Author Topic: Bush Administration Loses 190,000 Weapons in Iraq (Read 1496 times)

rpm · « **on:** August 07, 2007, 01:52:06 AM »

Where is that old Mission Accomplished banner at?

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The Washington Post says GAO investigators found that the U.S. military couldn't account for 190,000 rifles and pistols that were handed out to Iraqi cops and soldiers, the paper says. That's about one-third of all the AK-47s and handguns that the Pentagon distributed in 2004 and 2005. In addition, The New York Times says the military "cannot confirm" that the Iraqis received 115,000 helmets and 135,000 pieces of body armor.

"They really have no idea where they are," Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, tells the Post. "It likely means that the United States is unintentionally providing weapons to bad actors."

link
190,000 AK's & body armour floating around Baghdad that we paid for. How is this fighting the war? How is this supporting the troops? Who is running this circus?

john9001 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2007, 07:28:45 AM »

ha, the neo-con controlled right wing media has fooled you again, haliburton sold the weapons to the rebels to keep the war going so haliburton/chaney/bush could make more billions in profit and steal more iraq oil.

lazs2 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2007, 08:14:56 AM »

I don't know how many weapons got lost in WWII or Korea or vietnam but I bet it was a bunch.

Why does it surprise anyone that weapons get lost in a war?

lazs

Ripsnort · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2007, 09:07:46 AM »

This is most likely just accounting errors - which the Army does all the time. Even if it's not an error, it's then probably the Iraqis who lost them, not us.

The US Army is extremely careful about losing rifles & pistols. If soldiers on a training outing in the US lose a rifle, the entire unit has to go out into the field and search until they find it.

At a certain point you have to show trust in the Iraqi police and armed forces by letting them be accountable for their own inventory. Not sure if that "power" was transferred or not, but it appears to be a bigger screw up on the part of the Iraqi's and not so much on the US Army

Yeager · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2007, 09:26:25 AM »

rip, stop fooling yourself. iraq is a joke. anything you give to the iraqi government/military/police might just as well be considered aiding the enemy.

Shuffler · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2007, 09:44:08 AM »

Blaming that on Bush is a really long shot.

The weapons were given to the Iraqi government for their soldiers and police. Iraqi folks did not track the weapons. We went back checking and found there is no information on where all of the weapons went. It's not like they were on a train in shipment.... they were already delivered.

I think we need to understand, folks over there NEED someone to rule them. Someone who will kill them for breathing, someone to scare them into submission with instant death. That is all they have ever had. You can't change that in a few years. It is ingrained into every human over there.

Mickey1992 · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2007, 09:52:15 AM »

I would think that if the weapons were falling into enemy hands our troops would have already started finding then by now. My guess is the IA is taking them home, or they are ending up on the black market and maybe headed out of the country. Or am I wrong and the AK-47s that we provide the IA look just like all other AK-47s?

In a related story, the Brits are starting to pull out of Basra and the place is already going to hell. I feel this is an indication of what is to come all over Iraq.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20137025/

Ripsnort · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2007, 11:01:39 AM »

I'm somewhere between Yeager and Shuffler on this issue.

One thing is certain, if we pull the plug completely, and pull out, Iraq will be just an extension of Iran, and I believe the hell that is going on over there now would be miniscule compared to the hell that they'll have *when* we completely pull out.

storch · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2007, 11:30:16 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Yeager
rip, stop fooling yourself. iraq is a joke. anything you give to the iraqi government/military/police might just as well be considered aiding the enemy.

yes

SkyRock · « **Reply #9 on:** August 07, 2007, 11:45:08 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
I don't know how many weapons got lost in WWII or Korea or vietnam but I bet it was a bunch.

Why does it surprise anyone that weapons get lost in a war?

lazs

We have the ability and technology to keep up with them much better these days, and should do so.

AKIron · « **Reply #10 on:** August 07, 2007, 12:17:21 PM »

As Rip and possibly others have mentioned, once we give the weapons to Iraq we lose the ability to account for them. Why should it be otherwise? Claiming these are all lost sounds like nothing more than petty politics to me.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #11 on:** August 07, 2007, 12:41:47 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by AKIron
As Rip and possibly others have mentioned, once we give the weapons to Iraq we lose the ability to account for them. Why should it be otherwise? Claiming these are all lost sounds like nothing more than petty politics to me.

and rpm is "lefty lockstep" with them.

lazs2 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 07, 2007, 02:32:39 PM »

skyrock... pretty hard to keep track of em once you give them away to allies.

It would be like asking england and russia and south vietnam to account for all the weapons we had given them.

lazs

rpm · « **Reply #13 on:** August 07, 2007, 02:43:06 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Yeager
rip, stop fooling yourself. iraq is a joke. anything you give to the iraqi government/military/police might just as well be considered aiding the enemy.

Bingo.

USRanger · « **Reply #14 on:** August 07, 2007, 03:41:05 PM »

I brought them all home with me to sell on E-Bay:aok

Author Topic: Bush Administration Loses 190,000 Weapons in Iraq (Read 1496 times)

storch