Article (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?_r=0)
Long piece from the NYT about discovered WMDs in Irak, and the hidden truth from the medical staff and soldiers told to shut up about it.
Heard a report about this on NPR. Very interesting stuff, and the reporters seem to have some good sources.
It's no big surprise given that state of Iraq just before the war and in it's aftermath. As to whether the military authorities were negligent in how they dealt with this in the post-war chaos I don't know.
The involvement of Western European companies in building Saddam's WMD has been know about for years, but he was our kind of dictator then or at least a very well paying customer.
Still, an interesting read.
Sooooo....
There were WMDs in Iraq.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on October 15, 2014, 05:51:18 PM
Sooooo....
There were WMDs in Iraq.
Only very old ones, and not usable. That's been known for a long time.
Quote from: grumbler on October 15, 2014, 06:33:41 PM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on October 15, 2014, 05:51:18 PM
Sooooo....
There were WMDs in Iraq.
Only very old ones, and not usable. That's been known for a long time.
That's what the articles seem to be saying. I'm hearing that these were known about before but because they were old it was expected. The issue was mainly based on the idea of newer WMDs and production facilities, but those weren't found so the fact of the older stuff was found never made much news. At least that's what it seems to boil down to.
I still do wonder if the newer WMDs were transported to Syria as has been suspected, even in these new articles.
Chemical Weapons are expensive and very difficult to use. A huge stockpile of explosives would have been more of a threat to the US.