Bush's Incompetence Endangers American Troops
by Mary
Today we have indisputable evidence that the Bush administration is incompetent and must be replaced as soon as possible. What other conclusion can one draw when one realizes that they were incapable of keeping tons (yeah, that's right - TONs) of extremely dangerous explosives safe in Iraq, the land they invaded to "protect the American people" from the dangerous weapons?
Just weeks after the invasion, it was obvious that the Bush administration's excuse for going to war was bogus or they were incompetent. On May 12, 2003, I wrote:
It seems to me that we can chalk up the missing WMD to one of two things.
- Either the Bush administration deliberately lied about the danger of Saddam to take us into war for reasons that could not stand up to scrutiny.
- Or the administration is totally incompetent because if there were WMD, they allowed the WMD to be secreted to whatever enemies and terrorists might wish to see us harm.
I cannot see any other reason that can account for the fact that this administration has not uncovered the Weapons of Mass Destruction that they assured the world were an imminent threat and the reason that we must invade Iraq.
When Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, it was his responsibility to keep control of the dangerous materials that the IAEA had been monitoring. We knew in May 2003 that the Bush administration had blown that responsibility in regards to the yellowcake stored at Tuwaitha. When these reports came out, the IAEA once more insisted that they be allowed into Iraq to make sure the dangerous materials were still secured, but the Bush administration refused to let them enter the country.
Alarmed by the reports, the IAEA's director-general, Mohamed El Baradei, last week sent a letter to reiterate earlier demands that the US grant the agency access to Iraq's nuclear sites, but so far there has been no response.
And until the US handed "sovereignty" to the Iraqi puppet government, the US continued to deny the inspectors entry.
The NY Times today reports that the IAEA warned Bush before the war about needing to safeguard the sites that had been monitored by the inspectors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week. Administration officials say they cannot explain why the explosives were not safeguarded, beyond the fact that the occupation force was overwhelmed by the amount of munitions they found throughout the country.
...After the invasion, when widespread looting began in Iraq, the international weapons experts grew concerned that the Qaqaa stockpile could fall into unfriendly hands. In May, an internal I.A.E.A. memorandum warned that terrorists might be helping "themselves to the greatest explosives bonanza in history."
Earlier this month, in a letter to the I.A.E.A. in Vienna, a senior official from Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology wrote that the stockpile disappeared after early April 2003 because of "the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."
The Bush administration was told before the invasion that they would assume responsibility for the situation in Iraq and they have failed on every front. Although they now say that the explosives at al Qaqaa were not weapons of mass destruction, it is sobering to realize the less than a pound of it was used to blow Pan Am Flight 103 out of the sky. And these screwups let over 350 TONs of it fall into the hands of those who wish us no good. Great job, George. I wonder what your encore would be assuming Americans were stupid enough to let you have a second term.