I am not willing to concede that we lost 380 tons of weapons (or failed to protect, or whatever), because I have seen no evidence to indicate ther even were in the depot when our soldiers got there. In fact, the BULK of the evidence leads a normal person to believe they had been moved after the IAEA inspection but before pour troops reached the site. Let’s add in some other facts:
– the two sources of the story, 60 Minutes and the NY Times (led by Jill Abramson), are not what I would call creedible sources when the issue is George Bush.
– the op-ed’s in today’s NY Times and the continued faux journalism (“Iraq Explosives Become Issue in Campaign“) demonstrate that not only do they have an interest in keeping this false story alive to defeat Bush, but that they have a monetary interest at stake.
– the information was ‘leaked’ to the NY Times by Al Abaradei, who Bush is opposing for a third term at the IAEA, in a rather clear act of politicking.
– the information was not even leaked- our own Iraqi Survey group reported there were no weaponks there a month after our troops initially inspected the site and found no weapons.
– the timing. This is nothing more than an attempted October surprise.
– the misinformation. The explosives in question would have been in bulk powder form, and not necessarily weaponized.
– even if our troops missed the explosives initially, the insurgency did not start for another 6-8 months after the Iraq Survey Group deemed there were no weapons present.
– There simply was no military action by the Iraqi military in the month period in between our troops hitting the depot and the Iraq Survey group. Remember, the Iraqi army ‘melted away.’
– Even if the explosives were there, you don’t just loot 380 tons of explosives through mob looting. This would have taken at least 40 special trucks and cranes. This couldn’t have been a group of Ba’athist sympatizers carrying televisions and a box of explosives under their arms, but rather a large scale operation.
It simply didn’t happen. Period.
But even if you belong to the Democratic kool-aid crowd, and you desperately want to believe this, I think a little perspective is necessary. Even if we did lose 380 tons of explosives (which we didn’t), that pales in comparison to the 400,000 tons we have confiscated and destroyed. For Democrats, maybe a visual aid or two will help. This is a picture of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69):
According to the Navy fact file about the Eisenhower, it is 1092 feet long and 252 feet wide. Fully loaded, as pictured, it weighs 97,000 (ninety-seven thousand) tons.
This is a picture of the an LCAC.
According to the Navy fact file, the LCAC is 87 feet 11 inches long, 47 feet wide, and fully loaded can weigh 170-182 tons. The LCAC is out 1 1/2 times the size of the small boat in the foreground of the carrier pictured above, so you have some perspective.
To date, we have confiscated/destroyed this many tons of weapons:
The Democrats are claiming (falsely, I believe) we have lost this many tons of explosives:
STFU, donks.
You know, even if Kerry wins, if I dedicate the same amount of willful ignorance and venom to ruining Kerry’s Presidency as the Democrats have done to Bush since day one, they are going to wish they had never won.
*** Update ***
To those of you in the comments claiming my bullets are dounterfactual, chew on this. And quit making shit up. You know- it is no surprise that the same people who were defending the Rather memos up until the moment even RATHER admitted they were frauds that think of course the Army and Bush screwed up here.
Another thing- while they think they are attacking Bush, you know who they are really shitting all over with these partisan attacks? Yep.
Some Perspective for the Willfully StupidPost + Comments (44)