"A cache of vacuum cleaners"

Dogged WMD hunters find all kinds of junk -- faucets, cleaning fluid, a science project -- besides the deadly weapons supposedly hidden in Iraq. As this account makes clear, chaos and confusion conspire to keep a search team chasing phantom leads.

One major problem: no one on the team speaks or reads Arabic.

Comments

[Lefty]

Rummy-like, Saddam and OBL are high fiving and doing a sack dance.

[Troll Blog]

Democrats are gobbing mad that there are no WMD's found yet, maybe they couldn't see the weapons over the mounds of executed and poisoned Iraqis?

[david f]

hey Mr Wreck (may i call you "train"?)

actually the only thing the UN can find is more funding for their mink-lined pockets to begin with. (they're better at that than congress is!!!)

but don't you think it's typical of the US tradition of winning the war and losing the peace how this is unfolding. not having arabic speakers is an obvious problem. it's not at all a surprise that this is the case, however. but why are we even looking? does it matter now? is it really relevant what the world thinks about this? those who are in favor of our course in iraq are firmly set in supporting it, whatever happens. those who are against will still go after every single opportunity to say, " i told you so".

in the meantime, let's open up a franchise of "All Things Bacon" in Basra. you know, open up iraq to the freedoms of fast food!

ha ha,
drf

[trainwreck]

BLTs in Basra? That's about as relevant as the UN Security Council.

[david f]

but oh so tasty! (and the UN-SC does worse things to yer bloodpressure than a blt would (even if you're a salt-sensitive hypertensive))

🙂
drf

[Lonewacko]

It takes 1.5 or more years for someone to become fluent in Arabic. Maybe there aren't enough people in the pipeline, or maybe all those gay Arabic-speakers we've been firing has caused problems.

I've been harping on the lack of Arabic speakers, as well as the looting, Iraqi TV remaining on the air, and our general Rumsfeldian 'tude for a while now on my blog and at command-post.org. It's good to see other non-lefties joining the team.

[monkeydoodle]

"When do we start regime changing that nasty little gang in Pyongyang?" How about we ask them to play nice for 12 years, and if they don't, then we start thinking of alternatives...

[MS]

This chaotic, unprepared search for the supposed WMD is too representative of the whole post-war American effort in Iraq. The actual war effort went very quickly and smoothly but there has been a serious lack of foresight and planning for what happens when the guns fall silent.

As for the "mounds of executed and poisoned Iraqis" I'm sure we would find just as many scattered around North Korea. When do we start regime changing that nasty little gang in Pyongyang?

[joe]

I don't think you Bush apologists care any more about dead Iraqis than you do about dead Burmese, dead Congolese or dead Chechens. You know the jig is up when Republicans are reduced to advocating America as the world's policeman.

Liars.

[trainwreck]

But I thought weapons inspections weren't capable of finding WMD in the first place (maybe that only applied to arabic speaking UN inspectors). Besides, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And as we see, the Iraqi people are FREE! Free to wander around unsecured nuclear facilities! Let them eat yellowcake!