A few days ago, I read a couple news stories, where the powers that be, were misinforming the local Syrian and Iraqi citizens that the United States was not fighting IS, but were instead supplying them with supplies, weapons & ammunition. When IS was driven from an area, as proof, local citizens were shown the MRE’S, which the U.S. supplied, along with weapons and ammunition, which proved it came from the U.S. Their purpose? Stoking the hatred for the Americans. I thought WTF?
Some of the citizens then felt the United States was supplying IS, but it was items, which had been supplied to the Iraqi army, which had turned tail and ran, when IS invaded and took over. The Iraqi Army left all of these supplies, weapons and ammunition behind, for the IS
fighters who took over the territory. Now it is shown to gullible citizens, who don’t know any better, stoking their hate for the Americans.
BEIRUT — Decades of reckless arms trading and the poorly regulated flow of weapons into Iraq have contributed to the Islamic State group's accumulation of a "vast and varied" arsenal which is being used to commit war crimes on a massive scale in Iraq and Syria, an international rights group said Tuesday.
Amnesty International's report, based on expert analysis of verified videos and images, says most of the extremist group's weapons, ammunition and equipment were looted from the Iraqi army. It says the weapons were manufactured and designed in more than two dozen countries, including Russia, China, the U.S. and EU states.
IS swept across Iraq in the summer of 2014, capturing the second largest city, Mosul, and taking weapons left behind by fleeing Iraqi security forces, including U.S.-supplied arms and military vehicles. The extremist group has also snatched arms from Syrian forces after capturing military bases there.
They don’t seem to understand, when IS takes over an area, they take whatever military supplies they find. They also rob the banks and citizens along with, food and other supplies. Someone is stoking the anti-American hatred, to get the local citizens in Iraq & Syria, to think the United States was supplying IS and didn’t care about them.
"Poor regulation and lack of oversight of the immense arms flows into Iraq going back decades have given IS and other armed groups a bonanza of unprecedented access to firepower," he said.
Amnesty said the range and scope of the group's arsenal reflects decades of "irresponsible" arms transfers to Iraq. It also faulted a lack of oversight following the 2003 invasion, when the United State spent billions of dollars arming and training Iraqi security forces. "Lax controls over military stockpiles and endemic corruption by successive Iraqi governments have added to the problem," it said.
The report documents the extremists' use of arms and ammunition from at least 25 countries. Among the advanced weaponry in the IS arsenal are man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS, guided anti-tank missiles and armored fighting vehicles.
It said most of the conventional weapons being used by IS fighters date from the 1970s to the 1990s, when Iraq was engaged in a massive military buildup ahead of and during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Iraq was placed under a U.N. arms embargo after Saddam Hussein's troops invade Kuwait in 1990, but that was lifted after the U.S.-led invasion. By 2014, Washington had delivered more than $500 million worth of small arms and ammunition to the Iraqi government, Amnesty said.
The United States is not directly supplying IS, but when the Iraqi Army turns tail and runs, when IS invades their territory, they leave behind all of this equipment, weapons and ammunition. The invading IS fighters, then take over all of that to supply their effort. It also isn’t just from the United States, but from other countries too.
I also saw an article, where the are trying to say there are a lot of people, in the United States, who are sympathizing with IS. Of course we have our own homegrown terrorists, who take advantage of what the United States has to offer, then turn around and want to create mass killings destroying it for some reason or another.