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by Frank James
General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander whose September Iraq progress report is being anxiously awaited here in Washington, is generally accorded high marks for his ideas on counterinsurgency, his leadership skills and his brains.
But it's starting to look like even a general of Petraeus's highly regarded abilities can be caught up by unintended consequences in a place as unruly as Iraq.
Several years ago, when Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping Iraqi security forces, he signed off on a program to speedily supply weapons like automatic rifles and sidearms to Iraqis.
As the New York Times reported Monday :
Over the past year, inquiries by federal oversight agencies have found serious discrepancies in military records of where thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces actually ended up. None of those agencies concluded that weapons found their way to insurgents or militias.
In their public reports, those agencies did not raise the possibility of criminal wrongdoing, and General Petraeus has said that the imperative to provide weapons to Iraqi security forces was more important than maintaining impeccable records.
In an interview on Aug. 18, General Petraeus said that with ill-equipped Iraqi security forces confronting soaring violence across the country in 2004 and 2005, he made a decision not to wait for formal tracking systems to be put in place before distributing the weapons.“We made a decision to arm guys who wanted to fight for their country,” General Petraeus said.
Today, the Times reported that U.S. officials are acknowledging that some of those weapons have turned up in Turkey where they are have been used in crimes.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — Weapons that were originally given to Iraqi security forces by the American military have been recovered over the past year by the authorities in Turkey after being used in violent crimes in that country, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
The discovery that serial numbers on pistols and other weapons recovered in Turkey matched those distributed to Iraqi police units has prompted growing concern by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that controls on weapons being provided to Iraqis are inadequate. It was also a factor in the decision to dispatch the department’s inspector general to Iraq next week to investigate the problem, the officials said.
Pentagon officials said they did not yet have evidence that Iraqi security forces or Kurdish officials were selling or giving the weapons to Kurdish separatists, as Turkish officials have contended.
It was possible, they said, that the weapons had been stolen or lost during firefights and smuggled into Turkey after being sold in Iraq’s extensive black market for firearms. Officials gave widely varied estimates — from dozens to hundreds — of how many American-supplied weapons had been found in Turkey.
At yesterday's Pentogon press briefing, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell, indicated this problem has Defense Secretary Robert Gate's full attention. He said:
Since January, the Inspector General's Office has been thoroughly investigating reports of unaccounted for weapons as well as allegations of arms ending up in the wrong hands. Secretary Gates, who since May has twice received lengthy briefings on the progress of the probe, is deeply troubled by the reports and the allegations. He asked Inspector General Mick Kicklighter to use whatever resources are necessary to ensure we currently have adequate oversight procedures in place. General Kicklighter has informed the secretary that he will remain in-country as long as it takes to find out if record-keeping problems persist, and if so, make recommendations to the commanders on the ground how to fix those problems.
Turkey, of course, an important U.S. ally in the region, was opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq from the start since it feared an incursion might embolden Iraq's Kurdish population, with Kurds in Turkey making common cause with their Iraq kinsmen to establish a Greater Kurdistan that would include part of Turkey.
So U.S. weapons being smuggled from Iraq into Turkey where they are in turn used in crimes, even perhaps by Kurdish separatists, is a very sensitive problem for U.S. officials who will need Turkey's help to keep the region from the kind of increasing instability that could come from a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq against the Kurds, for example.
Which is why Gates is taking the matter so seriously.
Comments
There is scanning software that you cam use in a hand held device that could have kept those records and ensured the weapons got out to the police quickly...libraries use it to keep track of books.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | August 30, 2007 1:26 PM
I know this is off subject but here's a hilarious piece that Keith Olbermann did last night on the Larry Craig "wide stance" mens room incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUxBRu1lHCw
The Nascar Party is going to be holding their convention in Minneapolis next year....hahahaha!
Posted by: John E | August 30, 2007 1:48 PM
A little perspective is in order.
Can anyone point to a war fought in the Mideast where something like this hasn't happened? Or a war anywhere else? Fact is, arms diversion occurs in any war.
To give but one example of many, in World War II a good portion of the arms the Allies parachuted to the French resistance ended up in the hands of black marketeers, while others ended up in German hands. During our own War of Independence many weapons ended up in civilian or even enemy hands (see Stephenson's "Patriot Battles", p. 120-122 for more particulars).
In this instance, the fact that "dozens" or "hundreds" of the tens of thousands of US issued guns have made their way to Turkey, simply isn't surprising. Actually, the numbers cited are lower than I would have anticipated.
Posted by: Bruce | August 30, 2007 2:04 PM
"REMEMBER THE NO FLY ZONE"
REMEMBER WHEN THEIR WERE NO GUNS OR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOR THAT MATTER"
We armed all sides to make sides. Now we are fighting all sides and they are fighting us with our weapons on both sides.
THIS ADMINISTRATION RUSHED TO GO TO WAR, RUSHED TO PUT IN PLACE A NO BID FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ.
THAT'S WHAT WE HAVE.
A FEDERAL NO BID CONTRACT AT WORK. ITS NOT A WAR ON TERROR ITS A NO BID CONTRACT WAR BETWEEN CHENEY AND HALLIBURTON.
