There has been much commotion over the lack of armor on Iraq vehicles and vests, but that’s always been a trade-off: if you reinforce a HUMV enough to survive an RPG strike, you may make it too heavy to accelerate enough to avoid getting hit, and full body armor suits are great, except when 120° temperatures causes heat prostration. As our death toll passes 2000, the far more egregious outrage is why these hundreds of thousands of tons of ordnance were allowed to be looted by insurgents in the first place. (see photo)
The Pentagon admits a breathtaking 250,000 tons of heavy ordnance (out of 650,000 tons total): aircraft bombs, artillery and tank shells, mines, rockets were allowed to be looted by our undermanned army in the 4-30 weeks after invasion through gross negligence at the top- equivalent to 1 million 500 lb bombs.At ten 500 lb. roadside mines or market closeouts a day, that's enough for 274 years of attacks.
---"During the fall of 2003, what you would see was Iraqis going in at night, individually and in trucks," US weapons inspector David Kay told U.S. News . "They would pull ordnances out and drive off." Security was so bad after Saddam Hussein's regime fell, Kay recalled, that his team was often shot at by insurgents when they went to inspect the sites: "There were just not enough boots on the ground, and the military didn't give it a high enough priority to stop the looting. Tens of thousands of tons of ammunition were being looted, and that is what is fueling the insurgency." -US News+WR report
David BeBatto, a Military counterintelligence officer at the massive Camp Annaconda 50 miles north of Baghdad, in charge of hunting the deck-of-cards Baathists, found a 5 square mile ammo dump under 2 miles south of the camp in April 2003 “littered with anti-aircraft missiles, land mines, rocket-propelled grenades, plastic explosives” in dozens of bunkers. He reported it again and again in written reports to his battalion commander Lt. Col. Timothy Ryan, even giving him a tour of the dump. “Local Iraqis told us- ‘these guys’ – and they would point to looters in the distance- ‘are fedayeen. They’re going to take this and make it into bombs and use it against you,’” he said in an interview. Nothing was done. “We had enough people.. if we had placed 4,5,6 guys at the main entry to that facility, that would have been enough!.. Every time I went back there, there was less.”
Two other intelligence agents also reported seeing that and many unsecured ammo dumps all over Iraq bursting with deadly material- all of which were massive looted. “They were wasting people for really menial things: KP, when there were a thousand Iraqis begging to do it for a jug of water. I would have feasts with shieks and ministers- when I came back me and my team of counterintelligence special agents would be.. emptying out latrines. Bottom line is they ignored it- (because of) a lack of people, ignorance, and .. absolute lack of planning for the occupation. Every day was a new day- you made it up as you went along.” Ryan’s commander from July 2003 was Col. Thomas Pappas, convicted of dereliction of duty and relieved for his part in Abu Graib abuse scandal, who directed Ryan to take no action about the looting.
When questioned about the looting*, Donald Rumsfeld, famously replied with the blithe insolence of a drunken teenager who had crashed the family car, “Freedom's untidy. And free people are free to commit mistakes, and to commit crimes and do bad things…. Stuff happens.” The looting was "part of the price" for the liberation of Iraq and not uncommon for countries that experience significant social upheaval. Incredibly Rumsfeld seemed to think the looting was a finger in Saddam’s eye and a healthy release of “pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression”, although after the invasion America owned Iraq and would have to fix any damage. * questions were about looting of Baghdad infrastructure and Museum; deadly munitions never came up.
The First Rule of Occupation since the Sumerians is: disarm the population, but Rumsfeld knew better, wanting to test his faster lighter cheaper invasion theories, and blindly convinced we would be feted as liberators. DeBatto says, “They made a decision at the highest level- Rumsfeld- to just let it go. They wanted not to be seen as brutal occupiers and didn’t react at all. You had these heavily armed Americans who could have stopped anything, yet they let these looters take everything they wanted. We have given every weapon Saddam stored for 30 years.. to every terrorist and 2-bit thug in the Middle East.”
