Bush Administration Flooding Iraqi Black Market With Billions Of Dollars In Weapons

[ProSense]

Bush Administration Flooding Iraqi Black Market With Billions Of Dollars In Weapons

In his testimony before Congress last week, Gen. David Petraeus confirmed that the United States plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Iraq:

Iraq is becoming one of the United States’ larger foreign military sales customers, committing some 1.6 billion (dollars) to FMS already, with the possibility of up to 1.8 billion (dollars) more being committed before the end of this year.

This move may mean big profits for arms manufacturers in the United States and abroad. But as Salon’s Mark Benjamin notes, “(G)ood business doesn’t necessarily equal good foreign policy.”

A recent Government Accountability Report found that the United States has been unable to keep track of the arms it sold in the region. Under Petraeus’s watch, more than “110,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 80,000 Glock pistols, 135,000 pieces of body armor and 115,000 Kevlar helmets issued to Iraqi security forces” have gone missing. U.S. weapons sold to the Iraqi government were also found in Turkey, where they were linked to violent crimes.

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[liberal renegade]

1. No shit!

[Matariki]

2. That's a strategy - arm the 'insurgency' so we HAVE to stay there for years. n/t

[EFerrari]

3. Poor Iraq. So close to the United States and so far from god. n/t