MORE ON AMMO

Another report on the widespread failure to secure munitions sites in Iraq:

Six months after the fall of Baghdad, a vast Iraqi weapons depot with tens of thousands of artillery rounds and other explosives remained unguarded, according to two U.S. aid workers who say they reported looting of the site to U.S. military officials.
The aid workers say they informed Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the highest ranking Army officer in Iraq in October 2003 but were told that the United States did not have enough troops to seal off the facility, which included more than 60 bunkers packed with munitions.
“We were outraged,” said Wes Hare, city manager of La Grande, who was working in Iraq as part of a rebuilding program. A colleague who also visited the depot, Jerry Kuhaida, said it appeared that the explosives at the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area had found their way to insurgents targeting U.S. forces.
“There’s no question in my mind that the stuff in Ukhaider was used by terrorists,” said Kuhaida.

This context is important. Al QaQaa is the tip of the ammo scandal. But if you didn’t believe there would be an insurgency, why would you guard these dumps? There weren’t enough troops to maintain order, let alone secure hundreds of sites. You can see the logic for the administration’s position. But after six months?