Posted on 08/10/2014 11:51:39 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
If , as some reports suggest, Islamic State forces have seized Mosul Dam, they might have stumbled on a weapon exponentially more powerful than any U.S.-made armored vehicle or Soviet-era anti-aircraft gun.
The Mosul Dam is Iraq’s largest dam and with its shoddy construction could, if destabilized, affect the lives of Iraqis as far south as Baghdad.
Located on Mosul Lake the facility provides electricity and irrigation to surrounding areas.
“If the dam fails, scientists say, Mosul could be completely flooded within hours and a 15-foot wall of water could crash into Baghdad,” Keith Johnson wrote in a Foreign Policy article from earlier this summer.
A 2011 article from the International Water Power and Dam Construction magazine indicated that if the Mosul Dam was destroyed the ensuing destruction could result in half a million deaths. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosul_Dam
could solve a lot of problems
Damn right! My thoughts too.
“The earthen embankment dam is located on top of gypsum, a soft mineral which dissolves in contact with water.”
Um, that doesn’t seem to smart to me!
Wait until my grandbaby grows up, he’s not even 2 but I’m sure he’s going to be a great engineer. He’ll solve this problem.
Hang in there Iraqis, just for another 25 years or so!
ISIS is certainly radical enough to do it, so will they and why haven’t done so yet?
It would alleviate the need for IS to fight for control of Iraq and allow them to concentrate on Saudi Arabia.
Now Christian churches...that's a different matter.
When’s the defication hitting the oscillator in Saudi or do they have it under control?
Saddam Hussein was exactly the leader Iraq needed. He was a scumbag dictator who knew full well how to keep the faces of The Greater Islamic Scum down in the dirt where they belong. The removal of Hussein from power was a major foreign policy blunder on our part, a blunder which I myself supported at the time. My excuse: I wasn’t being paid to know better.
If we back them in a corner and they sense the end is coming...they will flood half of Iraq.
Just like Kaddaffy and Assad, and though I wouldn’t put him in the same category as the others, Mubarak.
What do they all have in common?
God flushing the toilet,,
Right there with you. I now think the First Gulf War was a mistake, who cares about Kuwait? Just Muzzies who do a slightly better job of acting like our "friends", like the Saudis.
The US needs to stop picking winners and losers in the Strong Man category of third world countries. We simply don't do it well. We need to stop.
And we need Energy Independence so we can finally tell those Sand Naggers to F Off.
A 15 foot high wall of water could slam into Baghdad?
Well, hell. That’s an improvement from prognosticators last week, who said it would be a 30 foot high wall of water.
Doing my government, in my head (no napkins are available) I estimate that “If” we can get them to hold off blowing the damn until October 1st, then it should be pretty managable with the threat being a mere 2 feet or so.
That gives Iraq 6 weeks to build diversions through ditches and walls.
We left em plenty of American equipment, so this should be very doable.
Drop food, porn and American whiskey all over the insurgent ISIS forces to distract them.
Gosh! I’ve solved a major problem today and I still haven’t finished my 1st cup of coffee.
cant wait for my second cup.
“Drop food, porn and American whiskey all over the insurgent ISIS forces to distract them.
Gosh! I’ve solved a major problem today and I still haven’t finished my 1st cup of coffee.”
LOL. Brilliant!
“Smart” is not the adjective that applies to ANY of the parties that put this dam in place. “Expedient” is more in order.
Supposedly a flood control device and water-retention reservoir for agricultural purposes, it was put up with an eye to economy on the short term, not as a monument to engineering skill and capabilities. Apparently this is a relatively high-maintenance design, only meant as a temporary measure while a REAL dam was to be build downstream, one that would provide much more water retention, and be fully adequate to provide a considerable measure of hydroelectric power to the existing grid in Iraq.
It may all be a moot point anyway, if the Islamic Caliphate blows the dam, a highly likely outcome. Think of the flood downstream in Baghdad, and the untold mischief to agricultural production in the short term, and the overall impact on the viability and makeup of the current government now nominally in charge of that legal fiction known as “Iraq”.
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