Blowed Up Real Good

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo offers a very complete wrap-up of the smackdown that's been applied to the AlQaQaa munitions story, reaching a nadir with this exchange on CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown:

BROWN: Let me ask you then, David, the question I asked Jamie. In regard to the dispute about whether that stuff was there when the Americans arrived, is it game, set, match? Is that part of the argument now over?

KAY: Well, at least with regard to this one bunker and the film shows one seal, one bunker, one group of soldiers going through and there were others there that were sealed, with this one, I think it is game, set and match. There was HMX, RDX in there. The seal was broken and quite frankly to me the most frightening thing is not only is the seal broken and the lock broken but the soldiers left after opening it up. I mean to rephrase the so-called Pottery Barn rule if you open an arms bunker, you own it. You have to provide security.

But, the Washington Post reminds us not to forget the forest by focusing just on the trees directly ahead:

U.S. military commanders estimated last fall that Iraqi military sites contained 650,000 to 1 million tons of explosives, artillery shells, aviation bombs and other ammunition. The Bush administration cited official figures this week showing about 400,000 tons destroyed or in the process of being eliminated. That leaves the whereabouts of more than 250,000 tons unknown.

[...]

Several defense analysts said Kerry's focus on Qaqaa has resonated mainly because the explosives issue has become symbolic of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, especially its long-running insistence that it has a sufficient number of U.S. forces there.

"The issue has been out there for a long time," said James Bodner, who helped formulate Iraq policy in the Clinton-era Pentagon. "Are we properly manned to carry out the specific military tasks that need to be accomplished? If the answer is, 'Yes, we have enough troops,' then why are these facilities unguarded?"

Yes, the amount of missing munitions from AlQaQaa is extremely puny compared to the overall amount.

"There is something truly absurd about focusing on 377 tons of rather ordinary explosives, regardless of what actually happened at al Qaqaa," Anthony H. Cordesman, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in an assessment yesterday. "The munitions at al Qaqaa were at most around 0.06 percent of the total."

But that is just not the point. The point is the administration bungled the safeguarding of not just this small amount of explosives (placed in the larger perspective--but 350+ tons of explosives is still a very, very large quantity that can do a lot of damage) but potentially even more munitions sites. Why did this happen? Because of decisions made by the administration to provide manpower for overpowering Iraqi forces but not for after-conflict security. Any administration, no matter the party affiliation, that is this inept needs to be shown the door.