(Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983 via the National Security Archive.)
Because nothing says success like repeating the same old failed and dangerous idiocy:
...There are many more where those came from. At least three U.S. government agencies are now investigating the massive "disappearance" and diversion of weapons Washington intended for Iraqi government forces that instead have spread to militants and organized gangs across the region. The potential size of the traffic is stunning. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last month showed that since 2004, some 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols, bought with U.S. money for Iraqi security forces, have gone missing.
At retail prices in the United States, a Glock 19 costs about $500. On the black market in Turkey, it can fetch up to $3,500, according to the national police. A senior Turkish security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities, said his government estimates some 20,000 U.S.-bought Glock 9mm pistols have been brought from Iraq into his country over the last three years. "The problem on our side is that this corruption is so big they [the Iraqi and U.S. governments] cannot stop it," said the official.
The U.S. military has investigated the problem repeatedly—and the losses look more appalling every time. Major U.S. arms transfers began when Gen. David Petraeus was commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq (MNSTC-I), better known as Minsticky. Its mission was to train, arm and organize Iraq's military and police forces, but the Iraqis' weapons came via the State Department, and the supply line was actually run by private contractors. A certain sense of drama militated against good bookkeeping, too. In a recent radio interview, Petraeus—now the commander of all Coalition forces in Iraq—reminisced about helicopters ferrying weapons to Iraqi troops under fire at night in Najaf. Men were "kicking two battalions' worth of equipment off the ramp and getting out of there while we could," he said.... (emphasis mine)
Read the whole article. It gets worse. Gen. Petraeus was in charge of this failed "kick 'em off the 'copters" strategy. And there is no real accounting of all of this.
We are arming by proxy the very people who are trying to cause chaos and harm to allies in the region, and to destablize what little peace is left in the Middle East and elsewhere. With the incompetence and lax control over the Bush Administration's pals with no-bid crony contracts and, with well over 80,000 missing and unaccounted for Glocks in play, alone, what could possibly go wrong? Because arming Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein worked out so well for us through the years, didn't it?
The Bush Administration: the dangerous failure that keeps on giving, for generations to come...
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the zed?!
3?
HA!
OldCoastie @ 1
Congrats, OC…!!!
On a roll today aren’t y’all?
single digits!
Well wash my foul mouth out with the truth.
Insane. Impeach.
Dead liiiiiinksssssah!
Mainewebreport dropped all the pages and comments, awwhhhh.
:(
Actually, their whole page is down… ironic timing.
Cheney prolley just writes it all off as “free market enterprise”… and would be happy if Halliburton was reaping the benefits.
Twice Jackass Tweety has asked John if Elizabeth is a “battle ax”.
Off Topic:
Rover will be on MTP this Sunday. (Now that’s a surprise!)
Send Monsignor Timmeh some suggestions as to what questions he should ask Turdblossom.
Sorry-EPU’d Current pic of Flossie…
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/wv-l.jpg
“Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq (MNSTC-I), better known as Minsticky”
As in “Sticky Fingers?”
God Christy. This really pisses me off. Jon Stewart has a great piece on this too - well a funny one, anyway. The cost of it is disgusting too, thinking what that money could have done here.
Do you wonder if they never got the armaments at all, but just paid Halliburton the money and “pretended” to acquire them and pass them out (aka lose them). There may be something fishy here. I would be curious if there is any troop knowledge of this.
The idea that George Bush gets to “call someone or in this case Iran’s elite military guard” terrorists and then have full permission to go after them is
ludicrous
terrifying
more of the same
all of the above.
Who is next? Crimaliens? Leftist bloggers?
This from HuffPost:
Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the (September Iraq) report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.
And we should trust these people, why??
raven @ 10
Honestly, that man should be off the air and in treatment.
And Karl’s first priority upon leaving the WH is to use guns on doves. The symbolism is rich.
“The Bush Administration: the dangerous failure that keeps on giving, for generations to come…
Junya has been successful at failing his entire life.
raven-i left you an epu’s response at 270 in last thread……..
We arm all sides.
barbara @ 16
Bush keeps yammering over and over that he will “listen to what General Petraues has to say about Iraq.”
Apparently W will listen in the same way that Edgar Bergen listened to Charlie McCarthy.
