Sometimes, the military is its own worst enemy—which is deeply troubling when one considers the challenges faced by the troops on the ground in Iraq, who often have difficulty distinguishing friend from foe. While it is true enough that mistakes occur in the fog of war, some mistakes are more attributable to the fog of planning (and the mist-ifying politics and ambitions of the planners) and are, therefore, less forgivable. Consider the following, as reported by the Washington Post:

GAO Faults U.S. Military Over Munitions in Iraq

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 the 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 yesterday.

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. [full text]