Calm down

What I especially love was Scott McClellan's flat-out admission that securing the oil reserves was a higher priority than anything else:

MR. McCLELLAN: At the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom there were a number of priorities. It was a priority to make sure that the oil fields were secure, so that there wasn't massive destruction of the oil fields, which we thought would occur. It was a priority to get the reconstruction office up and running. It was a priority to secure the various ministries, so that we could get those ministries working on their priorities, whether it was -

Q So it was the multinational force's responsibility --

MR. McCLELLAN: There were a number of -- well, the coalition forces, there were a number of priorities at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

You know what's not on that list? Finding the WMD's we used as a pretext for war. Apparently, Saddamn's weapons were so dangerous we had to invade, but securing those dangerous weapons wasn't a priority. Huh.

Anyway, yeah. Don't get too excited about the loss. The terrorists are giving it back to us, anyway, one dead soldier at a time.

I'm haven't had a lot of time to ferret out all the details but on the surface this appears a misrepresentation by the press.

I find it hard to believe that any military commander would leave a bunker unguarded that was sealed with IAEA seals (Clasps). The disturbing part is that we had so much satellite intelligence before the attack that I would be highly surprised if areas tagged by the inspectors weren't being closely monitored.

Once again, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle but I've been wrong before...just not on this site. ;-)

This Pentagon source makes it pretty clear:

At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said US-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. Thereafter the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Thanks Chet. Having had some more time to dig through the fallout it would appear that a major SNAFU has occurred. This is just great, we go into to a country on the supposed conviction to stop the spread of WMD's and terrorist activity and then allow something like this to happen.

In a letter to the Security Council Monday, Mr. ElBaradei said Iraqi officials reported the missing explosives two weeks ago. He said the loss was likely the result of looting of an unguarded government installation.

The missing explosives were listed as 195-tons of HMX, or high-melting point explosives, 141 tons of RDX, or rapid detonation explosives and six tons of other material.

Mr. ElBaradei reported that the HMX had been under IAEA seal and the agency had verified the seal as recently as January 2003. The other explosives had been subject to regular monitoring by the IAEA of stock levels. VOA News

So either the reason for the invasion was a farce or we have an extremely bad plan in place. Nice to see the repubs brought out their own 'October' surprise. President Kerry has a lot of damage to repair from this administration.

Oh, you mean the 101st Airborne? And that so-called "search" that the right-wingnuts are pinning all their hopes on? Turns out it wasn't a search at all:

No. There wasn't a search. The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad. That was more of a pit stop there for us. And, you know, the searching, I mean certainly some of the soldiers head off on their own, looked through the bunkers just to look at the vast amount of ordnance lying around.

That's Lai Ling, part of the NBC news crew travelling with the 101st Airborne.

That's Lai Ling, part of the NBC news crew travelling with the 101st Airborne.

Link, please.

Link, please.

I first read about it here. Apparently the interview is from an NBC broadcast last night. I guess the woman's full name is Lai Ling Jew, and she's a producer for NBC News.

Thanks.

Incidentally, pinning the blame on the 3rd Infantry Division doesn't look promising.

Well, I certainly don't mean to pin the blame on anyone but the people who used the threat of weapons falling into the hands of terrorists to justify a rush to war, but then, during the war, made no effort to secure the weapons they claimed were so dangerous.

The guys on the ground did what they were told. The blame for failing to secure weapons goes right to the guys giving the orders: the administration.

Read update five, Chet. Enjoy.

I'm sorry, how does that rebut any of the points? Simply saying that major news organizations aren't credible doesn't really work when you're simulatenously using news organizations to substantiate your claim that the weapons were gone in the first place.

And ad hominem remarks about how much somebody doesn't like somebody else do not substantiate an argument, either.

Try again, PP. Next time grab a source from somebody that can think. What you've posted is little better than juvenile poop-flinging.

Oh, and what I love most is the attempt to "put it in perspective" - as though destroying as many mutinitions as we have somehow brings dead soldiers back to life.

This isn't, of course, the worst thing that has happened in Iraq. But it's a stellar example of the worst faults of the administration - failing to plan, failing to follow through, failing to come clean with the American people, failing to take responsibility.

Bush has a record of failure on almost everything he touches. Expecting a second term to be different is the classic definition of insanity - doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.

So now I guess an ABC affiliate in Minneapolis has video evidence from the 101st that, in fact, the explosives were there. Of course, since the 101st had no specific mission to look for them nor the tme to do so, it's not surprising that they didn't find them.

It's rather amazing, in fact, that they were able to videotape the explosives in question, completely at random. Lucky break, except for Bush, I guess.

Enough, Chet. Find a new set of talking points, because you're so far out on a limb with this discredited story that you're twisting in the wind.

Let. It. Go.

Let. It. Go.

You know, I would, but it just keeps getting worse for you guys. Now Guliani's blaming the munitions loss on the troops. Anything to keep the blame off of Bush, I guess.

This really wraps it all up into one nice little package, doesn't it? Failure to plan ahead, failure to admit the error, failure to take any responsibility. It's always someone else's fault, isn't it? How many stories has the White House gone through? I notice we haven't heard much of the "Russians did it" theory today.

Keep on digging. I'm sure you'll find yet another way to tell us that we're not really looking at what we're looking at.