Iraqi People Will Steal it
Why does the USA have such bad luck when their intent is good? When The US toppled Saddam Hussein, it was hoped Iraq would be a new democracy because the people would be free. Now, we see it was Saddam that actually glued the various sects of that society through fear and force into a viable, working country. What the US seems to have done is quite the opposite, creating a very corrupt and divided country that is no longer. America has been down this horrible road before in the Vietnam War. The corruption within the South Vietnamese government and army is historic. Millions of US aid filled pockets of generals and political leaders, what trickled down was far less. Yet, America continued to send troops and aid hoping something would end in the good. That was clearly NOT the case.
In Iraq, it is all repeating. We withdraw all our troops and now forced to send another 3000 to intervene to save face now that ISIS is threatening. Yet. America continues to send aid to Iraq to the tune of $1.3 billion dollars for 2015 and of that, $24 million is for the questionable Sunni tribes to supply them with weapons. Obama's hope is that the weapons the money is for will allow these "tribes" to kick ISIS butt back. That would be the "at best" scenario, which is dubious.
Obama seems to have ignored the Iraqi Col. Obeidi, who heads Internal Security forces and a Sunni leader. He clearly said," Our people will steal it", when referring to the weapons being sent or bought with the money. He continued, "Corruption is everywhere". The weapons shipped there are being sold on the black market to ISIS fighters! The number of soldiers in units are, many times, ghost soldiers. These are simply on a roster to create a good impression. The weapons soldiers actually get are often inferior ones, not the ones America or other allies send. Other commanders in Anbar province state that if a soldier is suppose to get 100 bullets, he actually gets 50, and the the other 50 is sold by his superior.
The Sunni tribes in Anbar are asking that the USA send them aid and weapons directly because of the great distrust of the Shiite army commanders. The Iraqi government has warned the US not to do so because it violates Iraqi law and will promote even more bad blood and sectarian conflict. The Sunni fighters are to sign for each assigned weapon with a serial number, so, if that gun ends up in ISIS hand's, the fighter is accountable. Really? Assuming he is still around! The Iraqi army removed four general's and many other officers totaling 36, but none faced any legal action. They were just fired. Some are calling for their facing a firing squad because whole divisions simply vanished when ISIS attacked. But, the Iraqi army fell apart starting in 2010. The AK-47 sells for $800-2000, a grenade $50, a RPG $100. The number of weapons the US purchased for the Sunni tribes comes to around 340,000, with the bulk being AK-47. Some 138,000 new Glock pistols and at least 165,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. A total of 14,000 weapons were lost between arriving in Iraq and being transferred to Iraqi forces. The weapons are sold all over Iraq and the prices continue to rise because of demand and this fuels corruption of stealing weapons from army and police supplies.
This is history repeating itself.
