BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30, 2006

Report: 14,000 Weapons Missing In Iraq

Guns, Spare Parts Given To Iraqi Forces Gone; October Death Toll Surpasses 100

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    Former presidential speechwriter Ben Stein weighs in on the situation in Iraq. He makes some suggestions as to what President Bush should say to the American people.

    • Photo

       (AP / CBS)

    • In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Oct. 30, 2006, a team of machine gunners fires at an insurgent outside of Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006. Photo

      In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Oct. 30, 2006, a team of machine gunners fires at an insurgent outside of Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006.  (AP/U.S. Marines)

    • In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Monday Oct. 30, 2006, Marines coordinate suppressive fire from a rooftop above Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday Oct. 18, 2006. Photo

      In this image released by the U.S. Marines on Monday Oct. 30, 2006, Marines coordinate suppressive fire from a rooftop above Patrol Base Steelers, Iraq, Wednesday Oct. 18, 2006.  (AP/U.S. Marines)

    • Son hugs his mother as relatives carry coffin with the body of his brother out of Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006. Photo

      Son hugs his mother as relatives carry coffin with the body of his brother out of Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006.  (AP Photo)

    • Iraqi man grieves over his relative's body at Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006. Photo

      Iraqi man grieves over his relative's body at Baghdad's al-Sadr hospital in Shiite enclave of Sadr City Baghdad Iraq Monday Oct. 30, 2006.  (AP Photo)

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  • Interactive Battle For Iraq

    The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.

  • Interactive Religion In Iraq

    An interactive guide to Iraq's religious, ethnic and ideological mix.

  • Who's Who Iraq Insurgency

    More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.

(CBS/AP)  Thousands of weapons the United States has provided Iraqi security forces cannot be accounted for and spare parts and repair manuals are unavailable for many others, a new report to Congress says.

The report, prepared at the request of the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Virginia Republican John Warner, also found that major challenges remain that put at risk the Defense Department's goal of strengthening Iraqi security forces by transferring all logistics operations to the Defense Ministry by the end of 2007.

A spokesman for Warner said the senator read the report over the weekend in preparation for a meeting Tuesday with Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Warner, who requested the report in May, "believes it is essential that Congress and the American people continue to be kept informed by the inspector general on the equipping and logistical capabilities of the Iraqi army and security forces, since these represent an important component of overall readiness," said Warner spokesman John Ullyot.

The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003.

The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3 percent.

Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns.

The audit on logistics capabilities said there is a "significant risk" that the Iraqi Interior Ministry "will not be capable of assuming and sustaining logistics support for the Iraqi local and national police forces in the near term." That support includes equipment maintenance, transportation of people and gear and health resources for soldiers and police.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Monday announced the death of the 101st servicemember killed in Iraq this month.

In a brief statement, the military said the latest casualty was a member of a police brigade who was killed by small arms fire this morning in eastern Baghdad.

Earlier, a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died from injuries sustained during combat on Sunday, the military said in a brief announcement.

The Marine's name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

October is already the fourth deadliest month for American troops since the war began in March 2003. The previous high monthly death tolls were 107 in January 2005; at least 135 in April 2004, and 137 in November 2004, when U.S. forces swept through the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

The military said Sunday's death came in Anbar province west of Baghdad, a hotbed of the Sunni resistance to U.S. forces and their Iraqi government allies.

CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that Anbar has long been the front line of the U.S. military’s fight against al Qaeda affiliated militants in Iraq, and, until recently, was one of the most deadly provinces for American forces.

The capital region has taken over as the scene of the overwhelming majority of U.S. troop deaths.

Logan says that one of the factors making life infinitely more difficult for U.S. troops in Iraq is the increasing level of attacks from Shiite militia groups.

Shiite militias — in particular the Mahdi Army, headed by the radical Baghdad-based cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — are taking more and more American and Iraqi lives, as a vicious cycle of attacks and revenge spirals out of control in the country.

