The Command Post - Iraq - How Long to find WMDs?

April 17, 2003

How Long to find WMDs?

That's a good question. To give some idea of how long to find all the WMDs, there's this article from The Australian

Construction workers digging near a train station in central Japan came upon some 600 artillery shells likely buried since World War II, police said today.
The workers found the stash while working on underground gas pipes near the station in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, local police spokesman Shigeo Mori said.
The weapons, which are believed to have been abandoned by the Japanese army in World War II, carry no risk of explosion, he said. They will be given to the Self-Defence Forces for disposal.
Workers in Japan frequently dig up unexploded bombs from Allied attacks or arms hidden by the Japanese during the closing days of the war.
Officials yesterday said water in another town near Tokyo may have been contaminated by arsenic that leaked from a stash of abandoned chemical weapons.
Some 20 people were sickened by the water.

Posted By Alan E Brain at April 17, 2003 01:03 AM | TrackBack

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hell of alot of desert to hide shit in and under.....if it took 20 years in japan?..just think how long it will be in iraq....people will be sitting around in the desert around a fire and a camel in the distance will step on some unexploded ordanance...and one iraqi will look at the other and say...another one of those explodeing camels. damn just not safe to ride em anymore...

Posted by: aby normal at April 17, 2003 01:10 AM

A reporter asks President Bush, "What proof do you have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction?"
...To which he replies, "We kept the receipts."

Posted by: Aslan at April 17, 2003 02:36 AM

To give some idea of how long to find all the WMDs

I'd settle for any verified find.

Posted by: nate at April 17, 2003 03:36 AM

If it takes that long to find WMD (Franks has floated the figure of a year), then one must ask one's self about the "immediate threat", mustn't one.

Posted by: Dan at April 17, 2003 05:23 AM

Dan, please tell me the precise location, within 10 meters, of any of the US ballistic missile submarines currently at sea...

Whilst Dan is taking the tinfoil off of his head, let me spell it out: if the *owners* know where their weapons are, they can deploy them quickly. It shouldn't come as a terrible surprise that the owners tried to keep their enemies from knowing the exact locations....

Posted by: Bill Ernoehazy at April 17, 2003 07:43 AM

Aslan conveniently chooses to forget that the US is responsioble for less than 1% of weapons sales to Iraq since 1979, and that Russia, France, and China make up nearly all of it.

Posted by: Gabriel Hanna at April 17, 2003 12:18 PM

"if it took 20 years in japan?"

Dunno about that. By my count it's been about 58 years since the end of WW2.

Most of you are missing the point here, we will probably never find ALL the WMD in Iraq. There is too much ground to cover. But, as long as we can find some of them, I'll be satisfied. And given that we've been getting assistence from Iraqis in locating the caches we have found, I'll be very surprised if it takes a year.

Posted by: Malik23 at April 17, 2003 01:19 PM

The problem I have with the "no immediate" threat theory is that there are 300,000 troops in the area, all major roads to Baghdad are blockes, and *still* it is reported that high Iraqi officials have managed to get away.

Posted by: Dale at April 17, 2003 01:36 PM