Bush Incompetence On Iraq -- Nuclear Material Smuggled Out

Okay, I held off on commenting about the disappearance of equipment and materials that could be used for making nuclear materials -- stuff that went missing AFTER we invaded. The Bushies were so vague at first I thought maybe, maybe they'd arranged to quietly spirit the stuff out of the country with Allawi's permission, but neither of them wanted to call attention to the fact since this might make him seem weak.

So much for giving them the benefit of the doubt. We invaded Iraq because Bush said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Saddam didn't, but he DID have equipment and material that is essential for making those weapons -- material the International Atomic Energy Agency had a close eye on. Now CNN reports it hasn't just gone missing, but went missing over months if not a year and involved the use of heavy machinery to get it out of there! How's that for incompetence?

Some choice nuggets:

"The mysterious removal of Iraq's mothballed nuclear facilities continued long after the U.S.-led invasion and was carried out by people with access to heavy machinery and demolition equipment, diplomats said on Thursday.

"The United Nations nuclear watchdog told the Security Council this week that equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons had been vanishing from Iraq without either Baghdad or Washington noticing."

Great Britain's defense? It happened during the chaos after the invasion. Excuse me? Shouldn't securing equipment and material for making nuclear weapons be a TOP priority in an invasion? Isn't this one more example of the danger of ignoring your military chiefs and doing things on the cheap without enough troops? Stuff happens, says Rummy. Yep, especially when you're incompetent.

"Several diplomats close to the IAEA said the disappearance of the nuclear items was not the result of haphazard looting," reports CNN.

"They said the removal of the dual-use equipment -- which before the war was tagged and closely monitored by the IAEA to ensure it was not being used in a weapons program -- was planned and executed by people who knew what they were doing.

""We're talking about dozens of sites being dismantled," a diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "Large numbers of buildings taken down, warehouses were emptied and removed. This would require heavy machinery, demolition equipment. This is not something that you'd do overnight.""

This is a MAJOR security issue. Yellow cake from Iraq has now turned up in Rotterdam. First Bush didn't guard the weapons depots and those stashes of armaments are being used against our troops. Now he failed to secure the very material and equipment that can be used to build the WMDs we were all so worried about in the first place.

Kerry should pound on this for the next three days. We are less safe today because of Bush.