Who do we blame for our soldiers finding themselves dodging bullets fired from American weapons? Do you really have to ask?

As the insurgency in Iraq escalated in the spring of 2004, American officials entrusted an Iraqi businessman with issuing weapons to Iraqi police cadets training to help quell the violence.

By all accounts, the businessman, Kassim al-Saffar, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, did well at distributing the Pentagon-supplied weapons from the Baghdad Police Academy armory he managed for a military contractor. But, co-workers say, he also turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives, selling AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns to anyone with cash in hand — Iraqi militias, South African security guards and even American contractors.

“This was the craziest thing in the world,” said John Tisdale, a retired Air Force master sergeant who managed an adjacent warehouse. “They were taking weapons away by the truckload.”

Activities at that armory and other warehouses help explain how the American military lost track of some 190,000 pistols and automatic rifles supplied by the United States to Iraq’s security forces in 2004 and 2005, as auditors discovered in the past year.

I keep hearing the argument that the Republicans are the best choice to defend our country against terrorism, and that always stuns me.

How does throwing money and bullets in all directions make us safer?

Under the Republican leadership we have spent billions attacking a country that was absolutely no threat to us. No threat.

Not only that, but we have screwed up this invasion so badly that NOW this country IS a danger to us! And this happened under the "leadership" of the Republicans.

Essentially every possible thing that COULD be screwed up WAS screwed up!

And this is who some Americans think should remain in power? That just makes my head hurt.