I think the list of “same old failed and dangerous idiocy” is getting too long and developing too many patterns to be due to “idiocy”. Every “screw-up” in Iraq..too few troops, not securing the arms dumps, disbanding the Iraqi military…..loosing 200,000 weapons, all result in increase chaos and death. Spreading the war to Iran; is this the Ledeen’s “creative destruction” put into practice?
www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html
Let’s review:
$12 billion of missing cash
190K missing guns
Gee, I wonder why there’s a problem with the militias?
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and some members of Congress are holding our troops hostage in Irak… and now they are arming many sides of a civil war which will clearly result in increased injury and death of our men and women in uniform.
War criminals.
People often ask — just last night at a Meetup, in fact — wasn’t the war and subsequent occupation of Iraq all about oil?
No, not really. Oil was only part of it; they couldn’t get to it with Saddam in the way.
But the real reason is that the Oil-for-Food program was grossly inefficient as a money laundering scam. The current occupation makes Oil-for-Food look like a blip in comparison to the amount of money these people could clear.
And now they not only got a mess of money for no-bid contracts for guns; they can turn around and sell them for many times more than their cost in cash.
[sigh] If only the money was coming back to pay off the debt we owe for this war.
As I read it:
Promote Patraeus to high position because of his incompetency in security.
Patraeus is less likely to prove the Bush Administration wrong when he knows the reprucussions could be revealing his track record and using that as an excuse to fire him from his position and demote him further.
Now, a strong general with an immaculate record would not mind at all looking at the president and saying outright, ‘Mr president, our surge has had negligable improvements. In some areas, it has made things worse’
Will Patreus say this? No. He knows if he does, the unnaccountability for the firearms will be broadcasted as reason to get rid of him. The side-effect for us who are trying to stop the war, is we cannot effectively use General Patraeus’ report as reason to get out of Iraq, because Patraeus was a reckless, irresponsible general who endangered the lives of American soldiers with his ignorance.
So. As a result, Patraeus doesn’t want to lose his position. He parrots the Administration’s talking points. If he’s out of line, he past haunts him and he’s toast on principled grounds.
1. We went into Iraq, leaving 95% of their arms depots, dumps and bunkers unguarded. Within weeks, all the good stuff was gone.
2. We disbanded their military and police forces. Those peoples’ weapons disappeared.
3. We brought in hundreds of thousands of weapons for the new model military and police. Those guns have now disappeared.
4. The Iraqi govenment also brought in hundreds of thousands of new weapons.
5. The Saudis have smuggled many weapons in and out of Iraq.
Clearly, to all but the most rabid lambs and foul-mouthed fem-bloggers here, this must be an Iranian plot….
Would anyone be surprised if most of those weapons have “made in Iran” stamped on them?
That way when the ‘insurgents’ are caught with them, the Big Dick gets his war with Iran.
Kevster @ 22
Actually, it’s more accurate to say ‘like Charlie McCarthy listened to Edgar Bergan’.
After all, Charlie McCarthy was the dummy in that relationship.
Tom @ 24
I thought it was $13 Bil. that was airlifted into Baghdad originally…!!!
Just for the record, here is another weapons deal for 40,000 assault rifles through England. The transport of tens of thousands of weapons cannot be easily concealed. There is customs, bank transactions, security and so on. These weapons are being spread around the region, and will have the effect of “destabilization”. This like the Tillman murder, is too hot for the corporate journalists, because it goes to the top of the corruption.
________________
http://observer.guardian.co.uk.....78,00.html
Documents obtained by The Observer show Procurement Management Services (PMS) had a contract to provide assault rifles to Ziad Cattan, the former head of military procurement at the Iraq Defence Ministry.
PMS was licensed by the DTI, now known as the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), to import at least 40,000 assault rifles and AK-47s to Britain from the former Yugoslavia.
Last night the department declined to shed light on whether it knew that, in 2005, PMS also had at least one contract to supply some 300 7.62mm light-machineguns from the former Yugoslavia to Cattan at the Iraq Defence Ministry. Until mid-2005, Cattan, who used to run a pizza parlour in Poland, was responsible for overseeing the importation of weapons into Iraq. A warrant has been issued for his arrest amid allegations he illegally made millions of dollars in corrupt deals.