In other developments:

  • At least 31 people were killed in a bomb attack Monday targeting poor Shiites seeking work as laborers in the sprawling, impoverished Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. The early morning blast tore through food stalls and kiosks, cutting down men who gather there each morning hoping to be hired as construction workers. Sadr City is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army and has been the scene of repeated bomb attacks by suspected al Qaeda fighters seeking to incite Shiite revenge attacks and drag the country into full-blown civil war. The attack couldn’t have come at a worse time, according to Logan, who says Iraqis around the capital are now bracing for sectarian revenge killings.

  • A U.S. Army translator missing after being kidnapped in Iraq had broken military rules to marry an Iraqi woman and was visiting her when he was abducted, according to people who claim to be relatives of the wife. According to a report in Monday editions of The New York Times, the relatives said that the soldier, previously unidentified by the U.S. government, is Ahmed Qusai al-Taei, a 41-year-old Iraqi-American. The family did not know he was a soldier until after the kidnapping, the relatives said.

  • Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer walked out of court Monday after most of his requests were rejected, but the chief judge immediately appointed other attorneys to defend the deposed president. The walkout came shortly after chief defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi ended a monthlong boycott of the trial in which Saddam and six other defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a 1987-88 offensive against Iraq's Kurdish population.

  • Three gunmen killed a leading Iraqi academic and prominent Sunni political activist Monday as he was leaving his Baghdad home, police said. The killers escaped in a car after gunning down Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professor's Union and a senior member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, according to police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq. The Muslim Scholars Association is a hardline Sunni organization believed to have links to the insurgency raging against U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.

    ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Add a Comment See all 59 Comments
    by seventwenty1 October 30, 2006 7:12 AM PST
    Why hasn't this protest been on CBS news in the last months. Why aren't we getting the news? What is wrong with your news managers not to tell us what is happening in our border country. American journalist Bradley Roland Will was shot and killed by local police from municipalities controlled by the governor's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI
    Reply to this comment
    by gtorlando October 30, 2006 8:15 AM PST
    What is the logic in staying in Iraq, the Pubs say,"Because if we leave the soldiers would have died in vain." So we stay to let more soldiers get killed?
    Reply to this comment
    by cincigal74 October 30, 2006 8:46 AM PST
    So according to Bush Cheney logic,more must die tommorrow so that those who died today will not have died in vain.Support the troops,place a yellow plastic ribbon on your gas guzzling SUV today.Where is the outrage in this country?
    Reply to this comment
    by bluestardad October 30, 2006 8:53 AM PST
    What do we Leave Behind In Iraq if we leave now?
    The answer to this question is that we leave no more dead or maimed American Soldiers, family members, contractors, nor journalists. We take with us our two Billion TAX Dollars a week back to America and put it to use in America. Leaving the forty plus billion tax dollars still unaccounted for behind in Iraq to be used as those who took them see fit. We leave the Iraqi people who are currently fighting each other to work out their differences as they see fit. Halliburton will have to renegotiate their contract with the Iraqi leadership. There will be no more need for (IED) Improvised Explosive Devises because we would have removed all our lightly armored Hummers and the American Soldiers driving them, with the removal of all our military equipment. So you see we can disengage from Iraq without any %u201CImmediate Threat%u201D of harm to the American People and without the fear of them coming after us with a mushroom cloud, yellow cake, or chemical weapons. It is a %u201CSlam Dunk%u201D that there are currently people at the Rand Corporation, Harvard Business School, Ohio State University, Virginia Military Institute, at most American High Schools or other businesses, that if ask, can come up with a operational plan to disengage from Iraq and bringing our troops and equipment home safely to America.
    Reply to this comment
    by jumkey October 30, 2006 9:00 AM PST
    Every death, both American and Iraqi is blood on the hands of the war-loving cowardly Republican Party.

