Even a Stopped Clock is Right Twice a Day -- UNMOVIC Finds The Goods

It looks like the Inspector Cloueseau wanna-bes of UNMOVIC struck lucky and found found prohibited weapons of mass destruction. Specifically they found 12 empty artillery rocket chemical warheads, most likely for a The BM-21 Grad (Hail) 40-tube 122mm multiple launch rocket system.

The Federation of American Scientists says the following on the Grad:

"The BM-21 fires a "9-ft rocket" with a range of 20,380 meters. Each launch tube is grooved to impart a slow rotary motion to the rocket. However, the rocket is primarily fin-stabilized. This combination of spin- and fin-stabilization ensures closely grouped fire at ranges of up to 16 kilometers. The BM-21 and other 122mm rocket launchers can fire all 122mm rockets designed to fit in Soviet-derived 122mm launchers (including those that can achieve ranges of 30,000 to 36,000 meters). The 122-mm fin-stabilized rockets can deliver Frag-HE, chemical, or incendiary warheads to a range of over 20 kilometers, or the newer HE and cargo rockets out to 30 kilometers. On explosion, the warhead produces a great fragmentation effect and shock wave.

Because of its high volume of fire and large area coverage, the BM-21 is well suited for use against troops in the open, for use in artillery preparations, and for delivery of chemical concentrations. One volley from a BM-21 battalion is 720 rounds. Because these weapons have a large circular area probable (CEP), they are not suited for attacks against point targets."

Make no mistake folks, this is a material breach.The gun is not only smoking, it is red hot.

The UN Report is on Iraqi compliance with weapons of mass destruction inspections is scheduled for 27 Jan. 2003.

George Bush will give his State of the Union Address 28 Jan. 2003.

American popular culture has some lines for this kind of occasion:

"It's a pleasure watching a professional at work." George Peppard in Battle Beyond the Stars after the good guys rented the Robert Vaughn character.

"I love it when a plan all comes together like this!" George Peppard in The A-Team when the good guys won by improbable luck.

"Trust me - I know what I'm doing." The lead character in the vanished Sledgehammer TV show fires a pistol directly at the viewer in the opening credits.

As I pointed out in an earlier post:

The fall and "soft landing" of the Soviet Union were not accidents. They were stage managed in large part by the efforts of the mid-to-senior level national security appointees from the first Bush Administration. Those people now make up Dubya's senior level national security team.

The sign of a master strategist is not only arranging his decision tree so that every result is a victory for him. It is arranging those choices so that his opponents rationally make decisions in their immediate short term interest that support the strategist's master plan for his optimum outcome.

It didn't matter what UNMOVIC did or didn't do as far as the ultimate outcome in Iraq is concerned. Bush was going to remove Saddam's regime. The only question was the ultimate political and military price America would pay for that victory. And how paying it would affect future campaigns in the war. So Bush's people laid out the choices for the U.N. such that being America's unwilling tool was a better thing in the immediate short term for the U.N. than becoming "League of Nations road kill." The same game was played with the Saudis via press stories that spooked them into giving the U.S. military air space access and basing rights in the short term, even if it isn't in House of Saud's interests to see Iraq fall.

Face it folks, the Bushies know what they are doing. (Steven Den Beste has noticed this about the Bush Administration as well.) They are preparing Iraq for a "soft landing" regime change that will remove Saddam and make sure none of his WMD fall into non-American hands.