U.S. FINDS, LOSES WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

‘They Were Here Just a Minute Ago,’ Garner Says

U.S. forces in Iraq searching for Saddam Hussein’s arsenal of banned weapons found an enormous cache of the deadly weapons today but then lost them, retired general Jay Garner revealed.

“They were here just a minute ago,” a red-faced Garner told reporters. “I don’t know where they went to.”

General Garner said that the constant interruptions of electrical power service in Iraq, resulting in lights blinking on and off unpredictably, might have contributed to the loss of the deadly weapons cache, which was described as “gargantuan.”

“We had the weapons before the lights went off, and when they went on again they were all gone,” General Garner said. “I’d be lying right now if I said I’m a happy camper.”

General Garner refused to describe the exact nature of the weapons of mass destruction that were found, saying only that they were “massively destructive” and that there were “just loads and loads of them.”

Informed of the U.S.’s capture and subsequent loss of the weapons of mass destruction, President Bush gave reporters on the White House lawn a jaunty thumbs-up and said, “Mission accomplished.”

But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer later tempered the President’s upbeat assessment somewhat, saying that although losing the banned weapons cache was disappointing, finding them in the first place was “an important step in the right direction.”

“Saddam Hussein designed these weapons to be hard to find and easy to lose,” Mr. Fleischer added. “When we see such palpable evidence of the unspeakable evil of this man, it should make all Americans very thankful that we may or may not have killed him.”

It's been a long time.  Not because I've given up, but because I was angry, and I don't like blogging when I'm angry.  Especially not here.  I don't like saying things and then lying awake at night thinking, "I shouldn't have said that."  So I wanted to wait a while while I calmed down after watching Rumsfeld tell the US media that they should only be printing propaganda.  That makes being a war correspondent all worth it, doesn't it?  Risk your life every day and then get told off for reporting the looting going on right in front of your face instead of just the staged media opportunities.

A lot of you probably know this by now, but still it needs to be spread as widely as possible.  This is the wide shot of a particular statue coming down.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2838.htm

You don't have to agree with the text, but at least look at the photos and make an informed decision.  This was supposed to be the "defining image of the war", we were told that so many times.  But for me it wasn't.

Nor, actually, was it 200 000 Iraqis marching through the streets of Baghdad demanding an Islamic state a few days later.  No, it was a juxtaposition which told me a lot about priorities.  It came courtesy of the BBC, so I don't know if it's been seen in America.

First we had the shots of the soldiers foiling a bank robbery, fortuitously taking place right in front of a huge media contingent.  We all saw those, restoring law and order.  But the Beeb cut straight from those to something else they filmed just a little later, a few blocks away: looters systematically emptying a food warehouse.  What do you think's worth more to Iraqis right now, money or food?

The only order in Iraq is coming from the mosques, the imam.  Trying to stick a Christian US government on top of that is asking for disaster.  But then look at Afghanistan.  I know no-one's supposed to do that.  The government controls the capital, just, and nothing else.  Outside of Kabul is anarchy, competing warlords.  The only "reconstruction" going on in Afghanistan is that dear old oil pipeline some people stand to make a lot of money out of.  None of them are Afghanis, of course.

Some people are going to get very, very rich out of this war.  And none of them are Iraqis.  That's not cynicism, it's just a fact.

Given the day I've had I probably shouldn't be here, but maybe if I write some things down I can clear my head a little.  Given that this is a head-clearing, it'll be bitsy and with no coherent shape or argument.

A word about Michael Moore.  If you recognise the name, you'll be unsurprised that I've been a follower of his work for years.  That doesn't mean I agree with everything he says, or that I like his methods.  If you don't recognise the name, you'll know him as the guy who mouthed off at the Oscars.

Guys, he wasn't up there getting the award for Best Ballet Shoe design in a Musical.  He was up there getting the award for Best Documentary for Bowling for Columbine, a movie which didn't get general release because people didn't like what it said, and therefore played to small and packed-out houses.  Whether or not you agreed with what he said, you can't seriously expect him to single out the Oscars as the one occasion in his life where he didn't stand up and say what he thought?  He was being recognised for his work as someone whose work makes people question their assumptions and makes them damned uncomfortable.  Personally, I would have found it bordering on obscene if the Oscars had passed without a reference to the war: after all, everyone is talking about it everywhere all the time.  You can't pretend it isn't happening.  And if you think actors' politics shouldnt' come into it, well, you probably need to have a word with the ghost of Joe McCarthy.  People have been seeing him a lot lately.

On to the hypocrisy count.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's appalling that prisoners of war are displayed on television like that.  Yes, Donald Rumsfeld, just like you guys did YESTERDAY.  The American media even displayed pictures of the US soldier they took prisoner after the grenade attack, bound and kneeling before his guard.  We saw pictures of Iraqi POWs with their hands cable-tied together so tightly their fingertips were going white.  I didn't hear you ranting about the Geneva convention then.

If you break an International treaty, over and over again, or if you refuse to sign it, you should have no recourse under it to lay charges against other countries and individuals.  Doesn't that make sense?  Didn't we used to have this ideal that no-one was above the law? 

Last night, a NZ television reporter in the Pool in Kuwait, asked a very interesting question, one that I want to know the answer to as well.  Multiple missiles have been fired into Kuwait from Iraq, but not one of them has been carrying an actual warhead.  So it's this question I want to end on, and I do genuinely want to hear suggestions.

If Hussein has Weapons of Mass Destruction, given that his back is against the wall and he has absolutely nothing to lose whatsoever,

why isn't he using them?

Two days ago, the press left Bagdad.  I don't think there are many clearer signs that it's too late.  Like anyone else, forget about what they tell your for a bit, look at what they do.

Poor old Jonny Howard's livid no-one invited him to the Azores.  It's almost as if, in the whole scheme of things, his two thousand Australians don't matter.

On the up side, Bush has pledged not to carpet-bomb Iraq as previously threatened.  At least, I assume that's what he must mean when he says this:

Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast, and I have a message for them. If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you.

I mean, you couldn't say that and then drop hundreds of thousands of bombs on populated areas.  That would be hypocrisy.  Actually, no it wouldn't, it would just be lying.  Hypocrisy is doing a deal with Rwandan warlords to ensure they'll never be charged with genocide, and then saying this:

And all Iraqi military and civilian personnel should listen carefully to this warning. In any conflict, your fate will depend on your action. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, including the Iraqi people. War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished. And it will be no defense to say, "I was just following orders."

This war sickens and disgusts most people.  Weary, tired of hearing of dire warnings and death, they will turn away, stop watching.  Hell, I've had enough.

My daughter believes that one day, a tank will come and "shoot down our house".  She sees it all the time on television.  And what can I tell her?  That those Palestinian children are somehow different from her?  She knows they're not.  She attends school with immigrants from Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  She knows they're just like her.  She's nearly six, and she knows things some people will never learn.