<p>The Government Accounting Office just released a report about this.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032202017.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032202017.html</a></p>
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<p>Emphasis mine.</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of irony, and that sure fills the bill, but I’m not going to point fingers or tear my hair out over that because if they couldn’t get materials locally they would ship them in from Iran. What I wonder about is where they find the endless supply of suicide bombers. People willing to blow themselves up. I am pretty sure people weren’t blowing themselves up on a daily basis before we invaded Iraq.</p>
<p>Suicide bombers aren’t claiming many American lives though–it’s the roadside bombs. And I don’t think it’s been proven that the insurgents are getting any significant munitions from Iran–nothing like the thousands to millions of tons that we’ve left unsecured for them to pick up. </p>
<p>But you’re right that there would have been some effort to find other weapons, especially once we disbanded the Iraqi army, making enemies out of rank and file soldiers who otherwise might have worked with us. I guess we’ll never really know the number of American lives that would have been saved through simple use of common sense in munitions alone (don’t leave weapons lying around for your enemies to pick up). </p>
<p>Might have been only a few hundred GIs instead of the thousands suggested by reporting about the GAO report. It still would have been worth doing.</p>
<p>NJ, the flaw with the weapons from Iran theories is that most of the IED’s and attacks on Americans are by Sunni insurgents, whom the Iranians would regard as mortal enemies…the Iranians are allied with the SCIRI and Dawa parties, so while I believe Iranian munitions and operatives are coming into Iraq, it’s most likely in affinity with either the Badr Corps (SCIRI) or Al Mahdi Army (Dawa, Muktada al Sadr) and definitely not the Sunni insurgents. </p>
<p>Here’s a good Easter egg hunt for anyone in the mood:</p>
<p>Find:</p>
<p>a) Iraqi army units not affiliated with, infiltrated from, or compromised by the various militias</p>
<p>b) police units ditto</p>
<p>c) either Iraqi army or police units which are allowed to share a roof with American units, even in joint operations</p>
<p>Bonus points for any units without more than a third of the troops “on leave.”</p>
<p>The “we’ll sit down when they stand up” is just another Bushian charade masking the reality.</p>
<p>“Ever wondered how the insurgents get materials for roadside bombs?”</p>
<p>The answer is no - this has been well known since the early days of the insurgency. We should be asking why the Washington Post thinks that this is news fit for print in 2007. But, I suppose if the Bush twins had been drafted for service they could have single-handedly found and secured all of the weapons dumps and all of this carnage could have been avoided.</p>
<p>FF, I think you missed the part about how the Government Accounting Office just came out with this report yesterday. This is hardly old news.</p>
<p>You raise a good point though. If you’ve known about this all these years, it means the administration has too. And that this situation, which has contributed to the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, has been allowed to continue for 4 years with the knowledge and consent of the administration.</p>
<p>You’d really rather the Post hush up yesterday’s GAO report than have something done to correct the situation and save American lives?</p>
<p>I’m sick about the GIs who’ve been killed or maimed when we could have prevented it–and all you can think about is how you wish this had been hidden from the public so GIs can continue to die without anyone knowing why. Please understand that to anyone who puts country over party, this is appalling.</p>
<p>I do thank you for your honesty though. Not many people would be willing to be so frank about their willingness to sacrifice American soldiers for their party’s agenda.</p>
<p>Easy there conyat, old buddy. There is nothing new here; anyone who has been following the details of the Iraq war would have known this for years. The cat has been out of the bag for many years - where have you been? In addition they would have known that Saddam had planned for an insurrection from before the war and would have had weapons hidden throughout the country. </p>
<p>Your last sentence is truly offensive, but I have long learned to not be surprised by the extent of the left to be offensive when it comes to pushing their own ideology.</p>
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<p>So why did the GAO just release a report yesterday?</p>
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<p>This has nothing to do with hidden caches of weapons that our soldiers can’t find. It’s munitions dumps that your party has chosen to leave unsecured. </p>
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<p>Perhaps. But not nearly so offensive as your suggestion that the Post should cover up the GAO’s report so that additional soldiers can die preventable deaths without the public knowing all the details.</p>
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<p>Since you’re so well-informed, why has your party chosen to leave these weapons where insurgents can pick them up and use them to kill GIs? Other than the obvious–that it needs an ongoing violent confrontation in the Middle East for reasons of its own.</p>
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<p>Yup, I’m sure Karl Rove is behind this. Conyat, you’re being a bit foolish here, don’t you think?</p>
<p>How is this not your party’s decision? Who’s the decider? Are you seriously suggesting that the Democrats made this decision? </p>
<p>You’re the one who sounds foolish–going out on these huge limbs to try to absolve your party from any responsibility–not your party’s fault, oh no–it’s all the Post’s fault for not supressing information about the GAO report so no one would know. </p>
<p>I guess you thought the horrible conditions at Walter Reed were exactly what our soldiers deserved, and the Post is to blame for reporting on them.</p>