I don’t understand why they don’t just put a poison gas into the caves in Afghanistan, some painless gas that would just make them go to sleep peacefully and then die. And if some people would object to this, it could be just a sleep gas and then they could go in and arrest Ben Ladin and his ilk and place them on trial (where they would either get off or be sentenced to a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle).
I’m sure somebody must have thought of this, and maybe they don’t do it because they can’t get to the cave mouth because of the troops of the Taliban.
The use of poison gas is banned by treaty.
There are a lot of caves over there. Go point out the one he is hiding in and the US will take care of it without needing to use poison gas.
Just a few logistical problems here…
How do you deliver enough of the gas to adequately achieve the effect?
Which cave/caves are you going to target?
The cave will need to be sealed so that gas doesn’t leak out, otherwise much more gas will be needed to achieve the same result. If gas did leak into the outside environment, how would you ensure that collateral damage was minimised, as well as the potential to harm your own personell?
Need I go on?
Thank goodness I’m not in charge of the war.
Another question I’ve seen asked seriously is whether we plan to use flame-throwers, like we did against the Japanese troops holed up in caves during WWII.
Why not? They’re valid military weapons. Engineers were still trained to use them back in the 80s (my dad was an engineer), but I don’t know later than that.
There was a thread regarding flamethrowers a few days ago. If I recall, the consensus was that they weren’t used much anymore, because other military equipment was now in use that accomplishes the same thing better.
The Chinese used tunnel networks against the Japanese in WWII, which the Japanese flooded with poison gas. When the Vietnamese (perhaps at the suggestion of their Chinese advisors) used tunnels against the Americans, the Americans obeyed the international law, cited above by starfish, banning gas and sent in specially trained soldiers.
Of course, the Japanese HAVE promised to aid in the war against terrorism (and if there was a blatantly racist Tojo smiley I promise I would resist inserting it here).
I was not there, but I understand at one time the US tried using acetylene gas (technically an explosive instead of a toxin) to fill and then explode the tunnel network near to Saigon. It didn’t work because of logistical reasons and mainly because the space to be filled was larger than anticipated. Also, the VC often had “traps” in their tunnels like the bend in the drain pipe under your sink; these would trap a lot of gas (tear gas, acetylene, whatever).
I’ve never been to any Afghan caves, but I hear they’re really, really big. to try to gas them would be in soem cases like gassing the inside of a big theater or exhibition hall.
Could we concievably use flamethrowers to use up all the oxygen in the caves by spraying it in a ways? It would burn until it ran out of air.
Isn’t this what “bunker busters” were invented for?