Thursday, November 26, 2009

Military Loses Track Of Thousands Of Firearms And Other Weapons In Afghanistan

You and I know where all of our firearms are at all times. I know where mine are at every moment. They are locked up or in a secure place. Of course, I don’t have a quarter of a million of them. But, you and I aren’t the United States Government. A U.S. Government investigative report says that of the weapons it has sent to the Afghanistan government, thousands are missing.

You won’t believe the amount of weapons that the Military has lost track of in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has shipped about 242,000 firearms and other weapons to Afghanistan in a four year period ending in 2008. The report says that the military didn’t keep inventory records that were complete for some 87,000 weapons. That’s over 1/3 of the weapons that are unaccounted for. The report says that there were “lapses in accountability” in that period.

The missing weapons include rifles, machine guns, and RPG’s. The military also can’t say where an additional 135,000 weapons that they got from other countries and sent to Afghanistan are, or if they are even still in Afghanistan.

The Chairman of the House subcommittee on National Security has extreme concern for this lapse. He’s concerned that these thousands of weapons may have fallen into Afghan terrorist hands, and that they may even be turned against and used against American Soldiers. How do you explain that to a constituent with family serving in a war zone?

The military can’t even give serial numbers for over half of the missing weapons.

The report also recommends that the Secretary of defense make sure that when weapons are in control of the United States that there are clear accountability procedures. It also says that all U.S. weapons be tracked by serial numbers, inventory, and know where every one is at all times.

This loss is disgusting.

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