Shock and Awe

Am I talking about the American invasion of Iraq? In a way. But not that first night of pyrotechnics we all saw on out TV's. It's what has happened afterwards that this entry is about and "Shock and Awe" is a pretty good description of my feelings towards the way the US handled it's first four weeks in Iraq. Shocked by their crass stupidity and in awe of the way they brazenly lie to the world about their motives. First, lets look at one of the main reasons we were fed about why we went in to Iraq. It was this; "To stop the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and to keep them out of the hands of terrorists."
On the news tonight we were shown how in the first four weeks after the invasion a systematic dismantaling of the Iraqi regime's nuclear programme occured right under the noses of the US. Not vandalism, not looting by locals for scrap, but the removal of whole instalations. Often comprising of multiple buildings and all their equipment contained within. These were then spirited away accross the border to where? No one knows. It seems the US had absolutely no idea that this was going on. Before the invasion these facilities were closely monitored by the UN. Mothballed and inactive, we knew exactly where they were, what was there and kept close tabs on all of them. Now it's chaos. The UN has to rely on sattelite imagery to keep an eye on these places and it's only by this method we know that they've been spirited away because no one is allowed in to check. No weapons inspectors are tolerated by the US invasion forces.
This means that the invasion has actually dramatically increased nuclear proliferation. We've given someone, somewhere, capabilities they could only dream about previously. Take Iran. Just starting out on it's weapons programme. How they would love an entire facility, with all the bugs, glitches and teething troubles worked out, to fall in their laps. This isn't about know how, anyone with the time and inclination could do the research needed to collate the information to make weapons grade material. This isn't even about the machinery needed to make weapons. Although they took all the machinery contained in the buildings along with the buildings. This is about the whole process. From raw material to finished product. The layouts of the facility, the step by step process. The buildings, the machinery and the raw materials. Somewhere, people unknown, have the whole kaboodle from the gas centrifuges down to the cafeteria, from the yellowcake down to the urinals.
Now Bush has even more explaining to do. All he did was go in and protect the oil. Nothing else. Iraq's museums were looted, losing thousands of priceless items from Iraq's past. Irreplaceable. Then the palaces were looted, losing vital information and documentation about the Ba'athist regime. And now this, Iraq's nuclear facililities unguarded and loaded lock, stock and barrel onto trucks and shipped out to who knows where. What was once tightly monitored by the UN is now lost and no one has a clue where it all went.
So yes, i'm shocked, and completely in awe of how incompetent the US has been. One of the major tennets of the invasion was anti nuclear proliferation and once they were there they didn't give a toss about anything except the oil fields. This should tell you all you need to know about Bush and his wars of conquest. Everything you've been told is lies. There were no WMD's, the British have just today withdrawn the intelligence about the 45 minute claim. Iraq was not a "Clear and Present Danger." Bush was after the oil. Nothing more and nothing less, and the bodies of many thousands of American, Iraqi and British were not going to get in his way.
Sadly, it seems, nor was the security of Iraq's nuclear weapons programme.