What's the Buzz . . . Tell Me What's a Happenin'
The blogosphere is abuzz today with two stories. The NYT reports that 380,000 tons of explosives previously inspected and sealed by the IAEA in January 2003 are missing. And the less reputable (although gaining) Washington Times says John Kerry exaggerated when he said he met with all members of the UN Security Council before the invasion of Iraq. (I say gaining not so much because the WT is getting better but that the NYT is closing the gap by getting worse.)
If you'd like to see a cross-section of links, try Memorandum and click away at the top two stories.
As for me, the Kerry story is icing on a cake that now has more icing than cake, I think. And as for the munitions, I'm still trying to figure out when they were removed from the site. If they were not there when US forces arrived, then there's not much to the story, is there? Bush's defenders are asking this question but I don't have a sense that there's a good answer yet. Kerry's supporters don't ask the question at all, taking the NYT's implication (as that's all it is, at face value). Tonight NBC Nightly News closed their story on the subject, for what it's worth, with Jim Miklashevski suggesting the IAEA may have released the story at this time because of a feud with the Bush Administration.
We know explosive were there because inspectors saw them in January '03 and put labels/stickers/seals on them, to identify the goods and (heh heh) warn the Iraqi's not to move them. When US forces got there after the war started, they didn't see anything that was sealed and moved on. (Obi Wan wave: "These aren't the weapons you're looking for".)
Does that mean the stuff was moved before the war? Does it mean it was all there but the Iraqi's removed the seals and we were fooled? I don't know.
I saw a similar analysis earlier today and now I can't find the post -- but the best case and worst case scenario combined? The explosives, which can be used to detonate nuclear weapons, are further proof that Bush was right to target Iraq. But then we screwed up and didn't secure them. Makes everyone both happy and unhappy at the same time, no?