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 ...
There were a lot of people saying we should leave Hussein in power in Iraq. All we had to do is look at the past. Dictators are in place because initially they’re needed. Saddam Hussein kept the radicals in check. That’s why Bin Laden hated him. So any vacuum in Iraq was created by us.
I won’t say I was against the second war because I wasn’t. I did not think we should have taken Hussein out. We should have clipped his wings a little.
But I was dead set against the first gulf war. We should have let the Arabs handle it.
The problem is we went in the First Gulf War, then left him in power. Did they think he really wouldn’t seek out revenge?
Would we have left Hitler in power?
If you are not prepared to occupy a country for a generation, you have no business going in the first place.
the KURDS have never defended this dam because it has little impact on them....
honest statement BUT bumbrain BUsh wanted revenge for Sadam trying to assinate his father and being one with narrow eyes and a tiny brain he fell for the revenge angle....Iraq was 100% his arrogant dumb bushhead brain
My thoughts, too...(let’s see if we can get Mitch, Harry, Thad, Uncle Joe and the Obamas to visit the dam-— and have it fail)
ISIS will never feel that they are backed into a corner.
Only identifiable armies dressed in recognizable uniforms can be backed into corners.
Hey US, wake up — you’re fighting a totally different war against an enemy who doesn’t wear uniforms and are therefore unidentifiable, who do not honor the Geneva convention and who is already hiding among the population.
Remember what the greatest generation did at Bastogne when they discovered 5th columnists. Do likewise.
Nope.
But consider that the Tappan Zee Bridge in NY rests on wooden pilings that were pounded into mud. The bridge is finally scheduled to be rebuilt, five years after the end of its intended lifespan.
Engineering assessments have determined that "everything from steel corrosion to earthquakes to maritime accidents could cause major, perhaps catastrophic, damage to the span," prompting one of the top aides in the New York state governor's office to refer to the Tappan Zee as the “hold-your-breath bridge.”
Surf’s up!
Make that two of us!
We should have just bombed the hell out of him for 365 days and left. Then, 5 years later, do it all over again.
Thousands of our guys would be alive today and tens of thousands of THEM would be dead.
We need bigger bombers that carry more bombs and are fuel efficient with no pilots. Call em RCB’s for Remote Control Bombers....
OY! Been across that bridge a few times.
To me the “hold your breath” bridge in the NYC area is definitely the Williamsburg bridge.
There is just too much stuff going on on that bridge.
Inner and outer roadways, both very narrow, I’ve watched people scrape the sides it is so narrow, I think it has a pedestrian walkway, and oh yeah, a subway line running across it.
Yikes! I think I drove across it once, following hubby.
I managed not to cry, which one guy told me his sister did every time she had to drive across the Pulaski Skyway (which is now under major renovations also).
America, on the move!
Never heard that story.
reading other replies to you. I don’t think they’re concerned about their own people. They will simply get them out of there before they blow it. The dam is the ultimate ace in the hole. So long as they control it they can place as many bombs as they want inside of it. Who can take it from them ? So long as the threat is there how can it be taken by force? This is one reason we can Obama waited far too long. The fighters realized the importance of the dam as a weapon. I guess we didn’t. Oils fields as well. Remember Kuwait?
The left would want intervention at that point to restore the green energy.
Actually, I laughed until I cried as I typted that. The left would ignore it and find or invent some wag the dog story in the US.
whoops, and thanks BfT.
But we knew afterwards. We learned. Obama on the other hand wanted to show the world he too, like Bush, could overthrow governments. He thought he was special because he didn’t use troops. He had zero reason to back the ouster of Mubarak. Isn’t it odd how the Arab countries ruled by royalty didn’t get on Obama’s radar?
Talk is cheap. We put our tanks in Iraq in garages as Syria was supporting killing our troops. We should have taken out Syria and then concentrated on Iran.
Thank God for the Egyptian military or Obama would have a clean sweep.
The Shah doesn’t belong in that list
He was pro-west
he gave us oil when the arabs cut us off in 1973
He is a Persian, not an Arab, he was different, and he knew we needed him more than he needed us
and he wwas NOT the tyrant peoiple said, he killed about 3500 while Shah because they were bombing police stations and military barracks, they were not political dissidents, they were soviet trained commies who helped overthrow him and lost their revolution to the Muslims
Nothing unique about that. The United States of America likewise is full of "demons released from hell" and they have nothing to do with Islam.
Could that be timed for Friday prayers?
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