Because President Bush has advisors that serve as rudders as to what will be blatantly stupid and what will be marginally believable by those prone to ignorance, I don’t think that he will out and out claim that this shell is evidence of WMD.
Instead, he (and representatives of his administration) will mention the (possible) sarin and the mustard gas over and over until it begins to creep into the psyche of the gullible as The Missing Evidence.
People who adore President Bush will begin to name their newborn daughters Sarin.
All of this is speculation based on observation. I think that’s still allowed here.
One of the first bits of information that I heard about sarin is that it is 26 times more powerful than cyanide. This shell must have been really old.
"A binary artillery shell is projected from an artillery piece with an acceleration of over 100g, and spins at thousands of RPM. It also gets very hot, from the flame of the propellant, but also from air friction. This is quite enough to break the membrane separating the two chemicals, and mix them very thoroughly indeed. By the time the shell reaches the target, the chemical reaction is complete, and a small bursting charge shatters the shell and spreads the fog of droplets over a wide area.
If the artillery shell is (accidentally or deliberately) detonated without being fired from an artillery piece, there is very little mixing of the chemicals. Although the chemicals are not totally safe (I wouldn’t drink them, for example), the amount of Sarin produced would be very small, and chemical wounds would be minor and easily treatable."
Basically a binary shell needs heat and mixing for the chemicals to achieve potency. Those conditions weren’t met, so the result of the bursting charge wasn’t fatal. It would be unwise to conclude from this that sarin isn’t scary stuff.
I think he very clearly stated that that’s not what he’s doing.
And I see no evidence that that’s what he’s doing.
Correct me if I’m wrong but are you basically just trying to say that anyone that doesn’t support Bush’s actions is either an idiot or a hypocrite?
Correction, You’re wrong. Not “anyone that doesn’t support Bush’s actions is either an idiot or a hypocrite”. I was talking strictly about World Eater, samclem and rjung, that’s all… Oh yeah, SimonX, too.
In an attack on Tel Aviv, a city of several hundred thousands, there could be almost 60000 casualties from a single warhead. This is only three liters or so, granted, but again I find it hard to believe that that’s all they had.
elucidator, I think that you are overlooking a vitally important point. See, Clinton got a blowjob and was playing hide and seek with a cigar. Therefore, we should support Bush (or something).
Well I must admit I’m a bit surprised myself. I’ll still give the focus groups a few more days though.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more floating around out there. It is inevitable that some others will eventually turn up, but I don’t think the insurgents know what they are.
I’m a registered Republican and a GOPTeamLeader. Hell, I even voted for GWB! I understand what Bush Admin’s doing and done, (it’s aboslutely horriffic and utterly unAmerican). So, based on the criteria you provided, I’m neither a hypocrite nor an idiot.
FTR, I’d always suspected, no, expected that Hussien had at least some WMDs.
What was lacking however, was a compelling national interest for the US to invade Iraq that outweighed the costs of doing so how it was done.
I’s all for deposing Hussein. I just didn’t think that the Admin was going about it in a responsible way.
I consider the Admin guilty of treasonously unAmerican activity, in that they intentionally set about to thwart the right of the American electorate to deny consent to the government through misrepresentation etc.
It was obvious that the Admin was feeding us bullshit from the beginning.
Clearly, your problem is that the reasons for invasion were “flimsy”. Then you say that if Clinton used such “flimsy” reasons, you’d be against him, too. You took a line that partisanship is irrelevant, while convincing a whole US population is. Well, first, convincing a whole population is an impossibility, for there will always be great number of people crying fraud, especially in this country. Second, don’t you think that when POTUS resorts to urgent measures on international arena it might be incumbent on you, as a citizen, to exert your mind and try to understand why is he doing that? Clearly, there might be reasons that would require POTUS to act speedily and decisively without securing an approval of every last yokel beforehand. If you don’t think so, you are right there with rjung, who insisted that in theory taking Hitler out pre-emptively would be wrong without following all the proper procedures.
If all you do is shout, “It’s wrong because I don’t understand it!”, you sound like an idiot.
See, now I thought the entire administration had made it rather clear that one big honkin’ reason for Operation Iraqi Freedom was to remove Saddam from both his power and his WMDs.
::looks around for WMDs::
Oh, hm? What we really meant was WMD programs?
::looks around for WMD programs::
Hmm, what’s that? We’re supposed to be looking for evidence of potential to make WMDs?
::looks around for evidence of potential to make WMDs::
Oh, say what? Now it’s WMD program plans?
::looks around for WMD program plans::
Eh, whazzat? WMD intent?
Er…
Those reasons sure don’t look as clear as they did 15 months ago (and that clarity depending on whom you believe), and folks are up and saying so, including Sec. Powell. Meanwhile we’ve fuckall evidence that Saddam had designs on anything with W, M and D in it other than practicing his alphabet.
Hmm, taking someone out before they’ve done anything worth taking 'em out for. Y’know, and I thought Minority Report was just a movie.
New Iskander, A search of the Iraq war threads for the past year will yield a rich and varied mosaic of intelligent people that have thought this through and have reached a conclusion that differs from yours. I see that you are a member, so you may want to use the search function and spend a little time reading.
You seem to basically be saying over and over and over again that people that disagree with you are inherently stupid. I submit that it is possible for people to look at the same information and reach different conclusions and for both of them to have done so rationally and intelligently (not that I am accusing you of being either rational or intelligent, mind). This is especially true in matters political, as at the end of the day it isn’t something for which there is a factual answer for the most part.
Please point out where I stated that convincing the entire country of a course of action is neccessary before undertaking it.
With regards to Iraq, the people calling fraud have been pretty much correct. Besides, what are we supposed to do? Blindly follow our “Dear leader”, no questions asked?
I understood why we invaded Iraq, I just thought it was a stupid course of action. My belief is that invading Iraq will cause more problems in the long run, then it will solve. We’re giving the world more reasons to hate us. The world was with us on going into Afghanistan, where if you remember OBL was located. Hunting down the people that attacked us is what we should be focusing on 100%, instead we’re squandering our resources, good will, and global respect. Bush went into Iraq because he thought quickly kicking the shit out of someone would make us look badass. All the terrorists would run away in fear, because if we hit the US again, they’ll come beat us up like they did Iraq.
Well it didn’t work out the way he hoped. This will be a long messy engagement that will breed a new generation of terrorists, cost us hundreds of millions, and put a big dent in our image.
The worst part is we can’t even get out now, because “they’ll win” if we do.
Sure, you don’t see anyone bitching about Afghanistan do you? We were in 4 weeks after 9/11?
If you possess even a granule of common sense, you realize there are times when those “reasons” are fucking stupid, don’t make any sense, or are completely counter productive.
I don’t give a shit about strawman Hitler comparisons, I give a shit about the reality of the world we live in today. Join us sometime.
And if all you do is shout “If all you do is shout, “It’s wrong because I don’t understand it!”, you sound like an idiot”, you sound like an idiot as well.