Although Bush blamed Iran, insurgents armed with weapons purchased by American's tax money

GAO Says: 30 Percent Of Weapons U.S. Gave Iraqi Troops Missing
August 6, 2007 11:13 a.m. EST
Linda Young - AHN News Writer
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008117851

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - About 30 percent of all weapons the United States military gave to Iraqi forces since 2004 to train and equip troops are missing, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. Missing are 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and semiautomatic pistols that officials fear might have ended up in the hands of insurgents fighting against U.S. troops.

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The GAO report called distribution of U.S. weapons to Iraqi forces haphazard, rushed and in violation of established procedures, BBC news reported Monday.

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Although the Bush administration has blamed Iran for equipping Iraqi insurgents, the lack of a way to identify United States property means that the U.S. military has no way of knowing if that is the case, or if American soldiers are battling insurgents who are armed with weapons purchased by American's tax money.

"They really have no idea where they are," Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, told the Washington Post. Stohl has studied small-arms trade and received Pentagon briefings on the issue. "It likely means that the United States is unintentionally providing weapons to bad actors."

In addition to that, the Post reported that while Bush worried about non-existent weapons of mass destruction he did not secure the small arms in Iraq, which have likely gone to insurgents fighting U.S. troops. In addition to that, the Bush administration has not acted to control the loss of U.S. weapons to insurgents.

Life is troublesome in George Bush's Amurica.

against us? I know the real answer.

To make it harder to prove we are arming both sides to keep the war going.

Because the U.S. doesn't make military AK-47's, only non-automatic civilian variants, and those are made in very small numbers (most U.S. civilian AK's are imported).

Iraqi troops are all trained on military AK's, and all the rifles they currently have are AK's, so introducing U.S. Stoner-pattern rifles (M16, M4) into the mix would be a logistical and training nightmare. U.S. rifles are more of a pain to maintain in dusty conditions, as well. So we bought AK's from Poland, which makes really good ones.

You can still tell the difference between a U.S. contract AK-47 and an indigenous Iraqi AK-47, because the U.S.-supplied models are made in Poland, and the Iraqi ones were made elsewhere (my guess would be China and Romania, possibly with some antique Russian ones mixed in).

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." --Hanlon's Razor