The Reaction: "What If Spartacus Had To Account For 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols ..."

By J. Thomas Duffy

Maybe the Golden Boy's golden dog ate the paperwork ...

A story, reported on Monday, indicated that 30% of weapons ( out of 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols) that were issued to Iraqi Security Forces can't be accounted for, and likely are in the hands of insurgents currently battling and attacking U.S. Forces.

Also included in this incredible loss, was 125,000 pieces of body armor and 115,000 helmets.

And when did this happen?

"But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq."

Bush's Golden Boy ... His September Song ...

So, how does the Bush Grindhouse blow this one off and sweep it under the rug?

Send the Golden Boy to Fox News, in this case, the "Alan Colmes Show" on Fox News Radio

And the Spartacus-like answer?

"We occasionally likened it to building the world's largest aircraft while in flight and while being shot at," the general said. "But we gradually started putting those procedures into place."

And then later in the Post article;

"That type of decision was something that we made at the time because those forces needed those weapons and that equipment," Petraeus told Colmes. "We weren't going to stay there in the dark and make guys do a serial-number inventory and sign them up, and that is what happened. We believe those weapons all certainly were given to Iraqi units."

Newshounds offers a more classic, Pentagon-bureaucratic response, from the Colmes interview;

Colmes: Are you saying you have a sense of where those 190,000 weapons are? Or is there a good chance that some of them fell into the hands of the insurgency? And how do you prevent this from happening again?

Petraeus: Well, we did in fact take measures, Alan... (We) created first our own logistical structures... we gradually started putting those procedures into place, got them really established, I'd say, in the summer of 2005 and then built from there...Over time those procedures were put in place and I think the GAO acknowledges that and notes that fact."

Colmes: How many of those weapons do you think could be in the hands of our enemies?

Petraeus: I don't know.

Boy, the Bush Grindhouse is really making it's Golden Boy work for his supper.

It wasn't that long ago, that this 30% loss of weapons, likely being used against us now, would have gotten a cold, snorted huff of "stuff happens" from Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld.

So, I guess things in Iraq are improving.