Read this article from the right-slanted Washington Times all the way through, and you’ll be treated to the Republicans saying that a U.S. soldier destroyed 250 tons of explosives at al Qaqaa, and besides, there were only 3 tons at the facility in the first place. Or maybe there was 141 tons. But the soldier destroyed 250 of them, so he’s bound to have gotten them all, right?

Of course, the first number they quote–380 tons–is most likely closest to the true amount. And despite the claims of the Bush Pentagon, this new testimony probably has absolutely no relevance to the IAEA issue. The explosives in question had IAEA seals on them, which would have to be broken to access them. The soldier in charge said that “I did not see any IAEA seals at the locations that we went into. I was not looking for that.” Looking or not, he would have had to break the seals, and so would have seen them. Despite that, “Defense officials said they believe the 250 tons of explosives that Army troops destroyed after overruning the facility south of Baghdad included some of the 380 tons of explosives that have been reported missing.”

But let’s imagine that the Pentagon is accurate here; even if the soldier destroyed 250 tons, that leaves 130 tons of explosives (which could be used in building nuclear materials as well as terrorist attacks) left unguarded and probably looted. And it means that they knew the explosives were there, they needed to be destroyed, and yet they stopped short and left the remainder unguarded so looters could get them. But maybe that helps Bush, because it lets him blame the troops.