I'm amazed that it's taken 18 months since the inspections resumed for just one, perhaps two shells of old chemical weapons stock to show up. It just shows that either :
(a) how little of this stuff was left after the Gulf War and subsequent inspection programs...the inspection job was well done and almost complete, and no new programs were
initiated.....and/or
(b) There's a whole bunch of this stuff still lying around in Iraq, following the chaos and upheaval of the 1991 war. We all know how bureaucracy works: Probably most of the records are lost, destroyed, looted, stolen, whatever. Here in America, the Pentagon "loses" $$billions each year. The Pentagon cant account for 25 percent of what it spends on an annual basis
http://defazio.house.gov/UpPentagon.shtml
If our own military, the most advanced, disciplined and efficient and cannot keep accurate records and accounting in a country which is at peace (within its own borders) then just how in hell does one expect a country like Iraq, which has been invaded twice in the last 13 years, and has been in a state of relative chaos and war throughtout the duration?
This is the first time that chemical weapons have been used in Iraq since the invasion of Kuwait. It looks accidental and random, and the insurgents probably had no clue what the shell markings (if still decipherable) meant. The lack of use of chemical/bio weapons by either Saddam's forces or the insurgency tells me that they either (a) didn't have any left, (b) were not prepared to use it if they did have it or (c) what was left of the old stock was scattered about the countryside in ammunition dumps with nobody really knowing what was where.
Please leave your hysteria at the door.
