Sarin Gas Found in Fallujah?
Glenn Reynolds: “NPR’S ANNE GARRELS IS REPORTING that Sarin nerve gas has been found in Fallujah. Stay tuned.”
Of course, we’ve found chemical weapons in Iraq several times already, to the indifference of the MSM.
- Sarin Gas Released by Iraq Roadside Bomb (May 17)
- Report: Mustard Gas Used in Baghdad (June 22)
- Iraqi Nerve Gas for Sale to Terrorists — But Harmless? (July 3)
Indeed, President Bush never mentioned it in the campaign (or at least the debates) when confronted by “we never found WMD” arguments. So, unless this is a huge cache of Sarin, my guess is no one will much care.
Update: Glenn reports that NPR has issued a correction–it was Sarin gas test kits. A rather big difference, eh.
Yawn!
Yet more nonsense.
Sarin nerve gas was once ‘discovered’ in the Tokyo subways when a group of terrorist used it in a bunch of homemade bombs in an attempt to kill thousands. It was discovered that the sarin nerve gas was a pretty big dud killing far fewer people than large explosives would have.
Yawn is right.
If memory serves me correctly, the mustard gas found was thought to be a random misplaced shell left over from the early 90s. Even the military said that it was unmarked and could have very easily slipped past whatever screening took place when they moved/destroyed the rest of the stock. So in the sense that mustard gas ever existed, this is true. But in the sense that this proved that stockpiles still exist, it’s inconclusive at best, leaning towards meaningless.
Even if it is Sarin, Iraq has been a terrorist bazaar since Bush & Rumsfeld took it over. The stuff could have come from Syria, Iran or France, or a million different places.
thunderbird, the japanese doomsday cult consisted of a bunch of mensa types. They manufactured the sarin themselves. Their failure is a good example of why no serious military uses chemical weapons. They are practically worthless when compared to traditional explosives.
Yawn
Don’t confuse the MSM with facts.
Heh. We could have unearthed a fleet of ICBMs with nuclear warheads all targeted on the U.S., with instruction manuals in Arabic and MADE IN BAGHDAD stamped in Arabic on every component, and the naysayers would be out in force trying to spin it all away.
I have a major opinion piece coming out in the December issue of Government Executive. Small stockpiles in the hands of untrained troops do not constitute a military threat. Small stockpiles in the hands of a few trained terrorists would constitute a serous threat – only because their use would terrorize. The Japanese cult was a failure – only ten people died. but that was pre-9/11.
The Iraqis held their lines against numerically superior Iranian troops for years by, among other things, the judicious use of chemical weapons barrages in defending fixed positions against assault. Would it be too much to ask for people to actually wait for enough information to comment intelligently?
Glenn Reynolds updated the story and it’s currently a dud, no sarin, just sarin testing kits. Then again, it might get updated again in another few hours.
The arguments that chemical weapons caches are not big enough, dangerous enough, or in the hands of “amatuers” clearly displays the 9/10 mentality of much of our country. I’m with McGehee on this one.
If you have ever seen what a human being goes through while dying from nerve gas exposure, you may change your minds.
Dodging the facts and raising hypotheticals is a slippery slope. (Those weapons COULD HAVE come from anywhere!- Right!) You can produce a “rational” answer for nearly anything, but does nothing to get to the root of the problem.
There are banned weapons in Iraq. No qualifier was issued with the resolutions as to the amount that constitiuted a violation. One drop is a violation. Of course, we already know that Saddam violated every one on the books. For some reason no one on the left seems to care.