They were smuggled into Syria. That’s gotta be it.
I was just a squad Sgt. in the infantry back in the eighties, so I know I didn’t get the “Big picture”, but even an idiot can see that when you are missing a number of arms larger than that required to equip an army larger than your in-country troops, there is a logistical probem. There is no way 190,000 AKs walked away one at a time, this was a wholesale deal. Someone is responsible for an act of treason (if it was one of our people) or an act of something else (I cannot think of the right word) of the Iraqi officials. The news reports are sorely missing the detail if said rifles disappeared while in our custody or after turned over to Iraqi forces. There has to be a paper trail. Shit I cannot get a new video card to fix the projector problem in room 234 without a Purchase Order and the signature of the Dean of the department, the head of IT, the head of Fiscal Services (the comptroller), and a rep of the accounting department, (just make sure my budget has the money). Who signed for these missing 190,000 puppies last? My guess is Halliburton. Just kidding there, although it would not surprise me. Outside contracting is the best way to avoid responsibility. Christ, if I can track down a 50 dollar video card, the feds should have a clue where 190,000 rifles went.
As an aside, an earlier poster commented the AK-47 was a substandard weapon. Wake up, there is a reason they made a hundred million of them, they are the most reliable assault rifle ever built. Not the most powerful, not the most accurate, but very much the most reliable. We trained with them, and while I preffered my M-16, I could not make a good arguement as to why the AK-47 was not a better choice.
I am sure they are being used to guard the weapons of mass destruction that we were never able to find.
Tris
are we talking 8…as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. lost rifles and comparing that to 190,000 lost rifles? Cause that would be non-sense.
Wow, there’s a pisspoor argument. These things happen! So hey, it’s all fine! People get killed every day, so what does it matter, really?
Oh hell! What’s a hundred or two hundred thousand deadly weapons traded between people that are bent on killing each other?
Clearly the OP is over-reacting. This is no big. As was the total lack of security in the ammunition dumps.
Newsweek reports the missing weapons are winding up in the hands of extremists across the region, including Turkey. Some have been used in assassinations there.