Worst was the Manhattan-sized weapons dump of Al Qaqa'a (an issue before the 2004 US election), loaded with 380 tons of HMX, RDX, PETN high explosives, so powerful they are used in nuclear bombs, and useable in making near undetectable IED's out of rubble (no metal). The 101 Airborne Div., who swept the area April 7-10, 2003, said they "did not receive orders to search and secure the entire facility or search for high explosive-type munitions." By May 27, it was stripped of all explosives by looters.
Even the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility was allowed to be looted under the noses of US troops, putting a lie to the entire WMD excuse for invasion, and releasing dangerous radioactive compounds. Although only the IAEA knew what existed there, the administration blocked them from inspecting it for 2 months. Debatto found empty shells meant to be filled with chemicals and bills of lading from the late 80’s. “The only WMD I found in Iraq was supplied by the USA… sanctioned by George Bush Sn. when we were still buddies.”
The cost has been borne by soldiers blasted by massive IED’s and car bombs, which were easily available only because of the looting: 745 coalition deaths2 (Iraq Coalition Casualty Count) and 2000-5000 wounded by Oct 26. Insurgents have destroyed everything short of Abrams tanks with these artillery shell or air bomb IED’s, sometimes daisy chained together or shaped to penetrate armor. Although US forces are stopping half of them, IED’s now cause the majority of US deaths in Iraq, 176 (59%) from IED or car bomb in the last 4 months alone (May-Aug 2005) compared to only 77 from the same period in 2004. The Marines have really suffered: in June, 24 of 28 Marine fatalities, 85%, were from IED’s and car bombs†. In addition, helicopter crash deaths from anti-aircraft missiles, RPG and missile attacks on vehicles, even mortar fatalities could be largely blamed on the unlimited looting.
America initially had enormous authority as the new overlord who had easily vanquished a brutal dictator. The looting of all institutions first caused amazement among Iraqis, then outrage, then disgust, finally contempt; which allowed the insurgency to flower. America wasn’t all powerful; but seemed incompetent, careless, impotent, reckless; and the protective aura of invincibility evaporated. The one thing Iraq required was order, but the USA refused to keep it, although an explosion of looting was to be expected once the pressure cooker lid was finally released on totalitarian Iraq (where no heavy weapons were in the hands of the populace). Even hundreds of high power transmission towers and lines were destroyed.
We were ignorant towards their culture too. “Iraq is a tribal country- everything revolves around the sheiks,” explains DeBatto. “They came hundreds of miles and said, ‘We will contain our tribe, we guarantee there will be no problem in this sector as long as you deal with (pay) me and don’t go in on your own.’ The Army refused to deal with that. They said, ‘Nope… we are the law and you don’t tell us what to do.’”
“It all comes back to Rumsfeld: he tried to do the war on the cheap at the expense of the miltary,” fumes DeBatto. “If we had contained the looting, I firmly believe, Iraqis would have still liked us, we could have sent the vast majority of our people home, and left a small number to train their people. Things would be very different today.”
Rumsfeld said in the 2004 Congressional hearings on Abu Graib that, I would resign in a minute if I thought that I couldn't be effective.” He wasn’t- he cavalierly ignored the most basic rules of invasion and perhaps 1000 Americans have paid the ultimate price for his arrogance and hubris. He should resign or be fired, or suffer the endless chants of Cindy Sheehans camped at his door, or the doorstep of his mind.
