Yesterday I took a look at a piece by Douglas Hanson in which he outlined the history if the IAEA in Iraq and their actions directed at the U.S. I looked at it in terms of John Kerry's statements that the inspections and sanctions were working in Iraq and would have succeeded if President Bush had given them a chance and not rushed to war. I found it disturbing that the IAEA left Hussein with the basic building blocks for a nuclear weapon. Given that the knowledge to build a bomb was available on the market via Pakistan this represents a catastrophic failure on the part of the United Nations. (Pardon me for typing that without a surprised expression on my face).

In light this I asked Senator to Kerry to provide a fuller explanation of exactly how he thought the inspections were working. Well it turns out that they were working even more poorly than I originally thought. It seems the much vaunted IAEA seals were basically meaningless as there was fairly easy access to the contents of sealed bunkers.

The next question for the Junior Senator from Massachusetts is how effective does he really think he could be in bringing reluctant members of the international community (aka France, Russia, and Germany) to the table in Iraq when they were not only being paid off by Saddam, but now it seems they were actively helping him to preserve his weapons stockpiles.

I'm not going to repeat all of the details of the possible Russian involvement in moving weapons from Iraq to Syria. All of that can be found at INDC, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Powerline, and two posts at Captian's Quarters. (Plus probably a few dozen other sites I haven't seen yet.)

Paul at Wizbang thinks the word of the day is reckless and that Kerry should be branded with word for his actions on the Al Qaaqa story. I think the problem goes beyond this one story. Beyond Kerry's multiple positions on Iraq and the War on Terror. I think it goes beyond reckless. My word for the day is dangerous.

If they are not already doing so, the post election planning of the Republican Party has to include a comprehensive plan to replace Kerry in the Senate when his term is up. They need to do it as a public service in the interest of National Security.

UPDATE: Truth Laid Bear has a really good roundup of the whole story as well.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 05:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment