I typically write about consumer contract and credit lending issues, but an AP story in today's news grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go: Iran gets army gear in Pentagon sale. 

After describing at one point how undercover buyers with no social security numbers and no credit histories simply drove onto a military base and purchased rocket launchers, body armor, F-14 fighter technology and more, the article includes a "justification" that really offends sensibilities:

"Our first priority truly is national security, and we take that very seriously. However, we have to balance that with our other requirement to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money."  - Fred Ballie, Defense Department official.

When an enemy soldier takes American lives with American-made technology, are our taxpayers really concerned with recapturing a fraction of the sunk costs of past military spending?  Are the deaths of an American squad by American-made rocket launchers, or the loss of an aircraft and its crew to American-made fighter planes, really subject to such a cold cost-benefit analysis?  I think not.

Even if I'm wrong -- if such sales are somehow both necessary and justified based on budgetary concerns -- where are those funds going?  This country's taxpayers are paying billions of dollars to train, equip, transport and sustain soldiers stationed all over the world, many of whom are currently at war.  Regardless of one's opinion on the propriety of the Iraq War, originally or as it continues indefinitely, one can't simply ignore the fact that we have tens of thousands of soldiers in harm's way.  It would also be naive to think that such concerns will be put to rest once we do leave Iraq, or to deny that many of the terrorists and enemy combatants that we face are funded and supported by Iran. 

Thus, even if dollar values are to be assigned to lost lives and limbs then we still face one significant problem with surplus arms sales: if the weapons and equipment we're selling are enabling warfare (or at least prolonging it), then it's likely that the funds we pump into the American war machine to fight the very technology we just sold are far exceeding the gains we re-captured through the surplus sales.

Long story made short?  No matter how you spin it, Mr. Ballie, there are better ways to make a buck than to sell heat-seeking missile warheads. 

Signed, One American Taxpayer.