190,000 weapons missing, says Pentagon

 Embarrassing situation for American Operations

Almost 200,000 weapons remain unaccounted for, according to the Government Accountability Office.  That’s enough for Middle Eastern nations to start wars.  In fact, there is anecdotal evidence that suggests our own weapons and money spent by your tax dollars are helping “our enemy” kill American troops.

According to the GAO, the US supplied Iraqi soldiers and police with 185,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 170,000 pistols between 2003 and September 2005. But the report said the Pentagon had lost track of 110,000 rifles and 80,000 pistols. It said the defense department could also not account for 135,000 pieces of body armor and 115,000 helmets.

Still think it’s Unamerican to question lawmakers for bad policy moves?

The report comes as some US legislators are raising concerns about recent alliances forged between the American military and groups in Iraq that may have previously targeted US soldiers. In some provinces, particularly in the Sunni stronghold of al-Anbar in the west, US troops have provided weapons to Iraqis for the purpose of fighting members of al-Qaeda in Iraq.  On Sunday, Robert Gates, the US defense secretary, defended such moves, saying that at some point the US would have to work with groups that previously attacked its forces.

Has Iraq become a desperate situation?  We’ve allied former enemies out of necessity and even fund some of their kills against us…

“By the time this whole thing is over we’ll have had to make arrangements with a variety of people that at one time or another were opposed to us,” said Mr Gates. “That’s the way the political process is going to evolve in Iraq.”

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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