† 490 Iraq Marine deaths as of June 3,’05; total 565 Aug 31, inc. attached Navy; 30% of all US fatalities then(1882)
2 Includes categories “explosion”, “bomb”, “suicide car bomb” which are also IEDs (10-26). Grenade, RPG, mine, etc deaths listed separately REFERENCES<
Michael Hammerschlag's commentary and articles (HAMMERNEWS.com) have appeared in Seattle Times, Providence Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, Hawaii Advertiser, Capital Times, MediaChannel; and Moscow News, Tribune, Times, and Guardian. He spent 2 (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
US Field Manual FM 4-30.13 Chapter 12: Captured Enemy Ammunm
As a Veteran, I was appalled when I saw, on mainstream news, reports that during the race to Baghdad to secure the Ministry of Oil, Oilfields, Banks, Palaces and any other immediate booty, that many, many caches, stockpiles and dumps of explosives, ordnance, weapons etc. were found but not secured, removed or destroyed. US Field Manual FM 4-30.13, Chapter 12: Captured Enemy Ammunition, Basic Standard Operating Procedures, Common Sense, and perhaps a little sense of self-preservation would tell one that...NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU LEAVE ANYTHING BEHIND THAT CAN BE OF USE TO THE ENEMY...if you don't want it, can't use it, or don't have time to remove it, you blow it. You NEVER just walk away and leave it. On the news there was a report of Coalition forces that had stumbled across a huge dump of artillery shells. The report said that the Coalition Forces WATCHED as the stockpile was looted and loaded on civilian vehicles and carried away.
In Vietnam, we shot chickens, dogs, cats, pigs...anything that could be of use to the enemy was destroyed...a scorched-earth policy. There was always a team of two E.O.D. (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) specialists assigned to each company. Their duties were to dispose of any unexploded bombs, explosives, ordnance etc. Never, under any circumstances do you leave anything (especially explosives) that can be used against you. The lowest private would know to ask..."Blow the munitions, Sir?" If any ammo dump was found, it became the responsibility of those who found it to secure it until it could be disposed of. If you can't wait, you do it yourself...you take the 10 minutes required to place charges on the top of the pile and blow it down into the ground. Failure to do so would make you directly responsible for any deaths caused by your negligence. There would be an investigation, leading to court martial for Gross Dereliction of Duty Resulting in the Deaths of GI's.
I could understand a few isolated incidents... but for this negligence to occur on such a grand scale would have required orders from Above...Each company commander would have to have been told to not follow FM 4-30.13 Chapter 12 SOP. The lack of investigations...heads should be rolling for each individual incident...tells me that indeed this was "allowed" to happen. SOMEONE WANTED TO MAKE DAMN SURE THAT THE INSURGENTS/RESISTANCE and anyone else who wanted to make a fuss had plenty of supplies. They were afraid that if fighting ceased the Iraqis would say ''...well, were at peace now . Thank you. Now you can go home".
Those, who demean and criticize our efforts for Peace, say that we are "giving aid and comfort to the enemy...should be stood up and shot for High Treason ( Rush Limbaugh,Zell Miller et. al.)". What about those who ALLOWED tons of ordnance to fall back in enemy hands to resurface as IED's used to kill and maim our troops? They claim they didn't have time...BULLSHIT...they could have secured the area and dropped napalm on it instead of the poor people of Falluja. This was deliberate action designed to prolong the war. This is GROSS DERELICTION OF DUTY, resulting in the deaths of GI's and innocent Iraqis as well as a WAR CRIME of the highest order. Heads should roll. Why aren't they? Those who gave the order are TRAITORS and CRIMINALS. Driven by GREED, they have shown absolute callous disregard for the safety of our troops as well as the Iraqi People.
Remember what that great statesman, Henry Kissinger, of the Reagan Era said regarding US Servicemen..."...they are DUMB, STUPID ANIMALS TO BE USED AS PAWNS FOR US FOREIGN POLICY". Kissinger revealed what the US government thinks about us.
Thank you,...Thomas Rockriver
by
Ironhead (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments) on Sunday, Oct 30, 2005 at 4:10:23 PM
(0+)
Want to post your own comment on this Article?
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
1 | 2
Contact Author
View Authors' Articles
(0+)
Must Read (0) 
Well Said (0) 
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) 
Valuable (0) 