    Reply to this comment
    by einsteinian2 October 30, 2006 9:16 AM PST
    Leaving now would mean those who died would have done so in vain?? Gimme a break! If the U.S stayed for a million years until peace was acheived, every soldier would still have died in vain. You have to look at the reason the war started in the first place. It was BOGUS. With all due respect to the brave fallen and those still in that hell hole, the first death in Iraq was as much in vain as the last one will be.
    Reply to this comment
    by emhawks October 30, 2006 9:20 AM PST
    My prayers go out to all the families of our soldiers who have died in Iraq. My prayers go out to the Iraqi people, the ones who are ordinary people, that are caught in the middle of this pointless, unnecessary bloodbath.
    Vote for change on Nov. 7th; then pray that it really happens!
    Impeach Bush & Cheney! Both of them must be held accountable for the way they have plundered America & Iraq. Even more, they must be held accountable for the blood that's on their hands.
    Reply to this comment
    by marcelde October 30, 2006 9:29 AM PST
    President Bush said Saturday, Democrats should not be trusted to control Congress because they have no idea how to win in Iraq.

    NOW, SOME 44 MONTHS AFTER BUSH DECLARED

    "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"

    WE SEE HOW EFFECTIVELY REPUBLICANS ARE WINNING IN IRAQ WITH THIS MONTH BEING THE 4TH HIGHEST FATALITY RATE FOR OUR SOLDIERS SINCE

    "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"



    IF THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS ANY IDEAS OF HOW TO 'WIN' IN IRAQ, LET BUSH 'BRING 'EM ON'!

    "WINNING" IS A GAME MENTALITY. THE LIVES OF OUR TROOPS IS NOT A GAME. IF WE DID "WIN", HOW WOULD WE KNOW THAT? HOW WILL 'VICTORY' IN THE IRAQ CIVIL WAR BE DEFINED?

    I'D ALSO LIKE TO KNOW WHO IS THE ENEMY?

    THE SHIITES?
    THE SUNNIS?
    THE KURDS? OR
    THE DEMOCRATS?
    Reply to this comment
    by jn122736 October 30, 2006 10:11 AM PST
    %u201CBush says the economy is booming because of his tax cuts. The only reason the economy isn%u2019t down more, maybe even into depression is because he is borrowing the money to pay for the taxes.
    Borrowing the money to pay for the cuts actually amounts to a significant TAX INCREASE, when the interest is added to it ($400 billion plus per year and increasing).

    Going after al qaeda and the taliban in Afghanistan was indeed fighting terrorists, but the unjustified OFFENSIVE invasion of Iraq was not and at the very least it should have ended with Bush%u2019s declaration of %u201Cmission accomplished%u201D. %u201C
    The fiasco in Iraq can be compared to jumping off a mile high cliff without a parachute, and we keep pushing soldiers off the cliff trying to save the jumper.

    Republicans keep asking what is the Democrats plan? Look at what the bush administration has accomplished.
    Which is better, admit you made a mistake or deny it while those around you are suffering the consequences?
    The best %u201Cplan%u201D I can think of now is stop pushing people off this cliff
    Reply to this comment
    by getcentered October 30, 2006 10:49 AM PST
    Well said, "jumkey":

    "Every death, both American and Iraqi is blood on the hands of the war-loving cowardly Republican Party."

    Many reasons that I won't vote for Republicans in the next few years:

    1. IRAQ
    2. CORRUPTION
    3. INCOMPETENCE
    4. NO DEBATE

    Republicans of today don't actually stand for anything.

    They might say, what about the immigration debate? There is none. The corporate aligned GOP/Republicans parties are the ones who so willfully allowed so many jobs and tax dollars to go overseas and now the people who lost their jobs here in the US are actually seeing many "immigrants" working for cheap taking "their" job. It's all bull. It's just a meaningless distracting talking point for the GOP/Republicans to insert whenever someone puts them down for their incompetence about IRAQ or the many other things of which they have failed Americans.

    Don't get caught in the talking point memo circulation. LOOK FOR THE REAL DEBATE. When you do, the incompetence of the GOP/Republican controlled government of ours will shine bright.
    VOTE FOR CHANGE. PLEASE.
    Reply to this comment
    by getcentered October 30, 2006 10:56 AM PST
    Scandals, war in Iraq, I'll promote whatever it takes to get these ignorant and corrupt fools out of my government.

    One thing I KNOW is, I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some smart people in our government, but they%u2019re not in the White House, that I know too.

    Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal, said going to Iraq is a mistake.

    Why are we in IRAQ? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.

    Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the White House fools:

    I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.

    I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.

