Charlie Foxtrot, Maximus

So I'm listening to the news and hear about Iran removing the last IAEA seals from their nuclear facilities. And that reminded me of when we heard so much about IAEA seals at Al Qa Qaa. Remember? US Army units found the former weapons development site that had been closed and sealed by the IAEA? Then they had to move on because we didn't send enough people to defeat Iraq,defend the Oil Ministry and also make sure that little things like explosives didn't get into the hands of future insurgents? Remember?

Well this all ties into something else happening recently. Seems the insurgents are creating more sophisticated bombs, perhaps even creating shaped charges, devices that channel explosive force into a very small area, thus defeating pretty much any armor we have or can come up with. So now even Brads and Abrams are vulnerable. Naturally some people are arguing that these sophisticated bombs are coming from Iran. But if you look at what you need to build a shaped charge (no I'm not going to give you a link, trigger your own visit from Homeland Security), you usually start off with a stable high explosive like RDX. Hey! Wait a minute! What was there just a whole s**tload of in Al Qa Qaa?

The high explosives were stored under the supervision of the United Nations due to their sensitive nature and dual use in WMDs. According to the IAEA, there were 340 tonnes consisting of:

• 194.741 tonnes of HMX,
• 141.233 tonnes of RDX,
• 5.800 tonnes of PETN.

These explosives were stored in solid crystalline form and could be used to make powerful plastic explosives, are safe to transport and do not detonate on impact. The total quantity, 341.744 tonnes (753,417 pounds), would require approximately 40 large trucks to convey.

So let me get this straight. We knew this site had over 300 tons of high explosives. But, because we didn't send in enough soldiers and marines, and these folks had higher priorities, we are now hosing the remains of soldiers and marines out from inside even our most heavily armored vehicles.

Sorry folks, this is too far gone to be saved. This one was lost while we were celebrating over that stupid statue.

Posted 9:31 PM by Jon Link