Posted on 05/18/2004 9:23:50 AM PDT by Living Free in NH
I read it was a binary agent, designed to mix when the shell was launched.
Yes - 12 casualties when there could have been hundreds had the sarin been prepared properly. Chem weapons are potentially more deadly than bio weapons, in my view.
This is the part I do not get. Were we not saying that Saddam had not provided proof he had destroyed the stocks he had and we wanted those destroyed??? Not to mention that he was possibly making new because he had the knowledge and had kicked inspectors out.
Looks to me we are proven right because even if this is old it was part of that stockpile we were saying he had not destroyed. So why is the time this manufactured important? I guess it would make it extreamly interesting if it were new, but it is still a WMD and in Iraq.
" txradio: "Is it worth the risk of your own son's life NOT to find these things?"
Thanks, TX, I have a son who was in Iraq. He's going back next month. Thanks for explaining it to John and other ostriches with their heads in the shallow sand.
O.K. they have WMD's.
Same here. I have a son over there.
Same here. I have a son over there.
The bar keeps getting raised higher and higher by those on the left (pretending they are the only TRUE conservatives).
Now, in order to comment on the war and its justification, we have to have family members or friends serving there.
My son (stepson) came back last year. Since that time, the situation over there has deteriorating and I can well understand how difficult this time is for you.
We pray for our soldiers every day; Godspeed to your son.
"Thanks, TX, I have a son who was in Iraq."
I just got back from a year in Iraq with the 3rd brigade 1st Armored Division. I pray your son will return safely home when tis is over.
No thanks needed for setting that guy straight. They don't have a clue what it takes to be a soldier and this pinhead would be the first one blathering on about "why we did nothing to prevent a WMD attack when we found the sarin gas in that artillery shell." after one got detonated in the U.S.
Well said.
It's an honour read your posts and know you are around.
As for this finding, I am still in shock that those brave soldiers were not killed by this dangerous gas.
I am of the opinion that this has to made into a serious wake up call for all.
May this finding and the future others that come bite the a$$ of the media, Rats and all those countries governments, including my former Canadian government.
hawk
Thank you for your kind words hawk.
IMHO from what I've read about this particular shell and from what I know first hand about how the bad guys were rigging the IED's...it's precisely becasue of the way they chose to detonate these shells that saved the soldiers lives.
3-4 liters of Sarin, mixed properly, has the potential to wipe out an area the size of the green zone in downtown Baghdad if what I've read about it's lethality is true.
I just heard a caller on Rush make a very valid point about this discovery and the reaction by the media and the RATS (and some FReepers here I might add). The caller said that the RATS will continue to rdefine the efinition of what exactly constitutes a WMD discovery in Iraq until the discovery of a nuclear warhead wouldn't even count.
I have the deepest respect for some of the SF guys in the military of Canada. I've ready stories of the distance some of them were making sniper shots at against the Taliban in Afghanistan and it was in mind boggling.
Yes, it has a life of its own and has had since Saddam allowed his people to create and hide and mix and hide, etc. over that past years. The White House is being very clever here. Never doubt that.
LOL!
"If there were a thousand, no, a million artillery shells that could at most travel, what, a few miles in the air, would you still think it worth the life of your own son?"
Dear Mr. Galt:
I am really at a loss to understand your logic. My best analysis of it is that it is typical of the mindset that says if there are no bombs or bullets in flight toward my head at this very moment, then there is no threat. What if there are not millions but even just a few such shells within a few miles of YOU right here in the USA?
It is a strong possibility that there are terrorist cells in this country within a few miles of you or of places that you frequent. With our porous borders, these chemical shells (or their extracted contents) can move not merely a few miles but thousands of miles to a public place near you. Nor would terrorists need an artillery piece to use a chemical round as you seem to think. They only have to mix the two components thoroughly and then unleash it. There are ways to do that other than firing it from a field gun or it never would have been invented in the first place.
In other words, THEY REALLY CAN EXPLODE AND EFFECTIVELY DEPLOY A CANISTER OF SARIN GAS IN A MALL OR CONCERT HALL NEAR YOU. You really have to hate Republicans QUITE A BIT to consider this risk a much lower priority than defeating Bush in November.
As for whether anyone would think it worth the life of their son to win this war, this is just more of the thought-free emotionalistic drivel that is crippling this country and its ability to think. Let's take your emotional appeal to its logical conclusion:
If it is NOT worth the life of anyone's son who signed up voluntarily, then it is not enough -- as I suspect you want to do -- to merely bring the troops home. If you have a military, then by definition you will sooner or later expose said someone's son to mortal combat, in which, by definition, said someone's son could die. Therefore, the American military must be entirely disbanded and America should adopt the Amish Defense Doctrine. We should send instead armies of social workers, lawyers and therapists to hold hands with the terrorists and sing cumbaya.
Was it worth 400,000 of American someone's sons (not to mention millions of others from other Allied countries) to defeat Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo?
One last thing -- I have to ask you in ALL SERIOUSNESS: If just one such chemical round were found in the possession of the Ku Klux Klan or some other white supremacist group, would you be so dismissive of it?
Think how the Left will spin it.
If we have it from the 2001-2003 timeframe, it's a lot more bulletproof that it would be f this were made in 1990.
--
What is really interesting is that some of the WMDs may have been hidden in plain sight.
It's not as bad as you might think. If the terrorists attempt to disassemble a binary round to recover the precursor chemicals it is very likely that they will only succeed in killing themselves. I say this because any inadvertent mixing of the chemical w/o the proper protective gear and/or antidote would result in sudden death. This nearly happened to our guys when the "IED" was detonated in place. They suffered no long-term effects because the proper prophylaxis was at hand. It is also possible that our intrepid armorers could blow themselves to allah when tinkering around with the air-burst fuse and/or bursting charge.
That is to say: "Hold mah beer an watch this!!"
Regards,
GtG
Remember that a 7lb. block of cyanide salts was found in the safehouse of Abu Zarqawi (Cyanide Salt Block Found in Iraq). Zarqawi is widely believed to have been the person who beheaded Nicholas Berg.
-PJ
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