Why are we allowing the constant replenishment of insurgent weapons?

Question

What about a fence around Iraq or checkpoints. What's wrong with the air surveillance? If we cut off supplies, we would diminish the violence. Am I missing something?

Answer 1

There are a number of reasons why weapons seem to be unlimited in Iraq

Allot of the weapons were already in Iraq since before the US arrived. Caches of Weapons were emptied long before The US Finally took Saddam out of power, and undoubtedly there are hundreds if not thousands of caches still hidden though out the country. Weapon markets are not uncommon in that part of the world, its not like the US there are tons of weapons that go for very little there, so if you break or lode one, there are thousands left over to take their place.

Explosives can be made relatively easily using common products (See: Oklahoma City Bombing). Even with a limit on sophisticated explosives it would still be possible to jury rig bombs.

The borders in and out of Iraq are huge and porous, there is no way to monitor the entire length of all the borders, remember of all the borders only tiny one is water, the rest are vast tracks of nearly empty land.

There are a lot of countries, like Iran, who would benefit from the violence and support forces that Oppose the US, it would not be difficult to keep them supplied with arms/

Honestly no country can prevent people from crossing in to their borders, and with some where near 95% of Iraq's borders being land locked, nearly 2/3's of those borders facing hostile nations and as massive as those borders are, it would take more man power and surveillance than any country could provide.

Machines have limits, men still have to do most of the information gathering and analysis.

Answer 2

You are not allowing it, you just can't do anything to stop it.

>> What about a fence around Iraq or checkpoints
Do you have any idea how much those things cost? Billions! The (relatively little) Israeli fence costed that much and you want to build a fence around all Iraq?! Iraq is a vast country, dude.
Also, a total blockade (which is impossible) would not stop this (weapon traffic continued even during the 12-years blockade).

>> What's wrong with the air surveillance?
Air surveillance (drones, satellites and aircrafts) cannot see everything that is going on everywhere. And most weapons do not come from Iran or Syria as the pentagon says but from the enormous weapon caches that the Iraqi army left (the army that you dissolved, BTW).
In the Middle East, anyone with the right contacts and relations can provide you with AKs, RPKs, RPGs or even Strelas or mortars. You cannot change anything about this.

And I think the US is too concerned with securing oil fields.

Answer 3

The truth of the matter is, as our generals have been saying for the past six months now...our military is stretched dangerously thin. We do not have the means to execute any of the ideas you raised. So once again, lets use our heads to draw the logical ocnclusions.
1. Since we do not have the man power to secure the borders of Iraq and nooo, 20,000 more men is not going to make a dent, Arms and fighters will continue to come across the border and replenish Iraqi insurgents.
2. Just like in Vietnam, this creates an endless amount of resources to wage war aginst us...under the presetn conditions, they could wage war against us forever.
3. It's no cliche', we cannot sustain that type of logisitc advantage forever, eventually these forces will begin stepping up their attacks closer and closer to cordoned off American bases.

It's a lose lose proposition all the way around.

Answer 4

A fence around Iraq? That's an under taking comparable to building the Great Wall of China. Not going to happen. In order to seal the border of Iraq we'd need something like 600,000 - 800,000 troops. We'd need a draft. We're talking about too big a region to effectively control with the troops we have.

Answer 5

At 168,743 sq.mi (437,072 km²), Iraq is the 58th-largest country in the world, after Morocco. It is comparable in size to the US state of California, and somewhat larger than Paraguay.
You can't cut off the supply is the weapons are homeade. Read about IEDs.

Answer 6

Sun Tu said it thousands of years ago, the logistics of supporting a war far from your borders, especially a long war, will eventually bankrupt your country. Osama Bin Laudin has stated that his goal was to provoke the U.S. into a financially ruinous open ended war, and Bush played right into his hands. A "War on Terror" is a patent absurdity, "terrorism" is an act. Bush has committed the lives and economy of our country to making war on the physical possibility of one person using force to intimidate or bully another person. For Christians to bomb an abortion clinic is a terrorist act, but I have yet to see the NSA targeting the Anti-Choice lobby. There is no chance of victory in the war as currently defined, we are simply going to waste money and lives until the people get sick of it and vote everyone who wants to keep going out of office. It's the same thing that happened in Nam.

Answer 7

For the very same Reason We allowed Saddam to send the Weapons of mass destruction across the Border. We're the "Good Guys". This means We have to Play by the Rules, and give the Enemy everything They could possibly want, just like We did in Vietnam. We would never have won WW I / WW II / and Korea with this Negative Mentality.We are Reported as being "The Evil Entity" by our own Media ! Read thru the Website http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com for even more info on this most vital subject !

Answer 8

It's dirty politics. It's international relations between Russia, China and Iran. It's the apocalyptic views of the Iranian leadership. To him, we're the ''Great Satan" and Israel is the "Little Satan" and he wants to kill us both. It's the lack of political backbone of the American Congress.
There is going to be a war with Iran, probably Russia too, in the future. I hope we're not involved but I don't see how we can not be.

Answer 9

We sell weapons first. And when isurgents use them we wage war. Weapon industry must thrive.

Answer 10

good question. i'd like to hear the answer from the Pentagaon