Administration admits widespread looting. After all, "stuff happens."

[jefferson_dem]

Remember this quote from the exact moment in time in question (April 2003)?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Declaring that freedom is "untidy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the looting in Iraq was a result of "pent-up feelings" of oppression and that it would subside as Iraqis adjusted to life without Saddam Hussein.

He also asserted the looting was not as bad as some television and newspaper reports have indicated and said there was no major crisis in Baghdad, the capital city, which lacks a central governing authority. The looting, he suggested, was "part of the price" for what the United States and Britain have called the liberation of Iraq.

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfeld said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here."

Looting, he added, was not uncommon for countries that experience significant social upheaval. "Stuff happens," Rumsfeld said.

<SNIP>

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/11/sprj.irq.pentagon/

[Demit]

1. I remember that. And the sneering, supercilious tone in which he said it.

Stuff will happen, all right. To him. Starting November 2.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Yet, if this were the blighted areas in L.A., Rumsfeld wouldn't

think twice about giving the order.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. freedom is untidy -- democracy is messy

Rummy has a real way with words.

"The looting, he suggested, was "part of the price" for what the United States and Britain have called the liberation of Iraq."

No, pinhead, it's the troops, the civilians and who knows who else who are paying the price.

[RevCheesehead]

4. Yeah, but when I hear "looting" I think of TV's and food...not munitions!

[nolabels]

5. Well many on this board had speculations they did it on purpose

To create chaos and destablize (so they could take everything over), but now it seems to comming back to haunt them

Here is a couple of stories from antiwar.com that help that make sense also.


The looting of Iraq's arsenal
The same month Al Qaqaa was being stripped of high explosives, I warned my military intelligence unit of another weapons facility that was being cleaned out. But nothing was done.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By David DeBatto

Oct. 29, 2004 | When I read last Sunday's New York Times story of the missing explosives from the Iraqi weapons storage facility south of Baghdad at Al Qaqaa, it brought back memories from my time with the Army National Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion in Iraq last year. Bad memories. In the Times story, Iraqi scientists who worked at Al Qaqaa described how the facility was looted of almost 400 tons of high explosives right after the American troops swept through the area in April 2003 and failed to secure the site.

But Al Qaqaa is not the whole story. The same month it was being looted, I learned of another major weapons and ammunition storage facility, near my battalion's base at Camp Anaconda, that was unguarded and targeted by looters. But despite my repeated warnings -- and those of other U.S. intelligence agents -- nothing was done to secure this facility, as it was systematically stripped of enough weapons and explosives to equip anti-U.S. insurgents with enough roadside improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, for years to come.

Camp Anaconda, where I was stationed with the 223rd from April through October, 2003, is a sprawling logistical supply base located 50 miles north of Baghdad which once served as one of Saddam's largest air force bases. It is now home to over 22,000 U.S. troops, mostly Army but some Air Force personnel as well, and serves as the main supply point for American forces throughout Iraq. Hundreds of heavy trucks in long convoys enter and leave the two main gates every day, 24 hours a day, hauling every conceivable item that an army at war might need.

When I first arrived at Anaconda in late April of 2003 however, the base was a barren, desolate outpost. There were only about 200 soldiers on the base when we first arrived with our wartime convoy of California and Massachusetts National Guard troops up from Kuwait. The base had been vacated by Iraqi forces just days before our arrival. The signs of battle were everywhere, starting with the charred remains of the guard shack at the main gate and continuing all over the base in the form of bomb craters, bullet holes and wrecked vehicles. With a total area of about 15 square miles within the base to defend, and with just a couple hundred soldiers to do it, security was our main concern. The war was still going on and the base was located right in the middle of the hot zone known as the Sunni Triangle. We all took turns standing watch on one of the many guard towers that ringed the base.

(snip)
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/salon41.htm

US troops refused requests to protect explosives store
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad

29 October 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577148