Posted by
Tzimisce on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 4:21:07 PM
"Mustard Gas" is a blanket term used for several different types of poison gas. A good number of these gases are surprisingly non lethal. But don't make the mistake of thinking their effects are pleasant either. Just about all Mustard Gases are blistering agents causing welts on the skin. If if you inhale the gas, you get welts on the inside. If the gas gets in your eyes, well you can guess what happens. And being as that it damages the body gas maskes won't do much to protect you.
Mustard Gases were first unleashed in WW1. According to legend the first successful battlefield use was so successful the Germans didn't have time to capitalize on the victory. The first casualties of this attack didn't die immediately. It took them 4 to 5 weeks of vomiting, bleeding out every hole in the body and going blind before they were freed from the effects. Of course, the Germans used a highly concentrated form designed to kill rather than just maim.
And the beautiful part (?) of poison gas is that it could be attached to ordinary ammo: mortar rounds, missiles and other projectiles. That way if you miss your target the gas will still get them. It's a really ugly way of fighting a war. It's so terrible that even twenty years after WW1 a nation listening to a Halloween radio show of Martians invading the Earth and unleashing clouds of poison gas caused a panic. It's also why a lot of nations have banned the manufacture and use of such weapons.
One thing a lot of battlefield reports leave out though is the "collateral damage". At the mercy of the wind, the deadly cloud can go anywhere - even leaving the battlefield and going in to civilian places. We'll never really know how many innocent people were effected by Mustard Gas in WW1. We'll never have an accurate count of the animal population that was devastated either. From the pooh bear looking for honey to the mother bird bringing worms back to her chicks.
Why is all of this important? Because last Friday terrorists in Iraq detonated three "Chloride Bombs". The detonation affected an estimated 350 Iraqis (most of them civilians) and 6 US soldiers. Most newspaper accounts cite that there were only a couple of deaths involved in the attack. What they're not saying is that the survivors will live with injuries from the attack for the rest of their lives.
How can the media be unbiased when they won't even call it what it is: Mustard Gas, a weapon of mass destruction or an over reaction. It's sadly not surprising that the media who ran tons of cover stories just six months ago over *rumored* Israeli use of illegal cluster bombs won't dedicate a single minute to *real* use of illegal chemical weapons. As I said these are WMDs. They're being used in terrorist attacks. So the question becomes: where is this stuff coming from? If Saddam had no Mustard Gas then where are these people getting it? And where is it being manufactured? Why is one of the most important stories of current moment being almost totally ignored? If the use of cluster bombs is illegal and should be condemned, then why not illegal mustard gas?
Does the left still consider these people to be patriots on par with American Revolutionary leaders? When American soldiers in the Revolution "broke the rules" of warfare they attacked on Christmas, fought from cover and targeted enemy officers. When our current enemy "breaks the rules" of warfare they use illegal weapons, hide amongst civilians and target them when ready. American Revolutionaries tried to gain popular support amongst civilians by trying to appeal to people's sense of reason. Iraqi Terrorists try to gain power by targeting people who might disagree and bullying those people in to line. The differences are so stark if only someone out (outside of myself) there would give it some anaylsis.