Deep Doo-doo in Al-Qaqaa

Those of us who have been conscious the past three days have now heard all about the 380 tons of high explosives that were, despite being well known to international weapons inspectors, ignored by Coalition forces and allowed to vanish into the hands of any enterprising black-market arms dealer who wanted them during the chaos and security nightmare that has been post-invasion Iraq.

American troops had not been given orders to secure the munitions site, it seems. Not surprising, really, what with a vastly underdimensioned invading army and higher priorities such as the protection of the oil ministry and the preparation of maps and PowerPoint presentations for potential foreign investors.

Here's a follow-up article by the New York Times on the looting of Al-Qaqaa.

Most striking in the cacophony of spin that now enshrouds this issue is that it has led Bush to begin spouting (and repeating ad infinitum, as is his wont) some of the very first non-lies of his entire campaign – or, for that matter, his presidency:

"A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief"

Seems pretty fair. Would you care to comment on your reasons for invading Iraq, Mr. President?

Oh yes, you already did.

From President’s Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly, September 12, 2002 seeking UN endorsement of the invasion:

“In 1991, the Iraqi regime agreed to destroy and stop developing all weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, and to prove to the world it has done so by complying with rigorous inspections. Iraq has broken every aspect of this fundamental pledge.”

From the Transcript of the Second Presidential Debate, October 8, 2004:

“…And I saw a unique threat in Saddam Hussein … because we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. And the unique threat was that he could give weapons of mass destruction to an organization like Al Qaida, and the harm they inflicted on us with airplanes would be multiplied greatly by weapons of mass destruction. And that was the serious, serious threat.

…We all thought there was weapons there, Robin … I wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't weapons, and we've got an intelligence group together to figure out why.”

Why weren't you happy when you "found out there wasn't weapons", Mr. President? A little sore from the jump?

Update: and now there's video...

My favorite bit:

"

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld entered the debate Thursday, suggesting the 377 tons of explosives were taken away before U.S. forces arrived, saying any large effort to loot the material afterward would have been detected.

"We would have seen anything like that," he said in one of two radio interviews he gave at the Pentagon. "The idea it was suddenly looted and moved out, all of these tons of equipment, I think is at least debatable."

The Pentagon also declassified and released a single image, taken by reconnaissance aircraft or satellite just days before the war, showing two trucks outside one of the dozens of storage bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base.

The particular bunker is not one known to have contained any of the missing explosives, and Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said the image only shows that there was some Iraqi activity at the base when it was taken, on March 17. Di Rita said the image says nothing about what happened to the explosives."

Kind of hearkens back to Colin Powell's scary vial of baking soda at the UN.