Some Weapons Are Missing

[Gill]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/6932710.stm

The British Army comprises about 145,00 personnel, including reserves. Enough weapons have been lost to equip the whole British Army and then have some spares.

How much attention is this story getting in the US? I watch the US TV news reports over here which are tailored for British consumption, but I haven't seen it mentioned. Nor have I seen it on the main British TV news. I think it's an important story and rather shocking.

Gill

[miamw]

I haven't heard of it yet here. As a matter of fact, just today, they are telling us about your foot-and-mouth crisis which I know came about some time last week or so? The only "news" we get is war related, political and a tad of national crisis stuff. It's so sad. There was something on the news a couple of days ago about how weapons we sent to Iraq went missing, but now you can't find that story unless you really dig for it. There's important stories about how 24 people got killed in a bus accident in Turkey and how a flight attendant is accused of drinking on the job. There are so many wild fires here in the States now, but you don't see or hear about it on national news. The media has its head in the wrong places, IMO.

[Greenfield_Bob]

There was a story in our newspaper this morning.
I haven't had a chance to read it.

Bob

[knothead]

Gill,
The only place you will find anything truthful would be in the conservative blogs.
Tom

[Neal Moore]

The first I heard about the missing weapons was back in October 2006 from an article originally appearing in the Boston Globe. At that time there were over 14,000 weapons missing. There were over 370,000 weapons provided since 2003, at that time, and only about 10% had the serial numbers registered for accountability. I thought that problem had been addressed until I read Gill's post today. I generally watch Fox and CNN news but have seen nothing about this latest yet. In defense of the military leaders who are being held accountable I can only say that if accountability for the distribution had been left up to the GAO they would still be designing the the forms to be filled out in triplicate and appointing a staff of "red tape" specialists. No weapons would be missing because none would have been issued.

[GrayBeard Phil]

The story is being given a 'So, what were you expecting?...' slant on the news story from where I am.

IIRC, They lost all those AK-47s, and they lost several pallets of (yes, full pallets) of US dollars in cash. And then all those hundreds of Iraqis that were trained as Iraqi troops, and then who disappear after graduation.

Alas, Peter Sellers is no longer with us, as this could have been a really great Peter Sellers movie with him as a Supply Officer, and any number of actors being cast as his con-man senior sergeant (Sgt. Bilko style sergeant.) Maybe Bob Newhart cast as Peter's commanding officer.

Could have been a real funny movie, but no one would have believed the plot; too far fetched.

Phil

[Rolf]

I think many of our media twits are more concerned about where Lindsey Lohan is than real news.

[knothead]

Rolf,
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Tom