Got to love the media
New York PostOctober 28, 2004
The Myth Of The 'Missing Explosives': A Shameless Lie
By Ralph Peters
Should the United Nations decide who be comes our president? Sen. John Kerrywouldn't mind. He's shamelessly promoting the lies that the U.N.'sInternational Atomic Energy Agency is telling about Iraq.A devious IAEA report suggests that 400 tons of explosives were spiritedaway by our enemies under the noses of our Keystone-Cops troops after thefall of Baghdad. The document just happened to be released in the closingdays of our presidential election. Purely a coincidence, of course. Broughtto you by those selfless U.N. bureaucrats who failed in Iraq and are nowfailing in Iran.Since Kerry's willing to blame our troops for a scandal invented byAmerica-haters, let's look at the story the military way, by the numbers.
One: The IAEA claims its inspectors visited the ammo dump at Al-Qaqaa onMarch 9, 2003, and found the agency's seals intact on bunkers containingsensitive munitions. Unverifiable, but let's assume that much is true.
Two: Faced with an impending invasion, Saddam's forces did what any militarywould do. They began dispersing ammunition stocks from every storage sitethat might be a Coalition bombing target. If the Iraqis valued it, theytried to move it. Before the war.
Three: Members of our 3rd Infantry Division - the heroes who led the marchto Baghdad - reached the site in question in early April. Despite thepressures of combat, they combed the dump. Nothing was found. Al-Qaqaa was avast junkyard.
Four: Our 101st Airborne Division assumed responsibility for the sector asthe 3ID closed on Baghdad. None of the Screaming Eagles found any IAEAmarkers - even one would have been a red flag to be reported immediately.
Five: At the end of May, military teams searching for key Iraqi weaponsscoured Al-Qaqaa. They found plenty of odds and ends - the detritus of war -but no IAEA seals. And no major stockpiles.
Six: Now, just before Election Day, the IAEA, a discredited organizationembarrassed by the Bush administration's decision to call it on the carpet,suddenly realizes that 400 tons of phantom explosives went missing from thedump.
Seven: Even if repeated inspections by U.S. troops had somehow missed thisdeadly elephant on the front porch, and even if the otherwise-incompetentIraqis had been so skilled and organized they were able to sneak intoAl-Qaqaa and load up 400 tons of Saddam's love-powder, it would have taken aTeamsters' convention to get the job done.
Eight: If the Iraqis had used military transport vehicles of five-toncapacity, it would have required 80 trucks for one big lift, or, say, 20trucks each making four trips. They would have needed special trolleys,forklifts, handling experts and skilled drivers (explosives aren'tgroceries). This operation could not have happened either during or afterthe war, while the Al-Qaqaa area was flooded with U.S. troops.
Nine: We owned the skies. And when you own the skies, you own the roads. Wewere watching for any sign of organized movement. A gaggle of non-Coalitionvehicles driving in and out of an ammo dump would have attracted theattention of our surveillance systems immediately.
Ten: And you don't just drive high explosives cross-country, unless you wantto hear a very loud bang. Besides, the Iraqis would have needed to hidethose 400 tons of explosives somewhere else. Unless the uploaded trucks arestill driving around Iraq.
Eleven: Even if the IAEA told the truth and the Iraqis werestealth-logistics geniuses who emptied the site's ammo bunkers under ournoses, the entire issue misses a greater point: 400 tons of explosivesamounted to a miniscule fraction of the stocks Saddam had built up.Coalition demolition experts spent months destroying more than 400,000 tonsof Iraqi war-making materiel.Our soldiers eliminated more than a thousand tons of packaged death forevery ton the United Nations claims they missed. Does that sound likeincompetence? Why hasn't our success been mentioned? Can't our troops getcredit for anything?
Twelve: The bottom line is that, if the explosives were ever there, theIraqis moved them before our troops arrived. There is no other plausiblescenario.Sen. Kerry knows this is a bogus issue. And he doesn't care. He's willing toaccuse our troops of negligence and incompetence to further his politicalcareer. Of course, he did that once before.
