Josh Marshall has a VERY INTERESTING article...

regarding linked on TPM. It's by Rick Jervis of the Chicago Tribune, written on September 30th. It's not the "mother of all smoking guns" but it's a pretty clear piece of the puzzle regarding the Qua Qua explosives story.

<<The insurgents probably are using weapons and ammunition looted from the nearby Qa-Qaa complex, a 3-mile by 3-mile weapons-storage facility about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Maj. Brian Neil, operations officer for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which initially patrolled the area.

The facility was bombed during last year's invasion and then left unguarded, Neil said. "There's definitely no shortage of weapons around here," he said.>>


http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/world/9849036.htm

It shows that they were aware that it was unsecured and looted prior to any notice from the IAEA.

But did Bush know what his commanders in the field knew...?

it can't be his fault! he didn't know! Surely the buck must stop somewhere else.

Regardless of whether the explosives were moved prior to the invasion or looted afterwards, the Bushies still have to explain why they claim they didn't find out about Qua-Quaa until October 10th, or whatever date it was, and why they didn't go in with enough troops to secure ALL of the known weapons facilities. They're in the ultimate "lose-lose" situation in my opinion.

Apparently some Humvees are armored.

This article just reinforced my opinion that the US should be in Iraq in the first place -- the military shouldn't have to be confronting this mess.

Iraq is like Vietnam on speed -- I have memories of boys fresh off the planes dumped in the jungle -- and having no comprehension of the culture nor understand the language of the people.

Now we have boys and girls dumped in desert -- everything is strange and "foreign" to them plus very dangerous.

Both generations dumped in places they shouldn't be in the first place.

The lawlessness in these places is the direct result of the ego of bush having to show his daddy that he is a better/bigger man. Only the people can establish order and their own law -- we cannot force system of justice on their sense of right and wrong. In the meantime our troops are sitting targets or moving targets -- and some do their own share of killing. (This all makes me very ill -- thinking about the needless deaths on both sides. Lives ruined -- and that f****** giggling chimp is sleeping in his bed -- after drinking himself senseless.)

This is an ancient culture -- we have a baby culture compared to theirs. They have roots and connections that go back generations -- most of us in the US have lost connections to our ancestors (except for the more recent immigrants to the US).

"When we ever learn, when we ever learn"