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Originally Posted by Undertoad
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the NYT's use of an interview with the Col. Anderson is totally worthless. They interviewed the wrong unit commander. It was a 3ID outfit that searched the place with the intent of discovering dangerous materials nearly six days before. The 101st had no such mission. ...
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Defects (also called spin) in that Belmont article. The 3rd ID arrived at that location, fought a small battle with Iraqi forces, and then moved on. Pentagon had a UN list of locations that required special protection. This location appears six times on this list for various reasons - it was that dangerous. But the 3rd ID was moving to Baghdad - never told what was in that facility. 3rd ID never even tried to verify what was in that facility. They had no orders to look so they did not look. A week later, the 101st also was camped overnight at that facility. They too were never told what was in those bunkers. They intentionally made no attempt to learn.
The Pentagon was informed well before the Iraq invasion where critical equipment and materials were stored. Contrary to what many right wing extremists say, the UN really did know where most everything was stored. UN had placed seals on these bunkers. UN told the Pentagon six reasons why this facility was dangerous. The Pentagon did not protect this and apparently did not protect most facilities on that list. Looting resulted. Again - Pentagon had no plans for the peace - as even stated by former Lt Colonel Macgregor (who advocated the fast 50,000 man attack). Even this Colonel is quite critical of how the administration planned for the peace. Administration completely ignoring principles that would make a small attack force successful. Briana - read MacGregor's long interview so that George Jr cannot keep lying to you. The devil is in the details. But you must read them.
Where are the high explosives so necessary to make nuclear bombs? And where are the machines for constructing nukes? When Saddam was under UN inspection, then none of those materials were a threat to the world. America may have made nuclear proliferation easier due to a Bush foreign policy called pre-emption verses the generations proven policy of containment.
Even worse, the administration knew of this problem 2 weeks ago. They are now hustling to spin a response. They had two weeks to interview 101st Airborne and 3rd ID - build a cover story. They did nothing to protect themselves, politically, for two weeks? Competence in the White House is again questioned . Did they really think this and missing nuclear manufacturing equipment would go unnoticed? Apparently, yes. George Jr campaign is not even trying to recruit swing voters to their campaign stops. They need those with an MTV attention span to vote. An MTV reader would be bored by the reality. The George Jr administration fears intelligent people would learn how poorly they ran a war that war.
Competence. The White House had two weeks to prepare spin. Where are facts that don't fall apart as soon as they are spun? For that matter, when do we go looking for bin Laden? Do you feel safer knowing the White House cannot even come up with a good lie after 2 weeks?