Chemical Weapons in Iraq: Part III - The Colossal Screw Up

[Jhhnn]

Pet Partners, dude. Training an animal to read, comprehend and respond for you could do wonders for your reputation.

Actually, having mold respond for you could do wonders for your reputation. No training necessary,

Hee-hee. The found chemical weapons weren't Saddam's "strategic deterrent" at all. They were rusted, neglected & molding old shit that the Iraqis didn't even know they had.

Then, during the long occupation, American troops began encountering old chemical munitions in hidden caches and roadside bombs. Typically 155-millimeter artillery shells or 122-millimeter rockets, they were remnants of an arms program Iraq had rushed into production in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

All had been manufactured before 1991, participants said. Filthy, rusty or corroded, a large fraction of them could not be readily identified as chemical weapons at all. Some were empty, though many of them still contained potent mustard agent or residual sarin. Most could not have been used as designed, and when they ruptured dispersed the chemical agents over a limited area, according to those who collected the majority of them.

In case after case, participants said, analysis of these warheads and shells reaffirmed intelligence failures. First, the American government did not find what it had been looking for at the war’s outset, then it failed to prepare its troops and medical corps for the aged weapons it did find.

Yeh, they took real good care of that "strategic deterrent"- you know, other than the rust, corrosion & lost markings, anyway. Yeh, they really pulled a fast one on everybody, right?

 

[JEDIYoda]

So, should someone go to prison for getting these soldiers exposed to chemical weapons? For getting 4000+ troops killed in Iraq for a bullshit war that they knew was bullshit?

Anyone?

rofl@cyclohexane..lolol.....

 

[blankslate]

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Can you give us a little more false attribution? Perhaps put more words in my mouth?

Of course people tasked with disposal of unidentifiable ordnance need protection.

Which has Jack & Shit to do with ISIS & the WMD boogeyman you dragged out earlier.

The use of chemical ordnance in IED's was a mistake on the part of the makers- they couldn't tell what kind of shell it was, either. They wanted HE. They got a dud.

But, of course, fear monger on...

Ahh, a bumped thread-
OK, I'm not sure just why it is so hard for you to understand. I'll break it down for you.

These chemical weapons aren't nearly as deadly as "in date" materials. So if they are harmless, why do you think people dealing with them need hazmat protection? I mean it's not like anyone could get hurt, right? Well, no and even you know that. If these things are lying around (and they are) it makes sense to get rid of them before someone with an IQ of 80 or more does, because they could figure out what could be done with them. They aren't weaponizable in any deadly sense for artillery purposes lets say but your family happened to be in a building and this was released into the ventilation system are you going to say there's no harm done? Duh flect all you want, terrorists in that region are proficient in making improvised devices that cause great harm. Apparently you are content to let ISIS get them, because they are just boogeymen. No, that would not be a good thing. Besides, boogeymen? It's the politicians including your beloved in the WH who beat the drum and went into Syria.

Back to the chemicals in question. What you missed is that if these weapons were near full potency, death would have followed exposure and rather quickly. That does not mean damage/death could not happen given a sufficient quantity or duration of exposure.

If you are so sure this stuff can't be creatively put to harmful use, maybe we can send you over and you can just collect the stuff. No fancy and expensive protection for you!

Besides, we have the mindless panic over Ebola. What do you thing would happen if these were used even though casualties might be few, perhaps not even fatal? The chickenhawks would be flying about and that would include Obama, Hillary, and any other person I can think of who has or had a chance to be President. Well, maybe not Bush Sr, but even then he'd kick some serious ass, but in a smarter way. In any case I'm not so for the potential as you and your dismissive self are.

 

[Brainonska511]

Jeez...

More than 600 reported chemical exposure in Iraq, Pentagon reports

More than 600 American service members since 2003 have reported to military medical staff members that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq, but the Pentagon failed to recognize the scope of the reported cases or offer adequate tracking and treatment to those who may have been injured, defense officials say.


The Pentagon’s disclosure abruptly changed the scale and potential costs of the United States’ encounters with abandoned chemical weapons during the occupation of Iraq, episodes the military had for more than a decade kept from view.


...

I wish Congress would get off their butts and actually open a meaningful investigation into this affair and then hopefully come together and fix the damn problem and keep it from happening again. But that's probably all a pipe dream...


It's especially a problem if we're about to send 1500 more "advisers" into Iraq (I wonder if that includes all the support personnel) - how many more might still be exposed since these stockpiles weren't fully destroyed or discovered? Are troops still going to be stonewalled like they were between 2003 and the present if they are exposed to things like mustard gas?

 

[hal2kilo]

It was the NYT that broke the story. It's highly unlikely that they would be trying to rewrite history to support GWB.

Fern

Calling...Judith...Miller....................

 

[IGBT]

weapons of mass destruction. They and others were / are there.

 

[theeedude]

So Bush's pentagon missed wmd despite invading a country and desperately looking for them? I guess Republicans are more incompetent than I suspected.

 

[JumBie]

Reporter: "What did Iraq have to do with the attack on the World Trade Center?"
Bush: "Nothing"

Case closed.