The Defense Department admits that 196,000 guns it sent to Iraq to arm Iraqi government forces are unaccounted for. Many have surely fallen into the hands of people who are firing them at our soldiers and at innocent Iraqis.

I have to wonder why we make so much fuss about whatever support hostile groups in Iraq are getting from Iran, when we give them so many guns ourselves. And, since Congress has never investigated this disaster, we can only expect that the $190 billion the Bush administration is now asking from Congress will be paying for a lot more guns that will go missing, only to be turned on our soldiers and on innocent Iraqis.

Who in their right mind would vote for that?

Meanwhile, the Bush administration says it is asking the Iraqi Parliament to pass legislation that would stabilize the country by sharing its oil revenues equitably with all regions. But it has just promoted the signing of a contract that allows the government of the Kurdish region to keep all the revenue it makes selling oil to the Hunt Oil Co. of Dallas, a company run by Ray L. Hunt, a Bush crony.

So, stability can be sacrificed, and our soldiers can keep dying to line the pockets of Ray L. Hunt.

Who in their right mind would vote for that?

I have to wonder if Sens. Snowe and Collins are in their right minds?

James Parakilas, Lewiston