Posted on 05/18/2004 9:23:50 AM PDT by Living Free in NH
Breaking news ... nothing follows
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
< howard dean scream> AARRGGHHH! < /scream>
Your math is a little off. Your lethal dose is for perfect conditions. Out in the real world the LCt50 (dose required to be lethal for 50% of those exposed) for vaporized Sarin gas is 100mg per m3 (remember it is normally a liquid). The better way to look at is that the amount of Sarin in that artillery shell (assuming prefect dispersal) would kill 50% of all oxygen-breathing organisms (can't forget about the little kitties,too)in a .4 square kilometer area. In an urban setting this would translate into massive causalities. Those not killed would be in severe distress. The ICt50 (dose required to incapacitate 50% of those exposed) is 75mg per m3, and The MCt50 (dose required to produce breath problems) is 3mg per m3.
The 'saving grace' of Sarin is that because of its density it hugs the ground, the LCt 50 for skin exposure is 1.7 g per m3, and it quickly dissipates. That is why chem shells are exploded above ground and it used in barrages rather than as individual shots.
I could be wrong but I assume a binary warhead looks very different than a dumb bomb nosecone due to the loading areas and different size charge. I would hope that the inspector clouseau's could spot one if they saw one and were not simply looking for green bands. But maybe the RG did not even want their own artillery shooters to know what was in their shells.
That's the exact image I keep seeing in my mind also! I thought the same thing, and felt really helpless knowing we were at the mercy of whatever those morons found.
Hint to weapons inspectors: If your Iraqi tour guides aren't wearing Chem Protective gear, then you won't be finding anything that day!!
That was my understanding also. That we blew up chem weapons, either unknowingly, or the wind changed direction, or the wind dispersed the stuff much farther than we expected, etc.
Yeah, I know the math is a little off, but I figure, if the leftist peaceniks used this exact same math for the plutonium dioxide ceramic in the Cassini radioisotope thermal generator in their efforts to block its launch, I might as well use it myself. *grin*
To use it as other than a terror weapon, the operator would have to obtain the right type of 155mm howitzer, corresponding firing tables, propellant charges and fuses.
Every projectile type has its own unique ballistic characteristics and they are dependent upon the explosive force of the propellant charge, the rifling of the artillery tube, the length of the tube and other factors. While a terrorist could certainly aim the howitzer in the general direction of his target, he would be unable to hit his target without miraculous luck or lot's of practice.
Once you realize everything associated with the UN has been designed to make America "the enemy of the world" along with Israel, it all falls neatly into place.
Including Ballroom Blix's insane rolling commentary for the past eight years or so. His persona is so tightly bound to his failures as a UN inspector he simply can't help himself.
Will these figures be rebroadcast over the spew-waves on in the de-press? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Where is my TV Guide, Blanch? I need to watch Dan Rather for my daily dose of news.
Such slime.
Media: Hey! We were discussing American torture, shame and defeat here. Stop with the distractions.
Unless their primary objective was to send the message that they had this stuff and would use it in more "effective" ways "next" time. Scary either way.
Jonah, Balster's Blog got very close to, but missed, the really huge news behind the sarin gas shell. The thing was not marked. This is not the way you manufacture, store or deploy chemical munitions. They require special handling and careful considerations when used to avoid endangering your own troops. So why in the world would this chemical munition not be clearly marked? 1. Hiding the things from inspectors. Chemical weapons, disguised as conventional ordinance, would be extremely difficult to detect by anyone, especially if they were mixed in with conventional ordinance at weapons dumps, with innocuous markings (perhaps simple numbers) to allow handlers to tell the difference. If this be the case, our missing WMDs may very well be hiding in plain sight to this day, undiscovered until terrorists grabbed what they thought was a regular conventional artillery round from an unsecured sight that inspectoirs may have already gone through. 2. Disguising the things from Saddam's own commanders. It was no secret that America was serious about WMDs, and threatened war even during the Clinton administration over it. It was also no secret that WMDs were what American military commanders most feared in the event of an Iraqi invasion (remember the worries during the first Gulf War?). Saddam surely would have anticipated America appealing directly to Iraqi field commanders not to use chemical weapons, and may have known that we would hold those who did personally responsible in war crimes trials post invasion. We threatened exactly that. Faced with the possibility that his own commanders may not follow orders to use chemical weapons, he issues artillery shells and other weapons that are devoid of known markings that distinguish between types of ordinance. That means that if Iraqi cammanders shoot anything at all, the will likely shoot chemical weapons in the mix. Ironically, that may have backfired on Saddam. Many Iraqi Republican Guard Units deployed around Baghdad melted away faster than expected. What if that is because Iraqi commanders that suspected they had chemical weapons "in the mix" refused to use any of their weapons and abandoned their post? Of course, this is loaded with speculation. But whatever the reasoning, the story of unmarked chemical weapons munitions turning up randomly in central Iraq is bound to get real interesting. Real fast. Joe Frye
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Good points, Mr Joe Frye
Are we getting set up? I'm concerned about our movements, where we agree to back off...kinda feeling like they're putting us here, and there and there. Geez, I'm really praying hard for our guys.
You've got it exactly right. This is the primary problem with a political campaign in our system that is based on being against, rather than for, something.
Kerry doesn't stand for anything. Never has. Won't today, and certainly won't by November. He's the proverbial "empty suit".
Had the Democratic Party not been at this point more of a political "coalition" rather than a true political party, they would have a very tight campaign right now, Kerry most assuredly would not be the Candidate, and they would have a huge lead at this point in the race, despite a good economy, and the sucesses in the war on terror.
But the very weaknesses a true political party could take advantage of, such as the unbelievable Administration stance on Border Security are not available to the Democrats. This is because if the "coalition" that makes up the Democratic Party suffers just one (1) true defection within its ranks, they get blown out by thirty points or more.
The very path the Democratic Party has been forced to take to keep known sub groups "in the fold" from hispanics to African Americans, to gays, to anti gun nuts, to the big government types, is its primary weakness. It ensures the Democratic Party will never take a hard stand on any issue of real importance to the clear Majority in America.
My biggest worry isn't so much the Democratic Party, its the GOP Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight, that always seems to mistake massive rejection of Liberalism in each election as an affirmation of ALL GOP positions. Thats just not the case, but watch and see, they will run amok after November, just as they did in 1995, and again in 1998 and to a lesser extent 1999.
Bingo.
I heard Blix explain it and after that its SO clear.
It was scavanged from a non-existent stockpile which contained old substance which had long since deterioated. I infered from that then is the substance must have been replaced with fresh chems from the non-existent chemical program by the jihadi's who had no idea what it was they were doing. ;-)
At this point I figure the only explination the left will accept is the shell spontaneously assembled itself from various items lying around the desert.
shove Blix's face into the shell and make him inhale...
"Hey Achmed, did you hear the news? We need to go back and get some more of those shells with the blue tips!"
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