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Originally Posted by powerclown
Seems to me what we have here is yet another example of trying to do the right thing and screwing up. It seems what we have here is money intended to finance fledgling governmental operations has gone missing/was stolen/who the fuck knows.
Will this determine the outcome of the war? No.
Does this justify a swift and total withdrawal? No.
Will it get even more people pissed off? Yes.
Will it add fuel to the fire? Yes.
Does it help our fighting men? No.
Is this the left's financial Abu Ghraib? Why not.
Should stories like this be reported? Yes.
Did I receive any of the money? No.
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It seems to me you are missing the bigger issue or just unwilling to hold anyone accountable.
The fact is there has been virtually no oversight of this war by Congress for nearly 4 years.
Just as another SIGIR audit found that 14,000 weapons sent to Iraq are missing:
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Nearly one of every 25 weapons the military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing, a government audit said Sunday. Many others cannot be repaired because parts or technical manuals are lacking.
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The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons _ almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided _ less than 3 percent.
The Pentagon spent $133 million on the weapons, and "the capacity of the Iraqi government to provide national security and public order is partly contingent on arming the Iraqi security forces, under the ministries of defense and interior," the report notes. Military officials insisted the weapons either had to be new or never issued to a previous soldier.
By December, the U.S. military had planned to put those weapons in the hands of 325,500 personnel.
Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns, according to an audit requested by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The audit does not make clear at what point the weapons were lost. But it notes that "there could have been undetected losses" before weapons were ever issued to Iraqi security forces _ who also lack many needed spare parts, technical repair manuals and arms maintenance personnel.
full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...ness/special/5
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Will these and other fuck-ups determine the outcome of the war....it could certainly cost more American lives if those funds and weapons found their way into the hands of al Sadr's Mahdi Army or the Badr Brigade or any of the other dozens of sectarian militias.
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Maybe Iran stole it. Maybe Syria stole it. Maybe al-Qaeda stole it. Maybe Dubai stole it. Maybe Bahrain stole it. Maybe Australia stole it. Maybe Greenland stole it. Maybe Willie Nelson stole it. Maybe it fell into the Persian Gulf.
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I think it is unfortunate that you find such an unconscionable abrigation of responsiblity by the Republican Congress so amusing as to offer such a lighthearted reaction.