I'd like to give credit to
chi mai for posting this in a
diary this morning, but I think it went largely unnoticed. I thought it was important news, so I wanted to re-post it.
According to the Nov. 7 Washington Post, as many as 4,000 surface-to-air missiles are missing in Iraq. So, obviously, people are pretty worried. And we thought missing explosives were all we had to worry about.
Please keep reading for the article.
Missing Antiaircraft Missiles Alarm Aides
Several thousand shoulder-fired missiles -- the kind that could be used to shoot down aircraft -- are missing in Iraq, and their disappearance has prompted U.S. military and intelligence analysts to increase sharply their estimate of the number of such weapons that may be at large, administration officials said yesterday.
Some U.S. analysts figure that as many as 4,000 surface-to-air missiles once under the control of Saddam Hussein's government remain unaccounted for. That would raise the number of such missiles outside government hands worldwide to about 6,000.
The article goes on to say that some officials have pointed out that it's difficult to tell exactly how many such missiles are missing, as well as how many of them were in actual working order.
However:
... other government officials said the threat that the Iraqi missiles could be used to target military or civilian aircraft remains a very real one. Concern about the Iraqi missiles was raised during a conference on aviation threats last week at the DIA's Missile and Space Intelligence Center in Huntsville, Ala. The new estimates, based on analysis done by the DIA and with the proliferation section of the CIA, were first reported yesterday by the New York Times.
I think the story pretty much comes down to this: munitions were not secured by the "coalition of the willing" (don't forget Poland) and they're obviously in the wrong hands now.
What was that, George? Elections in Iraq in January?