Ralph Peters is the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace."
The Myth Of The 'Missing Explosives': A Shameless Lie
By Ralph Peters
Should the United Nations decide who be comes our president? Sen. John Kerrywouldn't mind. He's shamelessly promoting the lies that the U.N.'sInternational Atomic Energy Agency is telling about Iraq.A devious IAEA report suggests that 400 tons of explosives were spiritedaway by our enemies under the noses of our Keystone-Cops troops after thefall of Baghdad. The document just happened to be released in the closingdays of our presidential election. Purely a coincidence, of course. Broughtto you by those selfless U.N. bureaucrats who failed in Iraq and are nowfailing in Iran.Since Kerry's willing to blame our troops for a scandal invented byAmerica-haters, let's look at the story the military way, by the numbers.
One: The IAEA claims its inspectors visited the ammo dump at Al-Qaqaa onMarch 9, 2003, and found the agency's seals intact on bunkers containingsensitive munitions. Unverifiable, but let's assume that much is true.
Two: Faced with an impending invasion, Saddam's forces did what any militarywould do. They began dispersing ammunition stocks from every storage sitethat might be a Coalition bombing target. If the Iraqis valued it, theytried to move it. Before the war.
Three: Members of our 3rd Infantry Division - the heroes who led the marchto Baghdad - reached the site in question in early April. Despite thepressures of combat, they combed the dump. Nothing was found. Al-Qaqaa was avast junkyard.
Four: Our 101st Airborne Division assumed responsibility for the sector asthe 3ID closed on Baghdad. None of the Screaming Eagles found any IAEAmarkers - even one would have been a red flag to be reported immediately.
Five: At the end of May, military teams searching for key Iraqi weaponsscoured Al-Qaqaa. They found plenty of odds and ends - the detritus of war -but no IAEA seals. And no major stockpiles.
Six: Now, just before Election Day, the IAEA, a discredited organizationembarrassed by the Bush administration's decision to call it on the carpet,suddenly realizes that 400 tons of phantom explosives went missing from thedump.
Seven: Even if repeated inspections by U.S. troops had somehow missed thisdeadly elephant on the front porch, and even if the otherwise-incompetentIraqis had been so skilled and organized they were able to sneak intoAl-Qaqaa and load up 400 tons of Saddam's love-powder, it would have taken aTeamsters' convention to get the job done.
Eight: If the Iraqis had used military transport vehicles of five-toncapacity, it would have required 80 trucks for one big lift, or, say, 20trucks each making four trips. They would have needed special trolleys,forklifts, handling experts and skilled drivers (explosives aren'tgroceries). This operation could not have happened either during or afterthe war, while the Al-Qaqaa area was flooded with U.S. troops.
Nine: We owned the skies. And when you own the skies, you own the roads. Wewere watching for any sign of organized movement. A gaggle of non-Coalitionvehicles driving in and out of an ammo dump would have attracted theattention of our surveillance systems immediately.
Ten: And you don't just drive high explosives cross-country, unless you wantto hear a very loud bang. Besides, the Iraqis would have needed to hidethose 400 tons of explosives somewhere else. Unless the uploaded trucks arestill driving around Iraq.
Eleven: Even if the IAEA told the truth and the Iraqis werestealth-logistics geniuses who emptied the site's ammo bunkers under ournoses, the entire issue misses a greater point: 400 tons of explosivesamounted to a miniscule fraction of the stocks Saddam had built up.Coalition demolition experts spent months destroying more than 400,000 tonsof Iraqi war-making materiel.Our soldiers eliminated more than a thousand tons of packaged death forevery ton the United Nations claims they missed. Does that sound likeincompetence? Why hasn't our success been mentioned? Can't our troops getcredit for anything?
Twelve: The bottom line is that, if the explosives were ever there, theIraqis moved them before our troops arrived. There is no other plausiblescenario.Sen. Kerry knows this is a bogus issue. And he doesn't care. He's willing toaccuse our troops of negligence and incompetence to further his politicalcareer. Of course, he did that once before.
Ralph Peters is the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace."
