Also from the link,
I.A.E.A. experts say they assume that just before the invasion the Iraqis followed their standard practice of moving crucial explosives out of buildings, so they would not be tempting targets. If so, the experts say, the Iraqi must have broken seals from the arms agency on bunker doors and moved most of the HMX to nearby fields, where it would have been lightly camouflaged - and ripe for looting
In fact, Saddam moved thousands of tons of weapons & explosives into prepared caches all over Iraq. Coalition troops have been working for 18 months and capturing and destroying the stuff. If they missed some, it was not a surprise, considering how much of it there was. Iraq was awash in weapons and explosives. Lack of explosives has not been the bottleneck for any insurgent operation.
Anybody who says that he knows what was left in the bunker on the day the Americans arrived is just guessing, including the Iraq minister. The Americans were in a hurry and didn't do an inventory.
At the time, the chief UN prediction was the burning of the oil fields, the last ditch defense of the Republican Guard, and 500,000 refugees. American speed prevented those, but some other shit happened. Maybe it could have been prevented; maybe it was a necessary trade-off.
Nothing is easier than to look back and use 20/20 hindsight to point out mistakes in war. There are always lots of them. |
