Those Missing Explosives

I'd keep an eye on this story. It's obvious now that newspapers like the New York Times (and the Anniston Star) reported this story and editorialized on it before all the facts were known.
The Pentagon released photos of the Al-Qaqaa facility today that show two trucks at the site only two days before the invasion. Tony Cordesman says that the explosives at that facility were only 0.06% of the total in Iraq, and other military experts agree that this issue has been vastly exaggerated.

However, the possibility remains that some of the weapons could have been stolen or looted following the invasion. This eems unlikely, with all the new details that have come out in recent days, but its possible. It is also possible that weapons were looted from other facilities, which could be of even greater concern. At this point, though, much of the press coverage amounts to fruitless speculation.

The press and the Kerry campaign recklessly seized on this story in an attempt to embarrass the Bush administration in the week before the election. They did so without full, or even adequate, knowledge of the facts. Even in the event that explosives and weapons were stolen, that failing shouldn't necessarily be attributed to negligence or incompetence on the administration's part. War is a difficult business, but second-guessing by armchair generals is easy.