"We know there is seepage and very little is being done to address the problem"

The disbanding of the army, the intelligence services, and the secret police threw half a million armed men into the streets with no severance pay and no notice. These were desperately poor people in many cases, often supporting not only themselves but also large extended families.  And the earlier plan had been to recall the Iraqi military and use it to stabilize the country, guard its borders and begin reconstruction.  Instead what happened was that these desperate men went around the country to large numbers of unguarded weapons depots and looted them and created the insurgency.  Charles Ferguson, director of  "No End in Sight."

The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq...  [Rachel Stohl of the Center for Defense Information]said that insurgents frequently use small-arms fire to force military convoys to move in a particular direction -- often toward roadside bombs that target troops and vehicles. She noted that the Bush administration frequently complains that Iran and Syria are supplying insurgents but has paid little attention to whether U.S. military errors inadvertently play a role. "We know there is seepage and very little is being done to address the problem," she said.  Washington Post, 8/6/07