scrap the controversial plan they claimed would push the island into economic disaster. In a statement signed by more than 180 retired generals, including former general Chou Ching-lo, director of the Secretariat of the National Security Bureau, the retired officers said the planned budget to buy the weapons from America would only create financial problems for Taiwan. "Those weapons are far from enough to bring real safety to Taiwan in terms of quantity and functions, but will only abet the hawkish faction of the Chinese Communists to find a more reasonable excuse to counter Taiwan militarily, said the generals in the statement. Taiwan has ordered 388 PAC-3 Patriot missies, eight diesel-electric submarines, and 12 P3C anti-submarine aircraft from the United States. It has proposed to list a special budget to buy the arms, but the proposal has met with strong opposition at home. --mor 1337 Local Time 1037 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/204280