Petraeus: Give Iraq More Weapons

[babylonsister]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004145.php

Petraeus: Give Iraq More Weapons
By Spencer Ackerman - September 11, 2007, 1:30 PM

Something that's passed without notice in the hearings today and yesterday is that Gen. Petraeus cheered Iraq "becoming one of the U.S.'s larger foreign military sales customers." According to the general, Iraq has committed $1.6 billion already to the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales program, and might commit another $1.8 billion before the end of the year. A few minutes ago, he told Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that "we have to push the system" to get more weapons into Iraqi hands.

This is a pattern with Petraeus. When he commanded the training and equipping of Iraqi forces, almost 200,000 pistols and AK-47s intended for the Iraqi security forces went missing. Petraeus forthrightly said recently that he didn't think having safeguards in place to ensure the weapons were in the proper hands was as important as simply getting a slow-moving Pentagon bureaucracy to ship the weapons to Iraq. That decision, however, was one of several that has occasioned an unprecedented Pentagon Inspector General mission to Iraq to determine the extent of mismanagement and corruption -- and possibly even criminal activity -- in the sprawling logistics system.

Now, Petraeus seems to be saying that the Iraqi security forces need a surge of U.S. weaponry. It's admirable that Petraeus is trying to rapidly increase the competence and capability of the Iraqi security forces -- the lack of which makes up a large part of bipartisan criticism of the war. But what safeguards does Petraeus have in place to ensure that those guns won't end up on the black market, or in the hands of U.S. enemies?

[whistle]

1. Give Iraq 200,000 troop army, $1.0 trillion and all the weapons our troops

...are using and just leave now

[madokie]

2. but who would you give them to, how to tell friend or foe

we need to take our war toys with us and get the hell out of their country right damn now is what we need to do, no pussy footing around about it either. leave, go, git the hell out and leave them alone. There would be many more of the Iraqi still alive in ten years if we would.

[Bluerthanblue]

3. excellent point- there are bottomless pockets for death and

destruction- (as long as a profit is hidden somewhere inside)

and pitiful scraps for life giving, life supporting, life sustaining endeavors.

The love of war/power/greed is going to be our destruction- not from without- but from within..


Petreaus exposed the naked, ugly truth.


"DECLARE PEACE"
J.Lennon

[ClintonTyree]

4. The Iraqis aren't buying a thing......

the American taxpayer is footing the bill. Who the hell does he think he's fooling?

In response to my own question, probably about 60% of the American people.

[doublethink]

5. It's been tried before ..... hasn't it.

and Petraeus knows it .. from 2004 ... here ....... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1783571&mesg_id=1783571

[bigtree]

6. arming both sides of the civil war

BAGHDAD, June 10 — With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.

The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq’s army and police force, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?ei=5088&en=7c69d70a25a4828e&ex=1339214400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print