Playing "Where's Waldo" was always fun for me as a kid in magazines and puzzles, but finding missing weapons is no laughing matter. That is especially important because there are nearly 200,000 missing sidearms and automatic rifles that we gave to the Iraqis. Accountability has been lacking in the Bush Administration from day one, now there is another deadly example of how the Pentagon has mishandled this war.
From The Washington Post:
The author of the report from the Government Accountability Office says U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Pentagon did not dispute the GAO findings, saying it has launched its own investigation and indicating it is working to improve tracking. Although controls have been tightened since 2005, the inability of the United States to track weapons with tools such as serial numbers makes it nearly impossible for the U.S. military to know whether it is battling an enemy equipped by American taxpayers.
The chance that our own weaponry is killing our own men and women is becoming more and more likely. It is a sad reality that we have no control in this civil war. The only thing we have power over is the choice to stay in the many lines of fire, killing dozens of our troops every month. We have made so many mistakes in Iraq and despite the Pentagon claiming that they will "investigate," the problems will continue as long as we are there.
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