Iraq war makes US police departments wait longer for ammunition

A number of police agencies in the US, such as one in South Dakota, say shipments of bullets that officers rely on for protection have been slowed because they are in high demand in Iraq:

Law enforcement officials in South Dakota say the needfor bullets used by the military in Iraq has made it more difficult toget the ammunition police need for training and patrol work.

It takes more than a year to fill bullet orders for police and gun shops, an ammunition manufacturer in Rapid City confirms.

KristiHoffman, co-owner of Black Hills Ammunition, a mid-sized ammunitioncompany that has contracts with the U.S. Navy, said her firm has anorder backlog of 16-18 months for gun shops and law agencies that wantrifle bullets.

Black Hills Ammunition specializes in.223-caliber rifle rounds, and the need to meet deadlines in militarycontracts means other customers must wait, she said. The company isrunning at capacity to fill orders, Hoffman added.

"It's notgetting any better. It's not getting any worse," she said. "We've beenrunning the same amount of backlog time for the past six months."

Similar to how war in Iraq hurt the Kansas wildfire rescue effort last May because so much of the needed equipment was oversees.

It's a re-occurring theme: while unsuccessfully trying to spread "freedom" around the world, we're leaving our country to rot.  When weighing the opportunity cost, how is it economically sound to outsource $227,000 of our treasury each minute on a failed foreign affair, when we could for once invest in the country we actually live in?