AS THE STRUGLE GOES ON OUR SOLDIERS ARE CAUGHT UP IN DICK CHENEY (AWOL) DARKEN DOORS OF IRAQ.
IMPEACHMENT IS THE KEY TO AMERICAN SUCCESS. ANYTHING LESS IS FUTILE.
THATS THE WEAPONS REPORT BEFORE THE IRAQ REPORT.
VICTORY IS ON THE MARCH. YEA RIGHT AFTER BUSH LEAVES OFFICE AND AMERICA HAS THE ABILITY TO RESTORE CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER IN OUR GOVERNMENT NOT GEORGE BUSH'S GOVERNMENT.
WHO IS STILL CURRENTLY ON VACATION OR CUT AND RUNNING AS WE SPEAK. CUT AND RUN, CUT AND RUN, CUT AND RAN.
Posted by: Roger Morris | August 30, 2007 2:04 PM
A little perspective is in order.
Posted by: Bruce | August 30, 2007 2:04 PM
What a sense of irony you have, Psycho-man!
Posted by: chimpymcflightsuit'snavigator | August 30, 2007 2:27 PM
COLLEGE REPUBLICANS ARE ALL ON DRUDGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxRj5uWyngI
When your out with your college Republican friends
In your new Mercedes-Benz
And you're on Drudge
And you show up late for school
'Cause you think your really cool
when you're on Drudge
And you put on your headphones
And you step into the pro-war zone
When you're on Drudge
But the world don't care if you're not fighting them over there
'Cause you're a college Republican chickenhawk
Give it to me
College Republican chickenhawks are all on Drudge, yeah
Never getting enough of that tough guy talk
Never get enough
They are all on Drudge, yeah
Give me some of that stuff
They twitch in their sleep
'Cause they wanna hit the street in Iraq
But they're to scared
They're on Drudge
And they cause such a fuss 'cause
There's no one but Fox they can trust
They're on Drudge
And the best of the young days
for our heroes in Iraq
will all vanish in the haze
Because the college Republicans are all still stateside
Walking 'round in a daze
They're talking tough
They are all on Drudge
And they wish they could quit
'cause they're really sick of it
But they're on Drudge
Posted by: John E | August 30, 2007 2:29 PM
The devastation from this pre-emptive war based on faulty intelligence will likely be felt for deacades.
Posted by: kb | August 30, 2007 2:58 PM
Bruce you'll defend anything these morons screw up. Anything for a buck right RNC shill.
Back to the subject at hand. Despite an interview on Charlie Rose where General Petraeus seemed to be everything he's cracked up to be, I'm starting to have my doubts. There really is no excuse for mistakes like these. His explanation rings hollow to me as a tax payer and former member of the Army.
Bruce you really should consider shoe sales!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | August 30, 2007 3:07 PM
Only Brucie could come up with a defense for this. So if any of these weapons kill any of our servicemen or service women, it gets put in "perspective" when compared to the overall death toll in Iraq??
If it was Paulo or John D., blame Bill Clinton. For Jerry White, it would be Dick Durbin.
Posted by: BobinATL | August 30, 2007 3:58 PM
In this instance, the fact that "dozens" or "hundreds" of the tens of thousands of US issued guns have made their way to Turkey, simply isn't surprising. Actually, the numbers cited are lower than I would have anticipated.
Posted by: Bruce | August 30, 2007 2:04 PM
Considering that over 190,000 weapons that were supplied to the Iraqi's are missing and unaccounted for, I think it's safe to assume that this is the very small tip of a very large iceberg.
Posted by: Tony | August 30, 2007 4:27 PM
Lesson Number One: If you arm all sides in current and future wars, are you implicated in actually causing those future wars?
We blindly continue to sell arms to crackpots all over the world with exceptionally short-term vision, then act all surprised and morally superior when those weapons come back to bite us.
One cannot claim the moral high ground and wallow deep in the mud with the pigs.
Pigs are pigs are pigs. It is their nature to be pigs.
Warring factions are warring factions are warring factions. Just because you calm them down this week, doesn't mean they won't revert to their natural state of being warring factions next week.
Western governments are pigs. It is we who have armed the warring factions. It's OUR fault they have the weapons they do.
Posted by: snalg | August 30, 2007 4:34 PM
An even bigger blunder was leaving 380 tons of high-power explosives unguarded during the invasion, and for months thereafter.
When invading U.S. troops arrived at al-Qaqaa, they found bunkers that alone contained 194 metric tons of HMX and 141 metric tons of RDX. The IAEA had been monitoring these explosives since 1990 and expressed concern for their physical safety to U.S. diplomats following Saddam's fall. In spite of the warnings, U.S. troops left the bunkers unguarded.
It's not a stretch to conclude that at least some of the explosives looted from al-Qaqaa and other military depots all over Iraq, are being used to make lethal IED's, the number one killer of our troops in Iraq.
Posted by: dt | August 30, 2007 5:32 PM
"A little perspective."
I'd wet myself laughing if it weren't for the fact that Dubya has gotten a lot of people killed due to his and Darth Cheney's gross incompetence.
Posted by: Doug Zook | August 30, 2007 8:28 PM