There is no Foreign Office record of any British company being granted a licence to transport guns between Bosnia and Baghdad.
So sad, so true. And its not merely incompetence. BushCo. actually set out to lock in changes that a new administration could not reverse by merely flipping a switch. The malevolence was intentional. Of course, there was also incompetence, and in some cases that incompetence may prevent the Bushies from setting some of their changes in concrete.
Bob in HI
And Cheney is bitchin’ about Iran sending in IED’s.
Irony?
Let’s not forget about the munitions dumps we didn’t bother guarding right after we went in.
There are enough armaments, explosives and small arms floating around over there for them to invade Texas.
Now come on folks, you can’t have war without guns! Good grief. How do you expect Bush to fight an enemy that doesn’t have guns? Hell, the way things are going here at home, I better get me one of them AK-47s. You never know when Lil’ Georgie will declare martial law and order the arrest of all liberals. You ask how can he tell a liberal? The same way he can tell Al Qaeda in Iraq from Sunni insurgants, if we kill ‘em, they’re Al Qaeda. Now which end do the bullets come out of this thing…
Rayne@26: well, the war will eventually pay for itself, you know..
Geez…I wonder if Iraqi’s are killing US soldiers for their AK-47’s so they can sell it to feed their families.
Tom @36,
Yeah, and to think Wolfowitz said something as stupid as that and somehow ended up leading the World Bank for years.
cancer_cures @ 38
a prime example of all that is wrong with BushCo
This just makes me feel all warm and secure.
On the other hand, I can’t wait for “No one could have foreseen the loss of 190,000 AK-47 assault weapons…”
The Republican GOP Mantra: Incompetence will be rewarded. Take a look at this piece over at the HUFFPO: Barry Rosenberg’s Billions Wasted
From Stephen F. Hayes’ WSJ puff piece on the Dick, which Christy cited:
Wow! That’s news! So the US air defense system wasn’t a total failure on 9/11?
Now, perhaps, Mr. Cheney would please inform us exactly which flight was ordered shot down…Hmmm?
Rove regarding Bush critics:
“They misunderestimate him.”
For someone who is supposed to have a way with words, that is a good one. Wonder if that was accidentally on purpose, or just illiterate.
“Originated as a malapropism of “underestimated” by US President George Walker Bush in a speech on September 26, 2001.” Langmaker.
JohnJ @ 29
The problem with that is that we already know goddamned well where they were made.
“…Pusillanimous Pussy-footers…” A blast from the past, that defines our current crop of Dems perfectly!!! ;-)
A small sample of Michael Ledeen..neocon theorist..
Ledeen has gained notoriety in recent months for the following paragraph in his latest book, The War Against the Terror Masters. In what reads like a prophetic approval of the policy of chaos now being visited on Iraq, Ledeen wrote,
Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity, which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very existence—our existence, not our politics—threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission.
www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html
They just hadn’t counted on the Iraqi’s fighting back..Iraq was to have been the demonstration project..the example for Iran and Syria….Hasn’t quite worked out as planned, but the result may be even better then they expected. Maybe Iraq will be the “initiator” for a chain reaction of death and destruction in the Middle East.
CTuttle @ 31
Well, what’s a billion or two between friends?
Cliff Varnell @ 42
Indeed. In case anyone missed this old article including the NORAD tapes, it is a must read.
PB (peanut butter) @ 47
…or our enemies!!! *g*
madness, madness, madness
TeddySanFran @ 50
Feel better, Teddy? ;-)
Steve-AR @ 46
What Ledeen, typical of colonialists, fails to recognize is that the ability to destroy does not, in and of itself, grant the ability to impose the new form of your choice, or any form at all, in its place. Destruction only destroys, and the destroyer of cultures seldom has the power to create a new one, no matter how fucking much energy and creativity he thinks he has to offer.
I said it this morning, and I’ll say it again:
You can’t have a war without an enemy, and you can’t have an enemy that has no weapons.
That’s War 101
You can debate the degree of intent vs incompetance on the part of Bush & Co., but the fact remains…these people did not want to be done in June or July of 2003.
Bustednuckles @ 34
no. he’s pissed because he thinks all the profits that come from selling weapons belong to his cronies by rights. iran is not allowed to horn in on his business.
