Why weren't Saddam's weapons stashes DESTROYED when they were first found early on soon after the invasion?

Question

Early on, very soon after the US invaded Iraq, embedded reporters told us that US troops had described Baghdad and the surrounding towns/provinces as a regular "weapons dump", that there were weapons strashed everywhere! So I'm just curious...the military were already aware of the location of these weapons. Why weren't they cleared immediately? Why were they left where they were found only to be used later by the enemies?Okay there were no WMD. But while there was an all-out effort to find them!, surely they found other weapons didn't they?
And where are all of these bombs the insurgents are using coming from? Are we to believe that they are ALL coming from Syria and Iran?

Our troops have ALWAYS done a tremendous job! Are ALWAYS in 'harm's way !!
BUT aren't militiary heads responsible for taking care of matters such as described above!

Our troops have ALWAYS done a tremendous job! Are ALWAYS in 'harm's way !!
BUT aren't militiary heads responsible for taking care of matters such as described above!

Answer 1

If you remember back, there was a huge explosives depot that the UN ( I think it was the UN ) was monitoring in Iraq. ONce we invaded the UN inspectors had to pull out for saftey reasons. Once the UN left the depot was looted. The IED's that are being used against our troops are not very advanced. Alot of them are simply old unexploded ordinance. It's not hard to make explosives eith common materials either. You can make a powerful bomb using fertilizer and a small amount of black powder.
The short answer is that these bombs and explosves are coming from all over. Iran and Syria yes, but that's not the only source.

Answer 2

By the time the troops had taken control of Baghdad the dumps had already been looted along with everything else that hadn't been nailed down. Remember all the looting that went on. That happened because their wasn't enough troops to secure all these buildings and hunt down Iraqi soldiers and politicians that were wanted for war crimes.

Answer 3

We had too few troops on scene to secure all the bunkers. However, I think this is neither here nor there. Most of insurgent weapons and explosives are be smuggled in from Iran and Syria.

Answer 4

Not only has the ammo dumps been looted very quickly. U.S. policies made securing oil pipelines, refinaries, and pumping stations a top priority. Yes even higher than destroying ammo dumps in place.
The reasoning behind this was that Iraq needs that oil to help rebuild and generate an economy after we liberated them.