It’s absolutely unbelievable to me the incompetence and lack of planning going into this war, and as it continues.

More than 110,000 U.S. supplied AK-47 rifles and 80,000 pistols have vanished in Iraq, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) wants to make sure it never happens again.

Late Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved Dorgan’s amendment to require the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to set up an accountability system for weapons supplied to the Iraqi Army and other Iraqi security forces or face a cut off of further arms shipments to the government of Iraq.

The amendment was added to the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization bill now under consideration in the Senate.

Dorgan said he offered the amendment after reading what he described as a shocking report by the GAO. The report concluded that DOD cannot account for hundreds of thousands of pistols, rifles and other equipment it supplied to Iraqi security forces. Few �and often no records were kept of individuals or even units receiving the weapons.

There was no supporting documentation to show what individuals or even what Iraqi units received the weapons and equipment, Dorgan said. As a result, the Defense Department cannot account for 110,000 AK-47 rifles and 80,000 pistols. This level of sloppiness and this lack of accountability make it very likely American soldiers are being shot at by insurgents with weapons paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

The DOD agreed in July with the GAOs recommendations to establish accountability procedures for weapons it sends to Iraq, but Dorgan noted it is almost October and they have not yet done so. This is a problem that requires urgent action and months have gone by and nothing has changed.

My amendment will either force needed action, or stop the flow of U.S. weapons to Iraq that no one is securing and tracking and which, as a result, may now be turned on U.S. soldiers.

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