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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: TimF who wrote (209435)10/30/2004 4:13:09 PM
From: combjelly  Read Replies (1) of 1574108
 
"Not every part of a munition that isn't high grade explosive is usless to the terrorist"

True. But in Iraq, the insurgents tend towards explosives. There were quite a few RPGs used early on, but IEDs seem to be the choice now.

I doubt seriously if 10% of the munitions destroyed were high grade explosives. That stuff tends to be a small percentage of anybody's arsenal in a raw form. According to this
globalsecurity.org
The entire world's production of RDX is about 8,000 tons a year. You sure you want to claim that Iraq had in it's possession 5 years of the total world's production? Apparently HMX is produced in larger quantities. But even so, 40,000 tons would represent several years production.

So most of the munitions destroyed are likely to be things like RPGs, hand grenades, artillery shells, land mines and bombs. Most of the munitions found are likely to be bullets. Don't get me wrong, those things are dangerous. But the 380 or so tons of RDX and HMX are potentially more dangerous in the hands of terrorists and insurgents. A pound or so of it is enough to down an airliner. A few dozen pounds is enough to make a very potent and hard to detect car bomb.

And sure, the administration has scared up some sources that indicate the amount might be as little as 3 tons. But they also have claimed the Russians took it all to Syria, among other claims. Their credibility is dropping like a rock on this issue...
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