    Reply to this comment
    by getcentered October 30, 2006 10:57 AM PST

    Someone, who is aligned or controlling the GOP, Republican, whatever, wants YOU to be HIGH on MONEY but LOW ON CASH.
    Why, you might ask?
    Marketing, I mean MARKETING, everything like POLITICS, PRODUCTS, SERIVICES, SENSATIONALISM.
    "They", GET YOU TO BELIVE AN IDEA BECAUSE OF REPETITION, talking points, simple rhetoric.
    You know what? We fall for it. We, I mean Americans. We sit in front of the TV and Watch "NEWS".

    Next elections, don't them do it to you. Turn off FOX NEWS. Start reading more newspapers, but not just one. Get more sources. Get a balanced look at the world. Get Smart. Get Centered.
    Reply to this comment
    by bond_4_life October 30, 2006 11:03 AM PST
    Get our children, turned pawns, out of Iraq and stop using guilt, patriotism and other jerky notions to keep them there.

    If the adult politicians will not discuss or negotiate on any level - which they have shown us so far, then send them to the front lines to fight their own war/s. Stop using children and stop lying to the children's parents.
    Reply to this comment
    by jmustangs-2009 October 30, 2006 11:11 AM PST
    G.W. Is stupid for sending us over to Iraq. He is the one that practically got the war started.
    Reply to this comment
    by tejasdemo October 30, 2006 11:17 AM PST
    A funny story for your morning. I have a big Vote Democratic sign in my yard. Yesterday, this guy slowly drives up to the house while my wife is sitting on the porch of our humble house playing with some neighborhood kids....Halloween stuff.

    I am across the street playing basketball. He stops and yells something about being a Repub and then drives slowly off.

    A few minutes later he comes back. This time he stops and yells out to my wife if she is on food stamps....lol.

    Wanting to make sure this idiot isnt out to harm my family I kinda run over to him ( his window was down ) and ask him if he's a Democrat. "No!" I'm a Republican ! I work for a living !" This guy was old with a nice car.

    I said, what do you think I do ? I work for a living too. And, I believe in God etc.

    I said you should vote Democratic. He drove off.....

    Funny as hell. That was typical of these idiot Republicans. They all think Democrats are food stamp loving, poor, commi, gay, pinkos who must be weeded out and destroyed.

    I havent laughed that hard in several weeks.
    Reply to this comment
    by clestes-2009 October 30, 2006 11:22 AM PST
    14,000 missing weapons, 200 billion missing dollars, 3000 dead soldiers and 600,000 dead Iraqis. And people wonder why there needs to be a change in who is in power.

    How many more facts does someone needs to realize that the people in power have LOST ALL CONTROL??
    Reply to this comment
    by mjv2944 October 30, 2006 11:24 AM PST
    Money or guns or both they will steal what ever from us infidels, and our leadership is not going to bail out, as they should, just to keep Halliburton and the likes making big profits. War makes the rich richer and the poor everyday kids from middle and lower classes fight their meaningless war. VOTE THE BUMS OUT!!!!!!
    Reply to this comment
    by rharrin1 October 30, 2006 11:31 AM PST
    All these weapons MISSING looks like bush and cheney put the wrong guy in charge. Just more stupidity from our fearless leaders.
    Reply to this comment
    by bluestardad October 30, 2006 11:38 AM PST
    We Americans should start writing the sponsors of Fox news demanding they pull their support for FOX and any other of these "Right Wing Waco" broadcasters that are supporting sending our children to war under these lying mismanaged conditions.
    Reply to this comment
    by kwch October 30, 2006 11:41 AM PST
    I don't think this loss of weapons is a surprise. We have an idiot running the show who places a number of other idiots in charge of important matters.

