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August 7, 2007
190,000 missing weapons
The US seems much more concerned at having lost 190,000 weapons than at a multiple of that number in dead people losing their lives.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2841342.ece
Doubtless many of these weapons are in the hands of opponents of the US occupation. Of those other weapons issued by the US that can be accounted for, most are in the hands of security services that are simply local militias in uniform and can switch allegiances from day to day.
You have to add to the 190,000 weapons the still greater potency of the weapons already in Iraq
before the invasion, looted from Saddam's massive conventional arms caches which the coalition failed to secure while Bush and Blair had them desperately searching for non-existent WMD.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/26/explosives_were_looted_after_iraq_invasion/
The other thing the US is good at losing is money. Of course, the poor US tazpayer is spending a triilion dollars on the War in Iraq, while the hopeless administration manages to mislay billions at a time.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article720217.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2008189,00.html
Much of that lost money lined the pockets of "contractors" and corrupt officials. Some will have again found its way through criminal channels to the Iraqi resistance. The US continually accuses Iran of funding and arming the Iraqi resistance. That is hardly necessary when the US is doing such a good job of arming and funding the Iraqi resistance itself, often through the well established criminal gangs within the US armed forces.
http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=41005&archive=true
You really do have to wonder how long this can go on. The brainwashing of key portions of the US population through the media and evangelical churches, and the crass appeal by shifty politicians to "Patriotism", has held the line so far against all the evidence of the disaster this is for the US as a nation. But at some time the patience of the people must surely snap - I suspect leaving a timid Democrat leadership scuttling to keep up.
Posted by craig on August 7, 2007 9:19 AM in the category War in Iraq
Comments
Interesting article here http://www.order-order.com/2007/08/100bn-price-of-special-relationship.html on the increase of $100billion in US treasuries held by the UK.
Posted by: Geoff Jones ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 7, 2007 1:08 PM
I wonder how the average soldier feels about this. These weapons may be responsible for a lot of those deaths, civilian and military.
This story has been bubbling away for a couple of years. The auditors just confirmed what Amnesty International discovered. It really defies comprehension, I think we have become so jaded we can no longer be angry, just amazed.
ps to be a pedant, a dead person cannot lose their life, they have already lost it.
Posted by: blue_monday at August 7, 2007 3:17 PM
This is of course yet another example of how shamefully little the people running this war care about what happens to those on the ground. I am even tempted to suggest that it might have been done deliberately. Of course the longer the war goes on and the greater the resistance, the more money there is to be made.
Talking of shameful behaviour, did anyone read the disclosure by The Times that Britain is not taking any responsibility for the 91 Iraqis who risked their lives to act as interpreters for the British forces. They are being left to fend for themselves and may well be targeted as coalition sympathisers. What an absolute disgrace (but hardly surprising). Incidentally, the story refers to the US taking 7,000 Iraqi refugees this year. However, I believe that the actual figure has already been reduced, although it should be still be rather more than the disgracefully small figure of below 800 for the 3 years since the invasion.
Full story here:
http://tinyurl.com/3xsnhv
Posted by: Foddy at August 7, 2007 3:33 PM
By strange coincidence CNN is just running a report on Iran supplying weapons and money to Iraqi insurgents, but nobody is asking about missing AK47s and missing dollars.
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