How the US helped arm ISIS

Firedog Lake - The law of unintended consequences strikes again. According to a study by Conflict Armament Research, much of the ammunition that ISIS is using to take over large parts of Iraq and Syria is American in origin. An estimated 19% of the ammo being fired by ISIS has been indirectly supplied by the US military, in many cases to fight ISIS. The US ammunition that was found to be most prevalent were cartridges for American M-4 and M-16 rifles – ammunition given to the Iraqi National Army before US forces formally pulled out.

The US ammunition came to ISIS by making alliances with US allies and capturing the ammo from ISIS’ US-backed enemies. One of the biggest sources, not surprisingly, is from the Iraqi National Military which the US spent hundreds of billions of dollars on to train and equip. The training was fruitless and much of the equipment is now in ISIS’ hands.