ISIS Has and Is Using Chemical Weapons
From the Italian news agency, ANSA, the following very simple piece of news about what happened yesterday:
A chlorine-gas attack by Islamic State (ISIS) killed some 300 Iraqi soldiers at Saqlawiya, north of Falluja, Iraqi MPs from the area said Monday.
If they killed around 300 soldiers, then this was either an ambush in barracks, or a fairly extensive use of chemical weapons. Iraqi soldiers may be presumed to have not been carrying their NBC gear, if they had any to begin with, but still, if the soldiers were deployed for battle, this would have required more than one or two shells. What's more, given the usual effects of war gasses, if they killed a few hundred, they must have wounded many thousands. Of course, this was an Iraqi report, and "300" just might refer to "casualties" instead of "killed."
The likely source of the chemical weapons were stockpiles left over from Saddam Hussein's rule. The American Left claimed Saddam had destroyed these and hence George W. Bush lied about Iraqi WMD. Defying the American Left, the stockpiles of deadly chemicals continued to exist, and now we see that "the Democrats lied, Iraqis died."
The Islamic State extremist group, formerly known as ISIS, has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with the deadly nerve agent sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents, Iraq said in a letter circulated Tuesday at the United Nations.
as Haaretz reported July 7th. The US govenment reaction to this sobering news?
The U.S. government played down the threat from the takeover, saying there are no intact chemical weapons and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to use the material for military purposes.
Since, after all, how could one use war gasses for military purposes? Oh, they're probably contaminated, degraded and otherwise wouldn't be up to US military specs, but (1) these are barbarians; barbarians always figure out good ways to use military castoffs; and (2) they're not totally stupid, and they probably have chemists among their number willing to risk an early trip to Paradise and 72 virgins to test and purify the product.
Alternately -- since the report was of "chlorine" attacks, and molecular chlorine is (Cl2) is one of the simplest war gasses (the first lethal gas to be used in modern warfare), ISIS may be making the chemicals themsleves. This is not more reassuring, because it means that the quantities of poison gas in their possession could become very large over time.
In context: we have just begun attacking ISIS. President Obama promises that the war we experience will consist only of launching airstrikes and funding ISIS foes, but in promising this he demonstrates only his own foolishness. ISIS probably wants to strike back, and there are some fairly simple ways of using chlorine gas in crowded areas that could hurt us, at least in the sense of killing a few dozen people, inuring hundreds, and provoking panic. The ways should be obvious: I won't elaborate in public.
If you doubt that they would do it, remember that the Islamic State is the organization which boasts of murdering civilians, including women and small children, illustrating their boasts with full-color digital online video. Men who would do that will neither be checked by humanity nor deterred by strategic considerations; they can only be stopped and killed.
Let's hope that ISIS incompetence and the vigilance of our security forces enable us to intercept the strikes that are probably being prepared against us even now.
A chlorine-gas attack by Islamic State (ISIS) killed some 300 Iraqi soldiers at Saqlawiya, north of Falluja, Iraqi MPs from the area said Monday.
If they killed around 300 soldiers, then this was either an ambush in barracks, or a fairly extensive use of chemical weapons. Iraqi soldiers may be presumed to have not been carrying their NBC gear, if they had any to begin with, but still, if the soldiers were deployed for battle, this would have required more than one or two shells. What's more, given the usual effects of war gasses, if they killed a few hundred, they must have wounded many thousands. Of course, this was an Iraqi report, and "300" just might refer to "casualties" instead of "killed."
The likely source of the chemical weapons were stockpiles left over from Saddam Hussein's rule. The American Left claimed Saddam had destroyed these and hence George W. Bush lied about Iraqi WMD. Defying the American Left, the stockpiles of deadly chemicals continued to exist, and now we see that "the Democrats lied, Iraqis died."
The Islamic State extremist group, formerly known as ISIS, has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility northwest of Baghdad, where remnants of 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with the deadly nerve agent sarin are stored along with other chemical warfare agents, Iraq said in a letter circulated Tuesday at the United Nations.
as Haaretz reported July 7th. The US govenment reaction to this sobering news?
The U.S. government played down the threat from the takeover, saying there are no intact chemical weapons and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to use the material for military purposes.
Since, after all, how could one use war gasses for military purposes? Oh, they're probably contaminated, degraded and otherwise wouldn't be up to US military specs, but (1) these are barbarians; barbarians always figure out good ways to use military castoffs; and (2) they're not totally stupid, and they probably have chemists among their number willing to risk an early trip to Paradise and 72 virgins to test and purify the product.
Alternately -- since the report was of "chlorine" attacks, and molecular chlorine is (Cl2) is one of the simplest war gasses (the first lethal gas to be used in modern warfare), ISIS may be making the chemicals themsleves. This is not more reassuring, because it means that the quantities of poison gas in their possession could become very large over time.
In context: we have just begun attacking ISIS. President Obama promises that the war we experience will consist only of launching airstrikes and funding ISIS foes, but in promising this he demonstrates only his own foolishness. ISIS probably wants to strike back, and there are some fairly simple ways of using chlorine gas in crowded areas that could hurt us, at least in the sense of killing a few dozen people, inuring hundreds, and provoking panic. The ways should be obvious: I won't elaborate in public.
If you doubt that they would do it, remember that the Islamic State is the organization which boasts of murdering civilians, including women and small children, illustrating their boasts with full-color digital online video. Men who would do that will neither be checked by humanity nor deterred by strategic considerations; they can only be stopped and killed.
Let's hope that ISIS incompetence and the vigilance of our security forces enable us to intercept the strikes that are probably being prepared against us even now.