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Is Anyone There?

This one was so obvious I'm embarrassed for the Bush administration to even link to this story on money for guns in Iraq. It seems a five-day program, as part of a truce agreement, paid hundreds of dollars to anyone who turned in weapons. Any weapons. Unfortunately, many if not most of the weapons weren't worth what they were paid for. Bad as that may seem, the obvious and very much more worrisome problem is the cash can then be turned around to buy more modern working weapons.

When the attack of 9/11 occurred, I posted we should follow the money trail. In that context, it is difficult to understand the reasoning behind a money for guns program that better arms the enemies of the US. Do we really want to give money to our enemies? Do the weapons taken in through this program actually work? Are these arms better than what our enemies can buy with the money they get? Are these arms from our enemies or from people who would not be using them against us in the first place? I don't know the answers to these questions and from the looks of things, neither does the Bush Administration.

Comments

The only way such a cash for arms exchange works if it's followed by a heavy crackdown -like shooting on the spot- on anyone still owning a weapon.

Of course that is not what is happening.