The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons

originally posted by: HardCorps
a reply to: TDawgRex

your lucky no one got hurt because if this report is true...
DOD would have denied your unit medical evac and treatment...

got to keep those secrets... even if it means letting good solders die rather than leave a paper trail right.

When the rounds were found, they were leaking. It dawned on some intrepid National Guardsman from Tennessee that HE rounds don't leak, so they went to MOPP 5 most ricky-tick and went a safe distance until myself and the EOD guys got there. That was a miserable day. MOPP 4 plus rain gear in the mid-day heat. I watch the health care workers in the Ebola stricken regions of Africa and shudder. You lose pounds of water weight dressed up like that for hours.

Guys that didn't take care of their M40 masks and they found that their drink tube was missing took meticulous care of them after those missions.

originally posted by: vonclod
Why would anyone join the military these days..you get shat on during and after service.

And then you get sent to Africa to shoot at viruses.

What a thankless job.

a reply to: TDawgRex
WOW TDog, from someone who was there, always good to hear facts

To admit that there weren't WMD's found would shut down 90% of the "Bush Lied" talk.

I often have wondered by GW sacrificed his reputation rather than release the existence of these WMD's?

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
To admit that there weren't WMD's found would shut down 90% of the "Bush Lied" talk.

I often have wondered by GW sacrificed his reputation rather than release the existence of these WMD's?

My understanding is that much of these abandoned chemical weapons were known about, they werent technically WMD's as they had expired and were considered waste, to be disposed off which is an expensive and time consuming process. Im pretty sure if they were WMD's the fact they they had found them would have been screamed from the whitehouse roof.
I think, and I may be mistaken, its been a while, that these expired weapons were documented by the UN weapons inspectors.

a reply to: OneManArmy

I remember that a report of a small cache of mustard gas was reported, and the drum from the "Bush Lied" crowd was that mustard gas was hardly a WMD.

But it is. As is Sarin. GW Bush never seemed interested in salvaging his reputation. He seemed oblivious to what public sentiment about him was. Obama seems oblivious to it, too....but Bush could have defended himself to some degree with information like this. We all know how political folks like to take a story and spin it to their advantage.

So why didn't GW Bush and his team do just that?

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: OneManArmy

I remember that a report of a small cache of mustard gas was reported, and the drum from the "Bush Lied" crowd was that mustard gas was hardly a WMD.

But it is. As is Sarin. GW Bush never seemed interested in salvaging his reputation. He seemed oblivious to what public sentiment about him was. Obama seems oblivious to it, too....but Bush could have defended himself to some degree with information like this. We all know how political folks like to take a story and spin it to their advantage.

So why didn't GW Bush and his team do just that?

Because the liberal wussy opposition was clinging to and shouting a known lie, that there were no WMD's. If GW lambasted them then they may have moved on to a point based on reality, besides the truth will always surface as we see here. GW would not be worried about his reputation because he knew the truth, that there were WMD's.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: OneManArmy

I remember that a report of a small cache of mustard gas was reported, and the drum from the "Bush Lied" crowd was that mustard gas was hardly a WMD.

But it is. As is Sarin. GW Bush never seemed interested in salvaging his reputation. He seemed oblivious to what public sentiment about him was. Obama seems oblivious to it, too....but Bush could have defended himself to some degree with information like this. We all know how political folks like to take a story and spin it to their advantage.

So why didn't GW Bush and his team do just that?

The discoveries of these chemical weapons did not support the government’s invasion rationale.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Bush insisted that Mr. Hussein was hiding an active weapons of mass destruction program, in defiance of international will and at the world’s risk. United Nations inspectors said they could not find evidence for these claims.
Then, during the long occupation, American troops began encountering old chemical munitions in hidden caches and roadside bombs. Typically 155-millimeter artillery shells or 122-millimeter rockets, they were remnants of an arms program Iraq had rushed into production in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

Quoted from OP source.

Thats why.

a reply to: HardCorps
Great OP, and yes, they are extremely cold and callous towards the military service people.
What surprises me about them stumbling around so much about Gulf War Syndrome, and illnesses like this (specifically neurological effects) and treatment, is so much of what's being reported is mustard gas, which they've been well aware of the effects of since Korea, if not before.

I believe they actually used U.S. Servicemen at that time for tests for exposure to mustard gas…
So there was no excuse not treating people who came back sick.
tetra

originally posted by: tetra50
So there was no excuse not treating people who came back sick.
tetra

The thing is, there were no cases of people being sick with chemical exposure symptoms at the time. Many of the symptoms became known, after the fact. I won't give kudos, but the Army and the VA do stay in contact with me after my unit was possibly exposed to chemical weapons, and that is what they should do. Over twenty years now and they still draw blood and do tests.

However, I refuse to have kids and that has caused a few possible wife to leave me. I have seen to many of my fellow Soldiers have still-born, deformed or mentally unstable children (often all three) after the first Gulf war. I think that there is a correlating factor there in that case.

a reply to: TDawgRex
It is good they monitor you like that, and you are especially responsible when you shouldn't have to be (it's a real shame you have to be) about having children…..

But the possible consequence of exposure you mention correlating to birth defects is the saddest thing, imho.
be well.
tetra

a reply to: tetra50

Being responsible for myself and staying educated is on me. I shouldn't have to depend upon others to do such. That is how many a conspiracy theory starts.

But those of us who do pay attention, are also the ones who bring light onto such conspiracy theories.

a reply to: HardCorps

That is really, really messed up. I feel terrible for those guys, and I hope someone is ashamed of themselves at the very least although I doubt anyone is.

The original NY Times Article

I think the reason we didn't mention the chemical weapons as WMD's was that Hussein obtained these weapons from the US and a few of our allies prior to 1991. We had our own fingerprints all over them. Remember, before the Gulf War we were buddies with Saddam Hussein and supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.

These stockpiles of chemical agents and delivery systems had been abandoned by Iraq long before we went to war with them in 2003. Consequently, they had degraded and decomposed to the point of being too dangerous to handle or be around. Therefore, a lot of folks were exposed to it and contaminated. Obviously, we didn't want this to become public knowledge, and so it was covered up as much as possible.

Sad, but true...

originally posted by: netbound
I think the reason we didn't mention the chemical weapons as WMD's was that Hussein obtained these weapons from the US and a few of our allies prior to 1991. We had our own fingerprints all over them. Remember, before the Gulf War we were buddies with Saddam Hussein and supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War.

Yes, this exactly, Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam. You see, we can't claim that we "found" weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when what we found are defunct chemical weapons WE sold them.