Posted on 05/17/2004 8:14:59 AM PDT by JusticeTalion
An artillery round containing a small amount of the nerve gas sarin has exploded in Iraq. Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said the blast caused a small release of the substance, and two people were treated for exposure to the agent.
The substance was found in an artillery shell inside a bag discovered by a US convoy a few days ago, he said.
It appears to be the first evidence of nerve gas existing in Iraq since the start of the US-led war last year.
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says the implications, especially psychological, for the use of such a substance by terrorists are potentially huge.
Gen Kimmitt said the dispersal of the nerve agent from a device such as the homemade bomb was "limited".
"The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War," he said.
I hope you are being sarcastic.
Now that they are starting to come out and use these weapons is proof that they were, and probably still are, in Iraq.
No matter what happens, people like you will never believe that this is a real threat.
Do you realize that most Islamic people, and yes I said most, would not care one bit if the United States was destroyed and removed from the face of the earth. It is in the Koran that they are to convert the entire world to Islam, either by the word or by the sword.
If you think these people are all "lovey dovey" for you, why don't you go and visit one of these areas where they are taking civilian hostages. Once they grab you, till them that you wish that we could all respect diversity, tell them my beliefs are as good as your beliefs.
I hope you realize that the Islamic religion does not respect diversity, in fact it will not allow diversity. The laws are written out in the Koran, and as a Islamic religion follower, you are not allowed to deviate from them at all. If you do, the punishment is death. It is that simple in Islamic culture.
So, please go to Iraq and spread the word of diversity and see how long it will take you lose your head.
Yes, I pray for their safety every day.
We don't but does it really matter where it came from? It's in Iraq now.
I dislike Michael Moore intensely!
Right. And what about the stuff that almost blew up and killed thousands in Jordan? Tons of it supposedly was trucked in from Syria. And before that it was in Iraq. The case is closed except for idiots who refuse to admit the truth.
How many count as proof?
This is a good question. However, when the trucks were found, our military said had been used as mobil chemical labs, it was considered no big deal. I seem to recall there was also an instance when 17 mortars containing mustard gas remnants were also found in Iraq, but that too was dismissed as "no big deal".
We could have found an entire cave of WMDs with Saddam Hussein inside with them and the left would say this is no big deal. The left would demand an investigation claiming the Bush administration had planted them.
No way to "know" for sure, but the circumstances argue against that. Based on the way it was used, the guys who set it probably did not know it was Sarin. Absent the rotation imparted from firing it from artillery, you don't get the mixing necessary to activate the stuff.
If they believed it to be just an ordinary artillery round, there's no need to go to Syria to get one of those. They're stockpiled in lots of places in Iraq. The facts suggest these clowns have some old Iraqi bunker with some of these things, and grabbed this one, and set it up without knowing what it was.
If you assume that it was a known WMD imported from Syria, you'd have to assume that the people who provided it know something about it, and would instruct the recipients as to its employment. But that doesn't square with the manner in which it was employed.
Iraqi defector Gazi George, a scientist who worked on Hussein's wmd programs, was interviewed on Fox this morning practically guaranteeing that more will be found.
Err... HELLO???????????
I'm am a proud republican and bush voter, and I supported the removal of saddam wholeheartedly. All I asked was a question - which given the lack so far of stockpiles, and the amount of foreign arabs in Iraq, and the fact that a lot of neighboring countries have WMDs, doesn't seem totally beyond the bounds of reason to ask.
Unfortunately, it is the over-reaction of some of our fellow republicans to questioning/debate (even if you do think it's a stupid question, not everyone might) that shed us in a bad light with a lot of people. You are right that some people will never be 'converted' to realizing the threat but I am not one of them. And it's pretty unhelpful to suggest that asking this type of question makes me automatically a terrorist sympathiser or at least anti-US which is basically what you infer. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I agree that it's the greatest possibility of it coming from Iraq. I'm just saying that it's not a vanishingly small probability that it came from outside - in fact I'd be much MORE concerned if this was the case as it would mean the terrorists are able to transport more easily than I imagined. Maybe it even came from Syria????? Isn't that outside iraq? Does this suggestion suddenly make me a peacenik?
Next time please think before you attack.
I noticed that too.
... though now that I see it was artillery shell (first time I read the story it was saying a roadside bomb) I'd have to agree it almost certainly IS from inside, or at least a syrian import. Al-qaeda (etc.) has been building a good deal of capability in chemical weapons as bombs but not as far as I know as military equipment, so certainly looks more like ex-saddam material.
Let me correct your sentence for ya.:
>"I am a proud Republican, and a President Bush supporter."
"Does this suggestion suddenly make me a peacenik?"
NO.
Please forgive those of us who are skeptical of newbies who come in and make statements like you just did. Usually they are disruptive trolls. So the response you got was a natural one.
"Maybe it even came from Syria????? Isn't that outside iraq?
Yes, maybe it came from Syria...and maybe it came to Syria, via Iraq? Very possible, no?
But don't you think it's possible that Saddam diseminated some bio/chem agents to his allies, and Baathist party loyalists? More likey than not, (imo).
bump
Please forgive me. I did not know what your stance was on the issues. Now that I know where you are coming from, I can and do respect you for asking the question.
We don't know where they came from, but if neighboring countries have these weapons, then it is very likely that Iraq had them, maybe not for terrorism, but self-defense. So I believe that it is very likely that they are from Iraqi stockpiles.
We could find the mother load of "nerve gas" and these freaking liberals would claim we planted it just to get the focus off "dirty" pictures.
Thanks FBD.
I appreciate the editorial work too.
From that perspective I guess it makes more sense (the newbie thing etc.). I should have prefaced my post with saying that I support the President.
With regard to the outside/inside iraq issue, I imagine in all probability you are right. It's more that I'm becoming very concerned by our apparent inability or at least slowness in getting the foreign arabs out of iraq or at least under control. They are in there stirring up the situation; and these are guys who imo are much more dangerous than the ex-saddamites - they are religious fanatics and al-qaeda types. These are the guys who really want to wipe us out (not just in iraq like the baathists, but everywhere).
I've always thought that the WMD, violation-of-UN-resolutions reason was a bit of a waste of time; the only good reason imo to go in was to boot out Saddam and bring democracy to a brutalized people. There was so much harping on about it on both side of the 'debate' that I think we sometimes missed the real issue. So I suppose that probably influences my skepticism of when we see some chemicals or whatever and turn around and say "see we were right" - finding WMDs or not doesn't change the fact that we did the right thing in removing an evil tyrant. [not that I'm saying this is your point, but just as an overall comment to some of the other things I've seen written].
Anyway... thanks for the comment and advice.
Thanks for the reply, FRiend, and this time, a cordial: Welcome! :)
Hope to chat with you more in the future.
Regards.
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