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MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Most Americans have to keep a tight budget, why not the Pentagon? (Photo: David B. Gleason)

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If you, like most people, feel bad if you lose your wallet with a few dollars in it, imagine what it would be like to lose track of more than a billion dollars. The latter is the reality for the Pentagon, which has lost track of at least $1 billion in military equipment and weapons in Iraq. A May 24 article in Mother Jones states:

In June 2014, Iraqi forces dropped their weapons, shed their uniforms, and abandoned their posts as ISIS militants stormed into and captured Mosul. More than a year later, the United States began funneling $1.6 billion worth of new weaponry and other support to the beleaguered Iraqi army. The arsenal included tens of thousands of assault rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles, hundreds of mortar rounds, nearly 200 sniper rifles, and other gear.

What happened to much of it is now a mystery. According to a government audit obtained by Amnesty International, the US Army admits that it failed to accurately track this recent infusion of arms and other military supplies.

The now-declassified Department of Defense audit, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveals that efforts to keep track of weapons being sent to Iraq have been plagued by sloppy, fragmented, and inaccurate record keeping. The audit concluded that the Army unit in charge of transferring materiel to the Iraqi government "could not provide complete data for the quantity and dollar value of equipment on hand"including large items such as vehicles.

This isn't the first time US taxpayer-funded military aid has been unaccounted for. Mother Jones quotes an Amnesty International researcher:

"If you do look back at previous audits, almost word for word, you get the same recommendations about the fact that they can't centralize records, they've got records spread across different spreadsheets, it's very difficult for them to locate weapons as they pass down the chain," says Patrick Wilcken,Amnesty International's arms control and human rights researcher. He notes that some Iraqi supply records are hand-written paper receipts.

Passing down the chain means the US doesn't know who is in possession of equipment and weapons. This oversight is especially significant since ISIS has captured US military hardware sent to Iraq.

Pentagon apologists can argue that $1 billion is a drop in the bucket in the context of the $574 billion 2018 military budget. In fact, the total expenditure on the US war machine is even higher: The Motley Fool presents evidence that $574 billion dollars is just a base figure that does not include all the other line items that flow into military spending: "Add it up, and we spend more than $250 billion on defense and security programs, on top of the Pentagon's $574 billion base budget -- about 44% more than you may have thought we were spending." However, that is a testament to the gargantuan size of military allocations, not an excuse for lost military equipment and weaponry.

Given that Trump wants to increase the massive military base budget by $54 billion, there is no incentive to be more accountable with supplies donated to "allies" in US wars. Yet to Americans in need, a billion dollars is vital assistance, not just sloppy accounting.

There are other ways the Pentagon is not accountable with budgetary allocations. According to a May article in The Washington Post, it has created a slush fund by overcharging for fuel:

The Pentagon has generated almost $6 billion over the past seven years by charging the armed forces excessive prices for fuel and has used the money called the bishops fund by some critics to bolster mismanaged or underfunded military programs, documents show.

Since 2015, the Defense Department has tapped surpluses from its fuel accounts for $80million to train Syrian rebels, $450 million to shore up a prescription-drug program riddled with fraud and $1.4 billion to cover unanticipated expenses from the war in Afghanistan, according to military accounting records.

The Pentagon has amassed the extra cash by billing the armed forces for fuel at rates often much higher sometimes $1 per gallon or more than what commercial airlines paid for jet fuel on the open market.

It is shameful that while the social safety net is being severely threatened, the Pentagon is getting away with rampant financial malfeasance.

Read more here:
A Billion Dollars Worth of Weaponry Go Missing in Iraq - Truth-Out