AMERICAN TROOPS ARMING THEMSELVES WITH AK-47’s
American troops are loaded with high-tech, high-impact, long distance weaponry but facing guerilla action in the Sunni triangle and back-alleys of Iraqi cities requires effective, low-tech, reliable small arms – which are in short supply. GI’s have remedied Pentagon stinginess by adopting the AK-47. The M-16 vs. AK-47 debate has been going on since the Vietnam War and under less than ideal conditions the latter seems to be a better weapon for combat troops engaged in close quarter fighting. Hopefully, no anal-retentive junior supply officer or P.R. conscious civilian at DoD will ban troops from using confiscated Iraqi rifles to replace what the Pentagon has not supplied.
