Six billion bullets

From the Independent:

US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.

A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine.

... John Pike, director of the Washington military research group GlobalSecurity.org, said that, based on the GAO's figures, US forces had expended around six billion bullets between 2002 and 2005.

Read the whole article...

In Vietnam, the United States military dropped 7 million tons of bombs--basicallly a 500-pound bomb for every man, woman and child in the country. I always thought that was a hard "fun fact" to top, but I think our current insane military venture is coming close. Now we're looking at a bullet for every man, woman and child on the planet.