190,000 weapons missing in Iraq

As the Pentagon steps up its plan to arm neighborhood Sunni gangs to fight al Qaeda, a new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that 30% of all weapons handed out over the last three years are missing:

The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says thePentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq overthe past three years.

The Pentagon did not dispute the  figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures.

About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces.

GAO, the investigative arm of the US Congress, said atleast $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons andother equipment.

If you take 30% of $2.8 billion, you get a grand total of $840 million in US taxpayer money that was completely wasted, and may even be in the hands of militias that kill our soldiers.  Whether it's weapons or the money we give to the Saudi regime, the Pentagon is funding both sides of this war.

In addition, this report comes one month after another GAO study found that 135,000 items of body armor and 115,000 helmets were missing in Iraq as well.