[black bear theory]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/opinion/31tue1.html

About the last thing the United States ought to be doing in Iraq is funneling weapons into black-market weapons bazaars, as sectarian militias arm themselves for civil war. Yet that is just what Washington may have been doing for the past several years, thanks to an inexplicable decision that standard Pentagon regulations for registering weapons transfers did not apply to the Iraq war.

Of more than 500,000 weapons turned over to the Iraqi Ministries of Defense and Interior since the American invasion — including rocket-propelled grenade launchers, assault rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles — the serial numbers of only 12,128 were properly recorded. Some 370,000 of these weapons, some of which are undoubtedly being used to kill American troops, were paid for by United States taxpayers, under the Orwellian-titled Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

This chilling information comes to us from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which has distinguished itself as the most vigilant agency monitoring the money spent on the Iraq conflict. The agency, led by a Republican lawyer who once worked in the Bush White House, has previously reported on the contracting lapses and failures of supervision that allowed billions of taxpayer dollars to be wasted instead of being used to rebuild Iraq.

to be fair, an audit revealed that all but some 14,000 weapons could be accounted for, though it is curious why corners were cut in supplying these weapons to the iraqi's, esp. now that our own weapons may be used against coalition troops.

is this part of faster, cheaper?

[relix]

Thanks for the site.I will check it out.

[marden]

What I can't yet understand is why those weapons didn't have serial numbers.

Also, dear readers, did you know that the Coalition refuses to give the Iraqi military or law enforcement any thing more than medium sized personal firearms? Basically rifles and handguns.

This is because of situations like this. If the Iraqis lost or misplaced or had stolen large weapons or weapon systems they could easily be used against the good guys. As is feared will or might happen in this case.

But on the other hand, the Iraqi government has recently asked for larger weapons in order to do more damage and be more effective in their operations against the enemy. And this is understandable, too!

But the bottom line is that until they have a better handle on who is and who ain't loyal and committed to the GOVERNMENT OF IRAQ there can not be weapons given to the Iraqis that some closeted jihadists in the police or military might steal and give to their terrorist buddies.

[ghporter]

They HAVE serial numbers. But the military advisers just didn't bother to record all of them. That's stupid and lazy.

They distributed captured Iraqi weapons for a number of reasons, including that meant they didn't need to destroy them (destroying weapons is hard work!) and they didn't need to train the new Iraqi soldiers as much to qualify them. There's also the issue of spares, technical support and so on to consider. It was the smartest thing to do. If only they'd bothered to write down the serial numbers when they inspected, cleaned, tested and stored all those rifles and such.

[marden]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

They HAVE serial numbers. But the military advisers just didn't bother to record all of them. That's stupid and lazy.

They distributed captured Iraqi weapons for a number of reasons, including that meant they didn't need to destroy them (destroying weapons is hard work!) and they didn't need to train the new Iraqi soldiers as much to qualify them. There's also the issue of spares, technical support and so on to consider. It was the smartest thing to do. If only they'd bothered to write down the serial numbers when they inspected, cleaned, tested and stored all those rifles and such.

Thanks for clearing that up. Oh, and I finally realized...you wear it well.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by marden 

Thanks for clearing that up. Oh, and I finally realized...you wear it well.

Gotta love the classics, eh? And the wife likes Rod's old, romantic stuff, so I sort of go with the flow.