Officials: Chemical Attack Fear Could Happen Near Baghdad

FoxNews.com ^

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I hope so... my concern is the number of men and women that we lose, and the amount of time we battle with the enemy. If this is over relatively quickly, we will be fine. But, I suspect, we will keep stomping around the Middle East for as long as Bush is in office. And soon, the "shoulder-to-shoulder" left, is going to start wailing in the streets.

[ChemistCat]

Tell us more about VX? I don't know much about it.

I'm still sorting out enones from hemiacetyls. Or I would be, if I weren't following the war and Photoshopping more than I'm studying.

[lawdog]

Chemical Agent Fact Sheet
VX
Nerve Agent
(O-ethyl S-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) methylphosphonothioate)
Description:
Chemists in the United Kingdom searching for new insecticides came across compounds that were extremely toxic to humans. The British shared the discovery with the U.S. Army in 1953 and a systematic investigation of these new compounds was begun at Edgewood. The Army discovered they were more persistent and much more toxic than the G-series agents. In 1955, these compounds were designated V-series agents for “venomous.” VX is an oily liquid that is clear, odorless and tasteless. It can be amber colored and similar in appearance to motor oil.
Signs and Symptoms:
Symptoms of overexposure may occur within minutes or hours, depending upon the dose. They include: miosis (constriction of pupils) and visual effects, headaches and pressure sensation, runny nose and nasal congestion, salivation, tightness in the chest, nausea, vomiting, giddiness, anxiety, difficulty in thinking, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, muscle twitches, tremors, weakness, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, involuntary urination and defecation. Severe exposure symptoms progress to convulsions and respiratory failure.

[Dimensio]

This is impossible. Everyone knows that Iraq doesn't have any chemical weapons, because they weren't supposed to have any chemical weapons. This suggests that the UN inspectors weren't doing their jobs!

[bonesmccoy]

Suggestions for strategy/techniques to handle Iraqi chemical munitions

1. Attack from upwind (use of chemicals would blow back to the Iraqi side by prevailing wind conditions). Conversely, do not attack from downwind.

2. Carry large fans behind troops (see NASA wind machine used at Shuttle Landing Facility to blow gases away from recovery crew).

See that fan in front of the orbiter?

Load that fan in a C-5 and go pick up it's cousin at the other NASA facilities. Since NASA isn't using that fan right now, take said fan to downwind of Baghdad. Turn fan on if chem sensors detect release.

3. Launch Apache's behind front line and have them in low hover (enough to create downdraft that pushes gas back at the Iraqi line).

4. Preemptively use Apache's to kill Iraqi chem-laden positions/weapons cache.

[Aracelis]

Holy SH*^ ...... Satan help those poor Iraqi buggers because no one else is going to.

I agree...and most especially help will not come from Saddam's regime. If he's still alive and in control, he will wipe out half of Baghdad just to gas a few of our soldiers. Poor buggers!

[geege]

And what are we going to do about it???????

[ChemistCat]

THANK you very much. I will pray that Saddam's chemists found synthesizing this bad boy to be beyond their skills and equipment.

...I know this is terrible, but the war can cause most of those symptoms in those who sit and watch the Chicken Little coverage!

[dmz]

you should consider starting to take your meds again...

of course it's about ratings, but the rest of your post is just silly - how much panic have you seen? we've been collectively stressed as a nation since 9/11, i think a lot of us could be diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome, this war is but an additional symptom of our collective stress.

God forbid that the populace see both sides of any issue, eh? The only "network" (if you want to call it that) that seems to drool at the prospect of US defeat is the Pacifica Radio Network, broadcast on some of our PBS outlets.

My favorite moment listening to that program...

The fundraising portion of the program included a segment on how to give stocks, bonds and the like. Delicious irony there, given the anti-capitalist nature of the network, that they are asking their donors to give them the most basic element of the capitalist system, paper representing ownership of the means of production (which of course means that the proletariat does not have it)

[Aggie Mama]

So say that the RG is 25 miles out from Baghdad and they release the weapons (assuming they have the delivery systems for this).....how long does it take to dispurse the agent? Do the chemicals blow into Baghdad? Do the dissapate after a certain period of time?

I was thinking that these sandstorms might not be so bad during a chemical weapons strike b/c the sand saturates the air.

[IrishBrigade]

It's no doubt worth noting that one of the least effective environments to unleash chemical agents for bellicose purposes is a desert, what with its lack of inversion layers to force the agent closer to ground level. Not that the threat isn't to be taken with all seriousness, because it certainly is, but I for one don't believe any such attack will happen unless the endgame is imminent...all Iraqi 'plausible deniability' is sacrificed for minimal military acheivement.