The Pentagon is bolstering a badly understaffed office in Baghdad to speed the flow of combat gear to Iraqi forces and help keep the weapons from insurgents and off the black market.
The increase in staff from six to nearly 70 includes a two-star general who arrived in Iraq two weeks ago to manage the expanding team. Army Reserve Major General George Smith replaces a colonel, evidence of the greater clout for the office handling billions of dollars in arms sales.
The new push is intended to untie the bureaucratic knots blocking aircraft, armored vehicles, radios and guns from getting to Iraqi police and the military units that are taking more control over the country's security. Over the summer, Iraqi officials complained bitterly that the delays were forcing their troops to fight with inferior equipment.
As demands for more and better gear have escalated, so too have concerns over who is winding up with the supplies. Corruption within Iraq's government has been well documented and tens of thousands of US-supplied weapons have gone missing; terrorist groups allegedly have used some of the firepower.
In one case, Turkish officials complained to US authorities that guns the Turks seized from a Kurdish militant group had markings matching those on weapons intended for Iraqi forces.
The Pentagon's internal watchdog, Claude Kicklighter, led an investigation to determine how pervasive the problem is and what should be done to tighten control over arms, ammunition and explosives. Kicklighter's findings, already presented to US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, are classified.
While the Iraqis will continue to receive weapons from a variety of sources, the goal is to emphasize the more regimented and transparent foreign military sales system that the US uses with other allies, Smith said.
"Over the long haul, as security develops here in Iraq, they're going to be able to develop their economic power," said Smith, who met with Kicklighter before leaving for Iraq. "I don't know that we can afford to be supporting over a terribly long period everything that a nation needs to provide for its own national defense. So it's entirely appropriate that they go in a direction of purchasing their own equipment."
But there are risks in pushing more weapons into a country with a government striving for stability.
"For countries that are struggling with corruption, with internal violence, with threat of diversion or theft, is it the best policy to be funneling as many weapons to that country as possible?" said Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
"Or are there other things the United States could be doing first to strengthen democracy rather than just fueling the cycle?" she asked.
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