Remember this (from USA Today) the next time the lead story of the day from Iraq is "Whoopee, we found a weapons cache!":

In strategic sections of Iraq, just about every school, hospital or Baath Party building that U.S. forces come across is stacked high with ammunition, according to Gen. John Abizaid, overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The number of sites is a logistical nightmare for the coalition, which can't remove the arms fast enough and lacks manpower to guard all the caches.

Abizaid's military command estimates it will take five years to destroy all the explosives already confiscated. Meanwhile, unguarded sites become ready-made supply houses for guerrilla fighters.

"There is more ammunition in Iraq than any place I've ever been in my life, and it is all not securable," Abizaid told senators in a Sept. 24 hearing. "I wish I could tell you that we had it all under control, but we don't."

(UPDATE: Here's the New York Times story on the same subject. Disturbing quote from General Abizaid about sites we have -- ostensibly -- secured: "There's probably places where we've put Iraqi guards that may be vulnerable to people that would come in and bribe the guards." Infuriating illustration of how we're being lied to: "General Abizaid's sobering assessment directly contradicted reassurances from a senior Pentagon official earlier in September that 'all known Iraqi munitions sites are being secured by coalition forces.' ... Previously, American military and law enforcement officials in Iraq privately acknowledged that about 50 munitions sites containing explosives similar to those used in the recent major bombings had little or no security. But General Abizaid's comments now suggest that the number could be much higher." Two-way tie for the best imitation of Sergeant "I Know Nothink!" Schultz from Hogan's Heroes: "Senior Defense Department officials in Washington say they have only recently been made aware of the scope and seriousness of the problem.... A spokesman for L. Paul Bremer III, the top American civilian administrator in Iraq, said Mr. Bremer had also received briefings on the larger issue but was not familiar with security at individual sites.")