Why the NYT missing weapons story = a Kerry landslide

[demzilla]

The one thing propping up Bush's support is the perception that he can keep us safe -- as Jeff Greenfield puts it, the strategy is "vote for Bush or you'll die."

This story, which is the lead in the New York Times, with more to follow on "60 Minutes," is guaranteed to dominate the news cycle for a few days, and it knocks the legs out from under that supposition. It also points up everything that's wrong with this administration:

We now learn that 380 tons of the "world's most powerful conventional explosives" have disappeared from a facility that was "supposed to be under American military control." These explosives are "used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons."

The story goes on to say that Condi Rice, who has been out giving speeches in battleground states in an effort to salvage Bush's reputation as a foreign policy wiz, "was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed."

So who was asleep at the wheel when Chimpy wanted to rush to war and Rummy wanted to invade with too few troops to guard sensitive stockpiles? And who's been sleeping since, while the wolves tramp through the woods with explosives from Al Qaqaa? Or were they hoping we wouldn't notice?

"Dr. ElBaradei, a European diplomat said, is "extremely concerned" about the potentially "devastating consequences" of the vanished stockpile.

"A special property of HMX and RDX lends them to smuggling and terrorism, experts said. While violently energetic when detonated, they are insensitive to shock and physical abuse during handling and transport because of their chemical stability. . . . Experts said the insensitivity made them safer to transport than the millions of unexploded shells, mines and pieces of live ammunition that litter Iraq. And its benign appearance makes it easy to disguise as harmless goods, easily slipped across borders."

And finally, we learn that: "More worrisome to the I.A.E.A. - and to some in Washington - is that HMX and RDX are used in standard nuclear weapons design. In a nuclear implosion weapon, the explosives crush a hollow sphere of uranium or plutonium into a critical mass, initiating the nuclear explosion."

Remember Cheney saying terrorists could get into an American city with a nuclear device? Has his own administration just handed them one component of making such a bomb? At the very least, do we now have to worry about high-quality explosives being used against our troops, our interests, our citizens?

Once the implications of this story begin to sink in -- and here's hoping Kerry and the Dems do their part, and that you will bring up these points with your undecided acquaintances -- the earth will begin to shift. Wavering voters will say, "If he can't keep us safe, what good is he?"

And on election day, you heard it here first, every state that is not bedrock red goes to Kerry: at least 350 electoral votes. Landslide.

[liberalpragmatist]

1. It'll go over most people's heads - no landslide (but a win, YES)

It'll probably go over their heads. 47% of the population is absolutely inconvincible even if conclusive proof were to emerge that Bush was the spawn of Satan.

Even so, if the news cycle is harsh enough and the Kerry campaign runs with this well, then I think it could well tip it to us.

[Randi_Listener]

2. Another nail....

...in the motherfucking coffin.

[AndyTiedye]

3. We're Safe?

"We're Safe? What do you mean safe? This must be some new definition of the
word that I've previously never heard of."
Arthur Dent in HithchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

[Mr Bojangles]

8. Classic

Great line.

Quite fitting, too

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. I thought that the 49 executed Iraqi police is even more compelling

than this one, since it demonstrates the utter futility, failure and collapse of bush's mission in Iraq.

[aquart]

5. Yeah, lotta cognitive dissonance for Republicans.

[NightOwwl]

7. I don't know why, but that brought tears to my eyes.

The put their lives on the line for us and what did it get them. They were heading home, just after completing basic training when they were murdered, execution style. Just another piece of "collateral damage" to the Bush Cabal.

[pacalo]

6. It's clear now that the only focus was Saddam Hussein - trophy for Poppy.

There was no forethought beyond that. The troops aren't well protected, they don't know their enemy, & they're being blown to pieces by the 380 tons of explosives that should have been secured & protected when they entered Iraq.

[requiem99]

9. This story doesn't need legs: It needs WHEELS.

[jwirr]

10. Kerry warned them

that they needed to keep better control of potentially dangerous materials. Now our soldiers will die for another bushie mistake. Damn him.

[Riddler]

11. 380 tons? Make missile warheads? Detonate nuclear weapons?

Used in standard nuclear weapon design? Will the whore media try to spin this into proof of WMD's?

[radfringe]

12. weapons cache missing

...... but bush* protected the oil ministry

[symbolman]

13. And Dickhead Cheney's

company Halliburton slinks off with THREE BILLION dollars unaccounted for - the pentagon doesn't want the money back..

this "war" was nothing more than a stick up, larceny, grand theft, the biggest bank heist in history; and tens of thousands died and were injured over it, many more lost their minds and families and homes.

such is the Bush regime. may they rot in hell.

now WE will be paying for the rest of OUR lives while this "demon playdough" ends up on this plane or that, or this building or that..

such is the legacy of the Bush Regime. May they be held accountable for their crimes in front of the Hague, taken there by AMERICAN troops and turned over.

sitting in cells on suicide watch finally learning to pray.

[Kahuna]

14. No it doesn't. Most Americans will never know about it because..

the media doesn't want Americans to know about it.

[havocmom]

15. Get LTTE written and out there on this subject!

My LTTE:
(feel free to borrow any or all if you think it will help make the point in your local area)

Are you safer than you were four years ago? Four years ago, the IAEA had people on the ground in Iraq, keeping tabs on about 350 tons of conventional explosives stored at an installation called Al Qaqaa, (not to be confused with al Queda which did not operated in Iraq under Saddam).

The IAEA had to pull their people out of Iraq just prior to the Bush/Cheney administration’s long planned invasion of that nation. The 350 tons of explosives were left unmonitored. During the ensuing chaos of the invasion in the spring of 2003, and protracted fighting since, all those explosives have gone unaccounted for.

During a time when the administration’s foreign policy has alienated our allies and made recruitment against us easier for our enemies, the US policy makers failed to secure 700,000 pounds of conventional explosives there for the taking by anyone with trucks. Are our troops in Iraq facing more risks because the explosives are out there in the Iraqi countryside? Have any of the missing explosives been sent out of Iraq to be used against Americans in other parts of the world? Are any of the explosives in one or two of the 95% of cargo shipping containers which come into the US without being inspected?

Dick Cheney continues to warn America is likely to be attacked by terrorists if Kerry is elected. Kerry did not leave those explosives unaccounted for since March of 2003!

Mr. Vice President, if there are any explosions in America, it is you and the rest of the current administration who will be held responsible. The policies of the current administration have made the world safer only for those who profit from the manufacture and sale of weapons. The rest of the nation and world are hostages to the climate of hate and violence which war profiteers have fostered to ensure healthy quarterly reports.