Sunday, August 5, 2007

More Mismanagement of the Iraq War

The Washington Post is out today with this sad report based on a new official investigation:

The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

So now—through sheer incompetence—we are arming the insurgents? We are providing the enemy the guns to shoot our own soldiers? If this is the case, things in Iraq are worse than we thought.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That unaccounted for 9 billion dollars probably didn't do much good either.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/4228758/detail.html

No, no, we don't need a receipt.

The party of fiscal conservatism?

Savage Baptist said...

That sort of thing is both disturbing and annoying, to say the least. However, two things ought to be noted: first, despite that, American casualties have been falling with the surge, and second, when engaging U.S. troops in Iraq, the weapon of choice is the IED, not the AK-47.

It's possible that insurgents may have the AK-47s, for all I know. But it's also fairly clear that they're having a hard time working up the nerve to try using them in shootouts with U.S. troops.

Anonymous said...

If they have acquired 190,000 AK-47's, they will at the very least sell thousands of them for IED materiel.