Posted on 09/02/2013 7:34:22 PM PDT by xzins
Syrian President Bashar Assad wields command over the world's biggest stockpile of chemical weapons, international security experts say, and he is expected to emerge from any punitive Western airstrikes with his arsenal intact.
With an estimated 50 storage sites, many situated in or near urban centers, any attempt to destroy or degrade the Assad government's supply of poison gases and nerve agents would require a massive invasion of ground forces that no nation considered part of the emerging "coalition of the willing" would be likely to support.
Even if U.S. and allied intelligence have precisely located some of the stores of sarin, mustard or VX gas, analysts say, the likelihood of a successful airstrike is slim because of Assad's powerful air defenses and the risk of bombed chemical stores unleashing their deadly gases.
"There is always a risk of unintended dispersal of chemical agents in a missile strike. To do that reasonably safely, you would have to know exactly what is stored at the site, where the people are in the area, what the winds are like. Otherwise you run the risk of creating toxic plumes that would kill people," Weber said. "And you probably can't get to all of them, so it may not make sense to bother taking out only some of them unless you can ensure that any collateral damage is really low."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I finally heard mention today that is was almost certain that Saddam Hussein had in fact managed to ecav his chem and bio weapons to Syria before the fall of his regime in Iraq. Remember the non-stop outcry of damned Dems and Progressive pigs about the fake WMD issue and the Bush Admin ? Bush’s greatest failure is that he did not fully and openly reveal all the sat intel we had at the time showing RUSSIAN vehicles and technicians moving all those materials , into Syria , for Saddam . They are still there ....nuke the whole place and call it good
Silly LA Times. Obama doesn’t care about dead Syrians or destroying Syrian chemical weapons. But then, they already know that.
Saw a similar article, yeah, you can’t strike these places without the risk of setting the gas off.
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I’ve thought similar, put a wall around that whole troubled area, Iran, etc. to leave the rest of the world alone.
Assad certainly has some bad ass air defense systems. Provided by and lots of them manned by Russians. If we attack Syria just to make Obama look good, it’ll be the dumbest thing this country has ever done. And it won’t make him look good. It will only make US look bad.
The Russians actually have a Naval Base in Syria still, sure someone posted that article. Think it’s stated here:
Iraq’s mixed nerve agents would have degraded long ago. The binary components would last longer. I would think most of Saddam’s stockpile of poison gas would not now be usable. Whatever Syria (or the rebels) want to use must be mixed fairly close to the time of use.
Making sarin is not hard; staying alive while you do it is.
ya mean like this one... 
Obama wants to save face.
He’ll come up with something inconsequential but cute.
And the US will have committed acts of war just to help a president save face.
No. We should do the job right or not at all.
Lobbing a few cruise missiles that don’t come close to ending his chem/bio capacity accomplishes absolutely nothing.
We go all out to deny BOTH Assad & Al Qaeda of any/all of Syria’s chemical weapons or we shut up until we figure out how to do it.
All we are talking about is a symbolic gesture alright, really the crux of the matter, stirring up a hornets nest right next to Iraq where so much effort was spent. (Sigh).
concerning air defense.
I assume that cruise missiles and glide bombs
will be launched from far beyond the range
of air defense.
Nope. Tartus is closed.
Have you ever seen the “Dilbert” cartoon, based on the comic strip of the same name?
nap of the earth cruise missiles are probably beyond Syria’s ability to defend against.
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America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi! |
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