Cleaning Up the Weapons that Didn’t Exist

BAGHDAD (AP) — Britain will help the Iraqi government dispose of what’s left of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons, still stored in two bunkers in north of Baghdad, the British embassy in Baghdad announced Monday. …

Really? They found Saddam’s chemical weapons? Shouldn’t that be news?

… Saddam stored the chemical weapons near population centers so that he could access them quickly, despite the danger to his civilian population. Most of Iraq’s chemical weapons were destroyed by military forces in 1991 during the first Gulf War or by U.N. inspectors after the fighting. …

So the UN knew about them? And didn’t bother mentioning that fact? Uncanny.

… The head of the Iraqi National Authority, Mohammed Al Sharaa, said the remnants “represent a great challenge to the Iraqi experts to safely dispose.” He called the agreement with British authorities “a good opportunity for Iraqi experts to benefit from the well-known expertise of U.K. experts.” British Ambassador to Iraq Simon Collis said Britain is glad to assist in what he called “this difficult and dangerous task.” (H/T: IMAO)

When does Bush get his apology?

If You Don’t Put In Your Buck-o-Five, Who Will?

This picture is a creative collaboration between me and Buzzsawmonkey, who told me: “I had an idea last week for a ‘FREEDOM’ poster: two pix side by side. One of an Iraqi holding up an index finger with purple ink, one of those voting pictures. The other of someone in TSA uniform, holding up a latex-gloved index finger – brown to the middle knuckle.”

(Freedom: just another thing the USA is outsourcing overseas.) In Iraq, the citizens give their government the finger. In Soviet America, government fingers YOU! (I can’t believe I’m doing a Yakov Smirnoff joke in 2011. I’m so ashamed.)

UPDATE: If you don’t recognize the reference in the subject line, it’s from this song.