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Author Topic:   I hate being right
derwood
Member (Idle past 1876 days)
Posts: 1457
Joined: 12-27-2001


Message 22 of 119 (46901)
07-22-2003 12:57 PM
Reply to: Message 5 by Percy
07-15-2003 11:57 AM


quote:
The second thing I find strange is that many Iraqi units were found well equipped with gas masks, chemical suits and chemical antidote. Why would they burden their units with all this equipment if not for protection from their own chemical weapons? It doesn't make sense.
Standard procedure in modern warfare.
When Ronnie "I don't recall that" Reagan sent a division to storm Grenada, the paratroopers were issued brand new chemical suits and fresh filters for their gas masks, which are, by the way, standard equipment.
and the folks on Grenada were what - a handfull of Cuban soldoiers and some farmers?
What bugs me about this WMD thing is that Rumsfeld declared that we knew where the weapons were, then, upon not finding them, went off on this "oh, they've had 10 years to hide them" bit.
They couldn't have been that well hidden if we "knew" where they were - before the war, anyway.
or maybe 'we' just didn't know where they were in the first place.

This message is a reply to:
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Replies to this message:
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derwood
Member (Idle past 1876 days)
Posts: 1457
Joined: 12-27-2001


Message 30 of 119 (47763)
07-28-2003 2:22 PM
Reply to: Message 25 by Silent H
07-27-2003 12:11 PM


quote:
I can only assume that Iraqis would be no different. That kind of gear is incredibly uncomfortable and greatly reduces combat capability (unless chemicals are in the air).
Indeed. Having been in the army, I can say this about our chemical suits - they suck (can't get them wet, among other things), and they are HOT - like wearing a blanket. When we were doing winter maneuvers, many of us would wear our chemical suits for warmth.
So, yeah, they would not be worn unless they was reason to suspect an iminent attack.

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derwood
Member (Idle past 1876 days)
Posts: 1457
Joined: 12-27-2001


Message 34 of 119 (48194)
07-31-2003 11:25 AM


One of the things that doesn't seem to get mentioned is the fact that chemical attacks are relatively ineffective unless they are done when conditions are just right.
I was my unit's assistant NBC NCO (went to Nuclear,Biological, and Chemical warfare school - 80 hour course). And there are specific meteorological conditions that are good for such attacks, and others that are not, and the prime conditions rarely occur, and probably less so in a desert.
Certainly Hussein gassed the Kurds. Of course, the Kurds lived in the mountains, and conditions are different there, and it is douobtful that the Kurdihs villagers had sophisticated detection and protection equipment. Using chemical weapons in open desert is just silly. Effective psychologically, but very few casualties would result.
The gassing in WWI was effective because 1. the theatre of operations was more conducive to their use and 2. like everything else in WWI, the attacks were huge - giant cylinders of gas would be opened when the prevailing winds were favorable, and usually in the early morning or evening, when atmospheric conditions were best. Not to mention the poor quality of protection for troops and, again, the incredible psychological effects.
I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been to look up and see a cloud of gas coming at you, then being able to make out the forms of machine gun toting storm troopers walking right in the cloud, coming at you...
Of course, the sarin gas attakcs in the Tokyo subway - an enclosed area - produced very few casualties.

Replies to this message:
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