U.S. weapons left unsecured, taken by insurgents

A rocket exploded 50 feet from the building where the U.N. chief was speaking.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military's faulty war plans and insufficient troops in Iraq left thousands and possibly millions of tons of conventional munitions unsecured or in hands of insurgent groups after the 2003 invasion -- allowing widespread looting of weapons and explosives used to make roadside bombs that cause the bulk of U.S. casualties, according to a government report released Thursday.
Some weapons sites remained vulnerable as recently as October 2006, according to the Government Accountability Office report, which said the unguarded sites "will likely continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region." For example, it said, hundreds of tons of explosives at the Al Qa Qaa facility in Iraq that had been documented by the International Atomic Energy Agency were lost to theft and looting after April 9, 2003.
The powerful explosives missing from the Al Qa Qaa complex became a controversy on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, and the Pentagon had then claimed a U.S. Army demolition unit had destroyed up to 250 tons of explosives at the site.
Gates responds
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that securing the unexploded munitions in Iraq is "a huge, huge problem."
"The entire country was one big ammo dump," he said at a Pentagon press conference. "We're doing our best to try and find them but, given the expanse of the country and all the other tasks that the military is trying to carry out there, it's a huge task," he said. Gates has said that roadside bombs cause about 70 percent of U.S. troop casualties.
Gates also acknowledged that the war in Iraq would slow the ability of the U.S. military to fight another major conflict. "We would not be able to achieve our goals on the timelines that we've set for ourselves in terms of being successful in that other conflict," he said. "It would take a little longer, and we would not be as precise. We would not have as many precision weapons," he said. "It would be more of a blunt-force effort."
The GAO report pointed to several critical assumptions underlying U.S. military war plans in 2003 that proved invalid -- including expectations that Iraqi resistance was unlikely, and that the Iraqi Army would capitulate and continue to provide security.
As a result, widespread looting of munitions took place, including at the majority of Iraqi Republican Guard garrisons as well as 401 other sites, according to the GAO.
Developments
In other developments:
The U.N. chief ducked, as if to find shelter behind the red and white flowers on the podium. He narrowed his eyes, and looked left and right. Beside him, Iraq's usually dour prime minister didn't even flinch, and managed a slight smile at the startling welcome to Baghdad for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The U.N. leader was standing next to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when a Katyusha rocket exploded about 50 yards from the building in the capital's high-security Green Zone where they were answering questions from reporters. Al-Maliki hardly blinked, but Ban -- seemingly less accustomed to the tumult of war -- quickly crouched, and appeared shaken. The blast came just minutes after al-Maliki said Ban's visit showed Baghdad was "on the road to stability."
The House of Representatives moves to the brink today of voting whether to continue funding the war in Iraq while demanding an end to most American military involvement there by the end of August 2008. The vote is expected to be very close because anti-war Democrats are divided: Some say the measure wouldn't end the war fast enough or put enough pressure on President Bush, while others said it would be the first step and the toughest bill possible that has a chance to pass.