Posted on 12/05/2012 4:03:49 PM PST by John W
The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.
The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said.
As recently as Tuesday, officials had said there was as yet no evidence that the process of mixing the "precursor" chemicals had begun. But Wednesday, they said their worst fears had been confirmed: The nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnews.nbcnews.com ...
Assad would be signing his death warrant by using such weapons.
Not if he shoots them at Israel.
I wonder if this is going down on 12-20-2012? I also agree with #10. Let them kill each other. Why are we even involved? We don’t back Israel and we let the Muslems push us around all the time. Hillary and obama are at fault. let them all go at it.
I wonder if this is going down on 12-20-2012? I also agree with #10. Let them kill each other. Why are we even involved? We don’t back Israel and we let the Muslems push us around all the time. Hillary and obama are at fault. let them all go at it.
Yes, but he may be just that crazy just now. Ragnarök if you’re German.
I DO NOT WANT the US to get involved with any of that crap over there. Let them kill themselves. Just protect Israel. I will not support Obama...WHAT-SO-EVER.
And despite the hysteria as a dreaded “WMD”, gas is an idiotic thing to get all lathered up about, to the point that it drives our foreign policy.
Gas was slightly effective in WWI for 3 reasons. It was poorly understood, trench warfare was highly static, and last,, European battlefields were soaking wet, filled with shellholes, trenches, bunkers, and low lying areas where soldiers sought cover.
Gas artillery in WWI involved sometimes as many as 18,000 shells being fired into the target area in order to achieve a useful concentration level. They needed to deliver in the area of 100 to 160 tons in the average attack. And in modern highly mobile warfare, even the rebels would suffer a few casualties and leave the area.
Then it sucks for your own guys who you send in there.
Add in that it would invite hysterical reactions from around the world and NATO would immediately invade (to make the world safe for democracy again,, i guess) and it all adds up to almost no benefit tactically, for an enormous strategic loss.
Don’t forget, Saddam had gas in both wars we fought with him. It wasn’t used. Part of that is the threat that we would maybe retaliate with a nuke. But the bigger part of it is that it would have been almost useless against a mobile force. Gas is highly overrated.
This is Obama propaganda.
Wish Israel could say the same about Obama/Hillary.
I wanted to post the same thing, but you beat me to it!
Yes, what Bush did was wrong (of course, he had congressional approval).
What Obama does (even without congressional approval) is good.
If you do not agree, you need re-education.
Your post 19 is exactly right. What is happening is a set-up for a lose-lose situation for Assad, in order to hand over Syria to the Muslim brotherhood.
All this preening by Hilary and Zero over the use of chemical weapons having consequences is just proof what a hoax this whole thing is.
If anything, we, or someone we are paying, probably would lob a few chem shells over there to create a pretext for action.
I don't trust anyone in DC, or what they say.
It would make far more sense to just pound them all day with standard 155 HE rounds. It should scare you wayyyy more than a gas round.
If a 155 gas round hits close to your position, you even have a sporting chance to run for your life and get away, especially if the wind gives you an edge. But if an HE round hits, there -ain’t- no running for your life. It got you, or it didn’t.
Assad should have been dead the minute he loaded the weapons with WMD! Obama is a complete moron Marxist.
He is going to fiddle around in Hawaii while the whole Middle East goes up in flames.
“If anything, we, or someone we are paying, probably would lob a few chem shells over there to create a pretext for action.”
Absolutely yes. I like how you think. And you know, we wouldn’t even have to pay anyone. We strut around screaming “if Assad uses gas, we will intervene”. So all these moslem brotherhood types in Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, the rebels, etc,,,are hearing “If we need American air support like in Libya, we need to deploy gas somewhere”.
So they do it, we send in the and FBI test and confirm, and bada-bing*, they have all of Nato instantly joining their team. And we never had to do a THING except say what our position was.
If half expecting those jokes in DC to put out the story that Assads soldiers are catching Belgian babies on their bayonets! This is such obvious BS.
Bingo!
“Assad should have been dead the minute he loaded the weapons with WMD!”
Obama smiled when he read that. And that reaction is exactly why the story that weapons were being loaded, was fed to NBC.
I am sick of intervention in muzzie countries. If they want to wipe each other out, so be it, as long as we have no personnel there.
“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated U.S. warnings to Assad not to use chemical weapons, saying he would be crossing “a red line” if he did so.”
Wow. I’m sure that really scared Assad. He’s probably cowering under his bed in fear of crossing that red line.
WWI gas was way less lethal than modern nerve gases.
Even so, I agree that gas vs a mechanized mobile force in open country is of little use.
However, the fighting in Syria where it counts right now is urban, and the targets aren’t mobile mechanized troops but urban militias and civilians. A few gas attacks vs civilians could easily cause a panic and a collapse, if exploited correctly. Nerve gas in an urban area against people with no effective protection could be enormously effective.
Nato would be unlikely to invade, as they would have to stage through Turkey and the Turks aren’t likely to stick their necks too far out. It may be impossible even to get basing their for an effective aerial intervention. In Libya the allies could work out of Sicily, but there isn’t a real alternative to Turkey in this case.
The Syrian military supported by Iran isn’t nearly as weak and useless as Gaddafi’s gangs. The Nato assets used vs Gaddafi were trivial compared to what would be needed in Syria.
-— Wow. I’m sure that really scared Assad. He’s probably cowering under his bed in fear of crossing that red line. -—
She’s wise to save the BRIGHT red line for later. No one can withstand that.
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