According to reports, as many as 20,000 sophisticated shoulder launched anti aircraft missiles have fallen into Al Quaeda & their allies hands. These missiles are easy to use, portable, weigh approx. 55 lbs., have a range of two miles and have the ability to bring down a commercial airliner. They are heat seeking and home in on the exhaust of jet engines. Just firing them in the general vicinity of a slow moving, fully loaded aircraft on climb out, will result in an easy kill.

These same type missiles are what the US gave to fighters in Afghanistan when the Soviet army occupied that country. The use of those missiles lead to the utter defeat of the Soviet army by unsophisticated Afghan fighters who shot thousands of soviet aircraft out of the sky.

Just how the terrorist organizations got their hands on these deadly weapons, is coming to light and a disturbing picture is starting to emerge. Seems that with the collapse of the Gaddafi Libyan regime, a power gap was created which left many of Libyan arms depots, usually under heavy security, unguarded. This gap in security allowed the wholesale removal of hi-tech sophisticated weapons by any groups that wanted access. Al Quaeda & other terrorist organizations have their tentacles in the struggle going on in Libya.

The removal of the dictator Gaddafi has been an announced goal of NATO and the Obama administration. But a few key details seem to have been overlooked, such as who and what will take his place and very importantly, what will happen to his huge stockpiles of weapons.

A stated vow that there will be no US "boots on the ground",in Libya probably emboldened Al Quaeda. While we were busy bombing Gaddafis forces, there was no one guarding the arms depot "chicken coops". So the when the terrorist wolves paid them a visit, they just backed in their trucks and loaded up what they wanted....There was no one to stop them.

With all of the turmoil going on in the mideast, established governments folding and new ones springing up, adding 20,000 anti aircraft missiles to the brew will not help matters. Since their size is small these weapons will be easy to smuggle out and into the rest of the world.

Security should be on high alert and on the look out for these weapons being smuggled in. If ever there was a time to guard our borders it is now. Terrorists have taken many losses lately and have vowed revenge. Seems they have an additional 20,000 weapons to aid them in their quest to "get even".

If there is a lesson to be learned from this: Careful what you wish for, you may not like what you get. Getting rid of the dictator Gaddafi was a noble move, but the consequences of his removal may have repercussions we never counted on.

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