    The sorry thing is, ANYONE who voted for this guy second time around is also an idiot and we obviously have alot of them in this country.
    Reply to this comment
    by tejasdemo October 30, 2006 11:42 AM PST
    Bluestar.....I am all for it. Where should we start ?
    Reply to this comment
    by one_american October 30, 2006 11:43 AM PST
    Off Topic, but only because CBS doesn't allow posting on Face the Nation topics"

    Watching CBS's Face the Nation (10-29-06), and watching Bob Bob Schieffer's attack on the Chairman of the Republican National Committee Ken Mehlman, trying desperately and breathlessly to smear Mehlman and insinuating that he was directly responsible for the Bob Schieffer-labeled "racist" ad against Tennessee Senate Candidate Harold Ford, further proves that Bob Bob Schieffer himself is a card-carrying liberal racist and race-baiter himself.
    Reply to this comment
    by clestes-2009 October 30, 2006 11:50 AM PST
    One_American, you are reaching dude. Doesn't prove anything of the kind. You getting a little desperate or what?? This is an article about 14,000 missing weapons not racism.
    Reply to this comment
    by osidebear October 30, 2006 11:51 AM PST
    Iraq must be where weapons go to disappear. First, the WMD's can't be found, now these. I suspect, however, that unlike the WMDs, which never existed, the 14,000 will be reappearing. Only this time they will be in the hands of America's enemies.
    Reply to this comment
    by bluestardad October 30, 2006 11:56 AM PST
    we need to watch fox each advertisement write down those who pitch an ad. then go to the web site online and write them at the CONTACT line.
    respectfully yours
    bluestardad
    Reply to this comment
    by peterbaldwin-2009 October 30, 2006 12:32 PM PST
    Things are starting to add up. In Vietnam the ARVN forces were equipped with M16 rifles, not the AK-47s that the Viet Cong and NVA used. I thought it odd that we were equipping Iraqi units with AK-47s and RPGs, weapons not used by Americans or coalition forces, but, rather, used by militias and Sunni insurgents. Now it makes sense.

    Had we equipped the Iraqs with AR-15s, for example, then it would have been very hard to explain how the Mahdi Army and Badra Brigades were walking around with US manufactured weapons.

    Outfitting Iraqi troops with the enemy's weapons took care of the problem of America and the rest of the world finding out that the Iraqi Army was on the other side. The missing records of serial numbers conveniently helps conceal whats going on too, as does the "we need five years of training to be ready to assist the American forces" ploy.

    What is Rummsfeld's solution: give them more money and equipment, them being, as it turns out, the militias and Sunni insurgency.

    Boehner said it all: "You're doin one heck of a job, Rummy".
    Reply to this comment
    by diamtool October 30, 2006 12:45 PM PST

    I can hear cheney and Rummy now; "Missing guns? Big Deal we make more everyday.""Just think of all the ammo we'll sell!"
    The idiots are running the asylum.
    This war is costing us $1600.00 A SECOND!
    Exxon Mobil profits for 3rd Quarter = $1300.00 A SECOND!
    We are paying our money and blood to protect those oil profits.
    But the right wing republican tax cuts for corporations and the rich insure that our grandkids pay the tab, not us.
    Those are right wing republican family values.
    90 kids lost while they adjusted their slogan.
    God Bless our Troops and protect them from right wing incompetence.
    God forgive George Bush
    Reply to this comment
    by perception5 October 30, 2006 12:51 PM PST
    Wow!...... De Ja Vu it was right around this time before the 2004 elections that our liberal MSM wolfpack came out with the "other" missing ammo story. You know the one they all dropped right after election night 2004.
    CBS ......... working hard to elect their pals the DEMs............ typical and predictable... but sad and shameful.
    Reply to this comment
    by tejasdemo October 30, 2006 12:52 PM PST
    One_American,

    I bet you were the guy that pulled in front of my house asking if we were on food stamps.....LOL

    Bob Schieffer is beyond reproach. You, however, are not.
    Reply to this comment
    by tejasdemo October 30, 2006 12:55 PM PST
    Percept5....maybe it was you in front of my house ?!..Lol.

