380 Tons Of Explosives Missing -- But When?
Captain Ed
>> United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year."
However, that last statement isn't quite accurate. The Administration acknowledged that it disappeared after the last IAEA inspection, which occurred before the invasion. After the US invaded Iraq and visited Al-Qaqaa, they checked for but saw no IAEA seals and bypassed the bunker for more critical missions. That difference is critical, as it directly impacts on who moved the munitions, when, and to where. Many have speculated that the WMD Saddam supposedly retained made its way to Syria in a series of truck convoys spotted just before the invasion began, and Syria has not allowed weapons inspectors to determine whether they have Saddam's WMD. If the WMD did not exist, the trucks could have hauled the contents of Al-Qaqaa just as easily, and far less traceably.
No one doubts that 380 tons of high-tech explosive is a big, big problem. But the Times article fails to put the issue into its proper perspective; the US and its coalition partners have been securing and destroying loose munitions ever since the invasion, as fast as they can. <<
>>So let's keep in mind that when we're talking about 380 tons of ammunition, it represents 0.019% of the estimated amount of explosives and munitions that confronted the US at the beginning of the invasion. As Mike makes clear, it will take years to find, secure, and destroy all of these caches, and the Coalition had to prioritize the sites very quickly on their arrival. Absent any IAEA seals, they did what common sense dictated: the US moved its troops into positions where they could fight the enemy and secure communications.
Most egregiously, the failure to protect less than 0.02% of the total estimated munitions in Iraq has been seized upon by Kerry's campaign as an example of "incompetence"<<
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