Elliott @ 21
So if the US declares a big chunk of the Iranian Army a terrorist organization and wants to bomb Iran because it is supplying arms to insurgents/resistance in Iraq, THEN
they could declare themselves a terrorist organization for supplying arms to insurgents/resistance in Iraq, and them bomb themselves senseless.
Logical, no?
Rayne @ 26
DING!
OT..A little creative destruction at home..
WASHINGTON — Sales of existing homes fell in 41 states during the April-June quarter while home prices were down in one-third of the metropolitan areas surveyed, a real estate trade group reported Wednesday.
The new figures from the National Association of Realtors underscored the severity of the current housing slump, the worst downturn in 16 years.
www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wi.....ome-sales/
Eureka Springs @ 48
thanks
Steve-AR @ 56
Sixteen years, eh? Guess you can’t blame this one on Clinton, Shrubby Boy.
Steve-AR @ 56
You should see the comments about this on the real-estate blog at the LA Times. Some of the people are, um, trollish. A lot of unhidden racism there from people, most of whom moved from CA to OK and other points in ‘flyover country’, and are also happy to have concealed-carry weapons easily available to them.
Steve-AR @ 56
Yes. And food prices are rising sharply. (per Drudge).
I can’t stand the thought of what is going to happen to our troops on their way out…
What “allies”? The “Coalition of the Willing” has dried up. Now our troops face our misplaced weapons alone.
Richmond @60: Yes — look for the price of milk to go over $5 a gallon…if you need butter for Yule baking, buy it now and freeze it.
Loo Hoo. @ 61
I believe the relevant text is the Anabasis aka “The Retreat Up-Country.”
What Ledeen, typical of colonialists, fails to recognize is that the ability to destroy does not, in and of itself, grant the ability to impose the new form of your choice, or any form at all, in its place. Destruction only destroys, and the destroyer of cultures seldom has the power to create a new one, no matter how fucking much energy and creativity he thinks he has to offer.
Steve-AR @ 56
foreclosures in my city are up almost 4x over last year. and it’s hard to see how this doesn’t get worse since the we’ve only started on the arm resetting bubble.
Loo Hoo. @ 61
You and me both…I’m very worried about what could happen “before” they try to get out. Bridges are being blown up all around Baghdad, and Basra is under siege. Now the north is experiencing enormous civilian casualties. Meanwhile, W/Cheney is ramping up war right next door. It is insane. I will say one thing; if the troops get trapped, there will be a draft to go in and get them. All hell will break loose. I hope things go the other way.
@ 65..I screwed up the quotes..sorry
It was 1977. I was doing business with Indonesia. Through some networking and some luck, I landed some nice contracts that helped me get my business started. A high profile interior design firm called me and I met the the woman heading up their SF office. My word, she was beautiful, stunning taste, gracious and enviable. I felt like I was in Cartier in Paris. My own presentation was very simple and modest.
M and I were the odd couple. I liked her and she appreciated and like me. After that we had little in common. In the course of many conversations she learned I was Quaker, nonviolent in perspective and was in a business that supported the local Indonesian people. She was creating a theme in several high end hotel suites and used many of my products.
We were in my car, driving to a meeting together, because her red convertible Mercedes was stolen. It was a gift from her husband. As usual, she was stunningly dressed. I asked what her husband did for a living? She looks embarrassed and says it would be opposite of what I believe. She was genuinely embarrassed. He and his partners sold weapons to Third World countries. He had been with the Pentagon for years. His partners were from the Pentagon and other US Government agencies. She was quite open with the information.
Her words resound to this day. “If you want to make lots of money, sell arms to other countries.” I asked how she felt about this. She said she was upset at first but he explained to her that it was no more than business and if these people wanted to kill each other, so be it. It was none of his concern. I suggested that those weapons could be used against us at some point. She responded that these people didn’t have the smarts to do that.
So, how do they get weapons? From the same people invading their country. Business is good. Really good. M and I worked together for several months but I saw her differently. She went to her weekly facials, enjoyed a luxurious spa, shopped in New York and wore exquisite designer clothes. She often went to state dinners.
wigwam at 62 — If you read the article, the inicident that they talk about at the start happened IN TURKEY. If you think those arms are just staying in Iraq, you are fooling yourself. And that is enormous trouble for law enforcement…everywhere.
