190,000 Weapons Unaccounted for in Iraq

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued July 2007 disclosed that 190,000 weapons are unaccounted for in Iraq. The weapons were issued to Iraqi security forces and include 110,000 AK-47 rifles and 80,000 pistols. The lack of accountability was attributed to insufficient staff and no fully operational network to distribute equipment (i.e. weapons were distributed on a first come, first serve basis).

At $500 a weapon (my rough estimate), that is $95 million in weapons that have gone missing. Of course that is a drop in the bucket considering since 2003, $2.8 billion US taxpayer's dollars have been spent to arm Iraqi forces and $19 billion total has been spent to develop Iraqi security forces. As of the July 2007 publication of the GAO report, the Department of Defense still had not specified which accountability procedures apply to the train-and-equip program.

The man in charge of the US train-and-equip program for Iraq during 2004-2005 when most of the weapons were distributed was General David Petraeus. Petraeus was in charge of training the new Iraq army for 15 months, and two years later they are still not ready to stand on their own. In comparison, 18 months after America declared war on Germany in 1917 we had mobilized and trained an army, put that army in the field oversees, and defeated the enemy. Petraeus has since been elevated to commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq.

We will never know how many of our troops have been killed with weapons supplied to the insurgents courtesy of the US government. At the same time, the neo-cons are beating the drums of war about Iran supplying weaponry to our enemy. And to think, if you blinked then you likely missed this story.