    Does it ever occur to you zeros that maybe these news reports are ACTUALLY THE TRUTH ? And, dont you feel like complete fools for believing these Republican crooks who could carealess about you except for what's in your wallet ?
    Reply to this comment
    by perception5 October 30, 2006 1:03 PM PST
    Hey tejasdemo, the GOP gave me and the rest of Americans a tax cut...... and talk about "truth". What happened to the truth in the Valerie Plame case.....?
    Did you see how fast your corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack dropped that story?
    I bet you a million bucks this story is dropped on November 8th.........
    Reply to this comment
    by osidebear October 30, 2006 1:11 PM PST
    (mis)perception5, you realize, do you not, that there is and should be more to life than a tax cut? Oh, that's right, money is at the heart of people in your party. Which tends to explain why so many of your party's policies are heart-less.
    Reply to this comment
    by tejasdemo October 30, 2006 1:23 PM PST
    Percept5 is not an American. Percept5 is just another greedy Republican who doesnt give a *** about the truth.
    Reply to this comment
    by verrz October 30, 2006 1:31 PM PST
    Well, the timing here could not have been better: In a campaign speech yesterday Bush said that the Democrats wouldn't know how to win in Iraq. Today we have in one article a neat summation of the years of bungling and incompetence that fewer and fewer Republicans can ignore.
    How about this famous Groucho Marx line in Bush's next speech: "So who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"
    Reply to this comment
    by observantx October 30, 2006 1:33 PM PST
    From the 30 page report on the missing IRRF funded weapons:

    ITEM TOTAL
    Under barrel Grenade Launcher 3,900
    Launcher. RPG-7 1,528
    Machine gun, M-2, .50 caliber 12
    Machine gun, MP-5 518
    Machine gun, PKM 5,221
    Machine gun, RPK 14,982
    Pistol, 9mm, Generic 38,053
    Pistol, 9mm, Glock 138,813
    Rifle, Assault, AK-47 165,409
    Rifle, Assault, MF-1 751
    Rifle, Assault, M-4 620
    Shotgun 384
    Sniper rifle 60

    Total 370,251


    These are the weapons that were given to the Iraqis. Now we find out we have no idea who has what. Any bets on how many are in insurgent or militia hands and being aimed at our sons and daughters?

    RUMSFELD!! RESIGN NOW!

    GW!! RESIGN NOW!

    CHENEY!! RESIGN NOW!

    ROVE & company!! RESIGN NOW!


    VOTE THESE IDIOTS OUT!
    Reply to this comment
    by clestes-2009 October 30, 2006 1:43 PM PST
    perception5, you must be in the top end of wage earners if your tax break was anything to crow about. For us middle classers it works out to about $200. Wow, now that's a real help when my health insurance premiums increased 5 times that.

    Haven't you figured it out yet? Tax breaks for only the the rich, about 5% of the population you *******.
    Reply to this comment
    by j-whitman October 30, 2006 1:51 PM PST
    Duncan Hunter running for President??? LOL,, That's Duke Cunningham's buddy,,, Beleive me,, you dont' need Duncan Hunter,, I used to live in Imperial Beach, Hunters old home,, IB,, was Meth Capital of the USA.
    Reply to this comment
    by j-whitman October 30, 2006 1:55 PM PST
    I wonder if Duncan Hunter will try to pass legislation to shut down CBS as he did to CNN???
    Reply to this comment
    by j-whitman October 30, 2006 2:02 PM PST
    GOP playing fast & loose with our taxes today?? Karl Rove (who supposed to be removed from White House Policy Making) Goes to Homeland Security to suddenly releaas more taxpayer money,,, Tom Renolds Campaign suddenly benifits.... LOL
    Reply to this comment
    by luvny-2009 October 30, 2006 2:08 PM PST
    Not only is perception5 nuts but by the first word used "HEY" they are from the South and or in their 20's. Tax cut...give me a break.
    Missing from the Defense Department's inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns. NICE JOB...BRING OUR MEN AND WOMEN HOME and get all those jackasses out of Washington before they take down OUR Country!
    Reply to this comment
    by tx77303 October 30, 2006 2:11 PM PST
    I am a Republican at Heart but enough is enough it is time for the President to pull us out of there, who cares if Iraq is stable or not, I don't those people could care less for us and who cares if the world thinks we are the bad guys because we left them in a period of flux, I say pull out and if the terrorist move back in we go to war again, and etc. we as a country should speak up and tell or government to think of this country first.
    Reply to this comment
    by luvny-2009 October 30, 2006 2:21 PM PST
    tx77303 - WELL SAID
    Reply to this comment
    by bluestardad October 30, 2006 2:31 PM PST
    THIS IS NOTHING, WATCH NEXT TIME THE NEWS SHOWS IRAN, THEY ARE CARRYING AMERICAN WEAPONS AND RIDING IN AMERICAN HELLICOPTERS.
    Reply to this comment
    by kstrisha October 30, 2006 2:35 PM PST
    Thanks to the GOP, the middle east is swarming with untraceable American weapons...