Brisingamen @ 63
geez! And the cows won’t be getting much more corn because it will all be going to big-corp owned ethenal fuel. Sweet!
Loo Hoo. @ 61
As bad as it will be I think it’s much better than if they stay. The troops have full air support with one air base in southern Irak which has more traffic than any other airport in the world. Also we need to leave a whole lot of stuff behind (hopefully blow up a lot of weapons)..any argument to the contrary looks weak with so much news of weaponry lost and or provided to various factions of Irakis.
selise @ 66
I have posted this before..My GF’s mother has a friend who works in the loan dept of a bank…The friend said she had been very busy, not writing new loans but processing defaults which were coming in at the rate of17 per hour. This is in a small city of ~53k population.
QuakerGirl @ 69
Movie: Lord of War
Loo Hoo. @ 61
They’ll make it out (if they don’t depart thru Iran). Those convoys will be guarded by Apache gunships, Spectres, fighters, as well as a free-fire zone for a considerable distance around. You will not see a desperate, cut-off Army in Iraq having to run the gauntlet to Kuwait. There would have to be a serious degradation of the Air Force for that to happen.
selise @ 66
Foreclosures way up, property values down, tax revenues based on property values down. Local schools will be in an even worse state in many places.
Shuster is in for Tucker.
RonD @ 75
That is what Mr. LS told me.
Yeah, On MSNBC it is Shuster instead of TuKKKer.
OT - Shuster in for Tucker - topic… are we going to war with Iran?
Steve-AR @ 65
Which all sounds very much like a fancy ideological dress-up for doomed ambition to me. And I disagree that it isn’t incompetence or idiocy that is stirring up the shit just because Ledeen and his fellow travelers want to dress it up as a master plan.
Eureka Springs @72 — Agreed!
Leave the stuff behind, get the people out.
Not one item of equipment is worth a human life. (If possible give the medical items to the local hospitals.)
jayt @ 80
Reminds of..”Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you and who’s army????” Oh, yeah…
Insane.
TeddySanFran @ 50
Madness is watching the Fed burn billions of tax dollars trying to save Wall Street.
Government debt limit is meaningless.
RonD @ 75
And that is the conundrum isn’t it? Having to inflict massive casualties on Iraqi civilians in-order to extract our troops.
Eureka Springs @ 72
The troops, if they have to leave precipitously, will go out much as they came in. They’ll get massive air support, and will probably take only about 150 to 200 percent of the casualties they took going in.
LS @ 83
Reminds of..”Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you and who’s army????” Oh, yeah…
Insane.
Looks like Shuster inherited a Tucker-picked “expert”.
Thanks, Ron. Sure hope you and Mr. LS are right.
Bush Co Things To Do:
1. Start War check
2. Empty country’s surplus into no bid Halliburton contract. check
3. Ransack the country we invade oil, art, money, gubment contracts. check
4. Blame the locals. check
5. Let them “accidently” get arms so they can keep fighting. Oops! check
6. Continue war. check
7. Ignore all else. check
8. Block opposition. check
9. Repeat.
Which all sounds very much like a fancy ideological dress-up for doomed ambition to me. And I disagree that it isn’t incompetence or idiocy that is stirring up the shit just because Ledeen and his fellow travelers want to dress it up as a master plan.
“The questions is, is the president true to his word”…
Ummmmmm. Don’t you get it yet?
Steve-AR @ 46
So, destruction is creative? How positively Orwellian. And well understood by Lewis Carroll, in Alice in Wonderland.
Ledeen is a dangerous criminal, sowing seeds of destruction wherever he goes.
Bob in HI
This stuff is lifted straight from the writings of Italian fascists before World War I. I think Ledeen specialized in them at one time. Match obviously made in heaven.
Knut Wicksell @ 92
I think the source is a little darker and hotter than heaven.
And just why *shouldn’t* Iran have a nuclear weapon? The crazy Bush-alike Iranian mouthpiece has no power - it still belongs to the religious faction. Israel, India, Pakistan, Israel, and almost certainly Saudi Arabia have ‘em. Hell, in their situation I’d want one too.
Since when did Mutually Assured Destruction become a non-starter?