Military officials in Iraq reported issuing 355,000 weapons to Iraqi security forces from June 2004 through September 2005, including 185,000 rifles and 170,000 pistols, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) said.

But the Defense Department could not account for 110,000 rifles and 80,000 pistols, the GAO said. Those sums amount to about 54 percent of the total weapons distributed to the Iraqi forces.

The GAO quoted officials as saying the agency responsible for handling weapons distribution was too short-staffed to record information on individual items given to Iraqi forces.

One senior Pentagon official told The Washington Post some weapons probably were being used against U.S. troops.

You have to love our military bureaucrats; it's a shame our soldiers have to work for them. Remember the $600 hammer of the '90's which even led to Vice President Al Gore's "Hammer Awards." Although, according to an article I read, the hammer actually cost $15--it was the $420 research and development costs attached to the hammer which raised the price to $435--well below $600, just part of a military accounting creativity experience. (See "The myth of the $600 hammer.") And if Al Gore actually knew what was going on in government, he might have known that. But that might take the fun out of SNAFU--situation normal, all f***ed up.