Iran's Accidental Ally may be...

some folks who work here...

The Pentagon sold more than a thousand aircraft parts that could be used on F-14 fighter jets — a plane flown only by Iran — after announcing it had halted sales of such surplus, government investigators say.

In a report Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the Defense Department had improved security in its surplus program to prevent improper sales of sensitive items.

But investigators found that roughly 1,400 parts that could be used on F-14 "Tomcat" fighter jets were sold to the public in February. That came after the Pentagon announced it had suspended sales of all parts that could be used on the Tomcat while it reviewed security concerns.

Iran, trying to keep its F-14s able to fly, is aggressively seeking components from the retired U.S. Tomcat fleet.

The Pentagon's surplus sales division — the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service — told investigators the parts were sold because it failed to update an automated control list and remove the aircraft parts before they were listed on its Internet sales site.

As the President is so keen on frequently pointing out, history frequently presents a more favorable portrait of a political figure than his contemporaries did. But the President has converted this historical axiom into some sort of ongoing medieval indulgence allowing him to totally cut himself off from all current negative feedback as it is rendered moot by what history might say.

What history is most likely to record in this amateur historian's opinion is that he destabilized the Middle East without any substantive benefit to his own country nor the region. History will record that he greatly enhanced the power most reactionary elements in Middle Eastern Islam be they Sunni or Shia, be they amorphous organizations such as Al Qaeda or nation-states such as the greatest benefactor of the Bush missteps, Iran.

You say this isn't the President's responsibility? I'm not advocating the punishment but let it be noted that lowly 18th and 19th American sentries were routinely shot for not fulfilling their duty at post because they fell asleep after little sleep for days. What would we be hearing if a Clinton or an Obama were in the White House and this happened?