Hmmm, something doesn't add up here.

Apparently the General Accounting Office is looking into the disappearance of large numbers of firearms that have disappeared in Iraq. They were supposed to have gone to the Iraqi army, but now no one knows where they are. In other words, the tax dollars of every person reading this went to buy guns, which were handed to Iraqis (in some cases without proper procedure, by the US Army's own admissions) and never seen again. And, in fact, may be some of the weaponry that is currently being used against US troops on the ground.

Anyone else see a problem with that? I mean, at this point is it even believable when the Pentagon continues to claim that we went over to Iraq to improve the way of life for the Iraqi people? No one's buying it, why keep saying it?

I know I'm not saying anything new here but today the lack of competence is really getting to me. It is never a good idea to make weapons available to any faction that hates your guts to start with. I mean, that should be obvious. And there are generals, like Petraeus, who don't seem to get this!

It reminds me of the part in the movie Lord Of War (which everyone in this class should go rent immediately if they haven't seen it) where the African warlords are buying arms with the obvious intent of committing genocide against a nearby refugee camp. There are situations that any trained strategist (such as, presumably, Petraeus) should be able to recognize and deal with, ideally by defusing or preventing them. This whole missing weapons situation was one of those, therefore it could easily, at some long past point, have been avoided.

Someone somewhere is making a lot of money off of this. It's not a good form of "aid", no matter how you look at it.