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But Weren’t Assad’s Chemical Weapons Gone?
Ricochet, help me out. I’m greatly confused by this report in The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. intelligence agencies believe there is a strong possibility the Assad regime will use chemical weapons on a large scale as part of a last-ditch effort to protect key Syrian government strongholds if Islamist fighters and other rebels try to overrun them, U.S. officials said.
Can I be the only one who finds this puzzling? Weren’t they … gone? I would have sworn I remember something like this:
Seriously, I would have professed on a stack of bibles that I remember that. As if it were recent, even — that’s how vivid the memory is. But obviously, my memory is all wrong. (I don’t know where that video came from. Some kind of Internet hoax, I guess.)
This makes me really uneasy about my mental state. Could I be suffering from early-onset dementia? I have to say that this false memory is especially unsettling because … well, it’s silly, I know, since I’m clearly remembering things all backward, but I keep thinking about the Iran deal. What on earth would we do if something similar happened?
At times like this, I have to remind myself to keep in firm contact with the facts. I’m clearly just an anxious personality with a failing memory. Is anyone else suffering from weird memory lapses like this? If so, how have you coped? I’ve read that ginkgo biloba and omega-3 fatty acids can help. What do you think — has anyone here tried memory-boosting supplements? Are they safe? Do they work?
Published in Foreign Policy
AIG,
Ahhh you are still king of the straw men. I said nothing of the kind. You didn’t read a word I said. Following the false quote you dumped a load of the cheapest sarcasm I’ve seen in a long time. If you aren’t capable of arguing logic or facts please refrain from these ridiculous tactics as they get boring quickly (yawn).
As far as the rules of engagement. Rules of engagement that demand perfection in targeting are not rules of engagement at all. They are just a negative way of giving the command to disengage or in more common usage to stand down (as in Benghazi) or in the most common usage to retreat.
Regards,
Jim
I generally read the first and last word of your posts, and fill in the blank with what I know you’re going to say. 99% of cases it’s something about the A-10. So it’s a pretty good strategy.
What you said is…kill everything that moves. Whether you know this is what you said or not, doesn’t matter. That is what you said. Because the moment you have to consider actually finding and ID-ing bad guys, then there’s no longer a point to what you wrote.
This is why I said…this is an issue of intelligence. Getting intelligence on the ground about who is where and what’s going on. That is an immensely difficult thing to do, in a country like Syria.
Saying it’s difficult isn’t the same thing as “no strategy…lying” etc. That’s what someone who doesn’t understand that this is difficult, says.
As I said, send a letter to the Pentagon.
AIG,
No I did not say “kill everything that moves.” Nor do I believe that targeting is easy. No war is easy and targeting is always problematic. However, from what I’ve heard our targeting rules of engagement are so strict that there is almost no engagement. My desire to use the A10’s more seat of the pants would help this, of course there are lots of other good reasons to use the A10. However, if Mommy back at HQ wants a written guarantee that no mistake is ever going to be made then the whole thing is pointless. There will never be any such guarantee and you know it. We either try 100% and go do it or we just stop the [REDACTED] and go away.
Regards,
Jim
Again, a strongly worded letter to the Pentagon would help here. They don’t seem to be able to understand just how to do CAS.
Well, what would anyone expect in Obama’s America! AmIright? High five!
They don’t understand how to do CAS in a political environment created from the top down that is killing their every effort.
Regards,
Jim
AIG, I do hope you held onto that charm school tuition receipt.
Sadly, I’m beginning to think it’s not my memory at fault. I’ll hold on to this in case I ever need it.
Claire, if you believe anything said by anyone in the Obama administration about anything, you are definitely suffering from some form of dementia.
The Middle East problem:
An ad hominem argument does not invalidate my points. Nor does it strengthen “yours”.
Nor does making “your” arguments more charming, make them any more valid.
Although, I fail to see the “charm” in accusing the US military, multiple times in a row, of “lying to us”, based on no evidence whatsoever (or on erroneous evidence).
Gosh, AIG. You don’t like me? I’m “crushed.” The only thing more effective than “scare quotes” is making points in boldface, because boldface is truthier than the normal font style.
Chlorine is one of the most heavily produced chemicals because of its tremendous utility. It is used in water purification, waste treatment, plastics and paper making, and in pharmaceutical production. It also makes my tighty-whities whiter.
Chlorine is a mild irritant at < 3 ppm, a moderate irritant < 15 ppm, and a severe one thereafter. It irritates by reacting with the water present in the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract and the water in the eyes to produce hydrochloric acid. This can cause pulmonary edema and blindness pretty quickly. At its first deployment at the Battle of 2nd Ypres in 1915, it is estimated that it caused 800 deaths and 3000 incapacitations (source: Handbook of Toxicology of Chemical Warfare Agents).
It is far from an ideal weapon. It is detectable by both sight and smell, and gas mask discipline generally defeats it. It was abandoned as a weapon by both sides by 1917.
It’ll do a hell of a number on little kids in Syria who forget their gas masks, though. And it’s nothing at all like “tear gas,”
I need to clarify my earlier comment I this thread. I feel the world has gone completely mad. The vast majority of people don’t give a fig about truth and lies and their consequences. Or nearly everyone has been reduced to a kind of Piaget pre-concrete logic state in which nothing that happened beyond and before their field of vision matters, even exists. Yesterday’s lies mean nothing. What was seen, read and felt before now does not register.
I need to clarify my earlier comment in this thread. I feel the world has gone completely mad. The vast majority of people don’t give a fig about truth and lies and their consequences. Nearly everyone has been reduced to a kind of Piaget pre-concrete logic state, in which nothing that happened beyond and before their field of vision matters, or even exists. Yesterday’s lies mean nothing and never happened. What was seen, read and felt before now does not has no present significance. The future doesn’t even exist.