    How convenient for Washington...
    Reply to this comment
    by tibu987 October 30, 2006 2:40 PM PST
    BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
    'Nuff said.
    Reply to this comment
    by radiob-2009 October 30, 2006 2:45 PM PST
    This report is also at ABC news,Washington Post and Times for all the naysayers that are suggesting that this is fabricated.How dense can they be?
    Reply to this comment
    by getcentered October 30, 2006 3:41 PM PST
    Scandals, war in Iraq, I'll promote whatever it takes to get these ignorant and corrupt fools out of my government.

    One thing I KNOW is, I don't really know why G.W. Bush sent US service men and women to be killed and maimed in Iraq. We do have some resonable people in our government, but they are NOT in the White House, that I know too.

    Most of the experts, Bush and Chenney had at their disposal, said going to Iraq is a mistake.

    Why are we in IRAQ? I don't know, but I do know that Republicans were and are in power everywhere in our government.

    Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, and all the rest of the White House fools:

    I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your sloppy administration led us into.

    I WANT FAMILY OF MINE TO COME HOME ALIVE FROM IRAQ. I NEVER WANT CURSORY LEADERS PUTTING MY FAMILIY IN HARMS WAY, WHEN I DON'T KNOW WHY OR FOR DISPUTED REASONS.
    Reply to this comment
    by getcentered October 30, 2006 3:43 PM PST
    This war in Iraq is EXACTLY what the experts (the CIA, Pentagon) said it was going to be.

    Fools rush in and that is what we did going into Iraq, so calling the people wanting this war stupid or arrogant fits the bill just fine.

    GW Bush has nothing to do with the way the military is going to employ tactics.

    The military commanders do not want unnecessary deaths, but right now, they are on the ground in Iraq, by order of the President. People are dying all around our troops and they cannot do much about it. They do not know why they are there, or why the people in Iraq started killing each other.

    If the experts said it would be this way, why did we not take the time to create a better plan? I think I know part of the reasons: "politics". The party wanting this war needed it to BEGIN quickly or it might never come to pass.

    How unfortunate for our brothers and sisters in the military that they can be wasted along side of Iraqi people without a known, true and just cause.
    Reply to this comment
    by brianp55 October 30, 2006 3:46 PM PST
    Obviously, someone in the Iraqi military sold these weapons to the insurgents. A couple of weeks ago we were informed the 500 million $$$ was missing. We are being reamed on a colossal scale by the very people we are attemting to help. They don't give a *** about democracy. For them, this is like winning the lottery. As with most other third world countries, corruption is an indigenous part of their culture and there is no way to stop it.
    Reply to this comment
    by patriotic9 October 30, 2006 3:55 PM PST
    Our Military and tax money were used to remove a Secular Saddam from power and to bring an EXTREMIST SHIA who practically is a GOVERNOR of IRAQ from the IRANIAN AYATTOALLAHs into power.IRAQ is next to IRAN,SYRIA is next to IRAQ,LEBANON is next to SYRIA.Bush administration has given such a great favor to the ISLAMIC RADICALS which not even the most RADICAL MUSLIM could be able to do.Now supplying military equipment from Iran to Hizbollah in Lebanon is not a problem at all.
    Two days before the last Presidential election,Bin Laden had released a video tape in which he was talking agianst Bush.It was obvious when the worst enemy of USA was talking aginst Bush,Americans were supposed to vote BUSH which BIN LADEN actually wanted.Our Army was supposed to be deployed to Iran but because of this administration's policies has only been used to help Iran and Alqaeda terrorists against us.
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