dpb

I'm confused, I swear I heard the President state chemical weapons hadn't been used for a hundred years.
And yet the US used naplam all through Vietnam

Cpt Jack Sparrow

iTrader: (14)

Isn't Napalm as sticky syrupy substance thar burns rather than an ingestable chemical.

Not too sure really

scoobeenut

I also thought that Agent Orange would have been classified as a chemical weapon albeit not directed at human targets.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Do as we say, not as we do...always been the American way.

Graz

As stated Napalm is definitely not a "chemical weapon" (though you could argue it is made from chemicals).

It's a mixture of petrol with a gelling agent and is used in incendiary devices. Not nice when used against human targets as the burning fuel sticks to you skin and is hard to extinguish hence the victims tend to die in agony of horrific burns.

dpb

It's still a chemical weapon then

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Napalm is not technically classed as a chemical weapon and for some reason the fixation over the whole Syria thing is on the method of death/chemical weapons.

Cameron and Obama's desire to intervene is because 1400 people were killed by sarin gas in Syria by Assad's regime (or so we are told) and this has outraged many including a good number on here.

Meanwhile the 100,000 people that have already died in Syria in the last 3 years seems not cause anywhere near the furore ... so presumably it's OK as long as they are not being killed by chemical weapons

hodgy0_2

by that definition a bomb is a chemical weapon

dpb

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/armyweapons/a/napalm.htm

tony de wonderful

Yeah it all gets a bit silly with people trying to place white phosphorus in the chemical weapon catagory because they want to slur the US and Israel.

SJ_Skyline

Sadam launched a chemical attack against Halabjah, 1988 wasn't it? 5,000 Kurds were murdered, short memories?

boomer

..and didn't America supply the precursors for those chemical weapons?

mb

hodgy0_2

Yep, I'm sure the Palestinians killed by white phosphorus would have died happy in knowledge that no chemical weapons had been used in their death

tony de wonderful

You have a point, dead is dead. Issue with nerve agents is their fairly indiscriminate nature though, they affect areas and blow in the wind, grossly irresponsible and can cause loads of collateral deaths. Plus also I believe nations have an interest in banishing them from the battlefield cos of their corrosive affect on troop moral.

I didn't make the rules or norms of war. Things like expanding rounds are banned in The Hague convention, some stuff is just against he rules.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Wasn't Agent Orange a defoliant?

Shaun

CrisPDuk

Agent Orange was used by the US as a defoliant, but it had some very nasty side effects that are still a major health/environmental issue for the Vietnamese today

But, as it allegedly wasn't intentionally used as an offensive weapon, it doesn't count as a chemical weapon

That's obviously only according to the country that used it

Leslie

Napalm is a chemical substance just as explosives are and so are human beings for that matter.

Napalm is use to start nasty fires not to kill people in the same way as a nerve agent.

Les

tony de wonderful

Seems we might have sold this nerve gas to Assad.

You have to ask why we sell this stuff if its use is so heinous.

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Obama and Cameron probably means Nerve agents/gas hasn't been used in war conflicts almost 100 year(first time and last time has been used in WWI although has been used too in WWII)

Jura

JTaylor

What's your source for this?

ETA: Is this it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...SIX-years.html

tony de wonderful

LOL yeah. I am corrected in that we may have sold the chemicals used to make it. Anyway Britain sells loads of arms to unsavoury regimes.

Leslie

They used chlorine gas in WW1 in the trenches. It is a heavy gas and forms hydrochloric acid in the lungs. Not a nerve gas of course but pretty nasty effects from it. I knew an elderly man who was gassed in WW1 and he was in a pretty bad state even many years afterwards.

The whole country was issued with gas masks during WW2, even special size ones for children. They certainly thought there was a possibility of a gas attack on this country.

Stocks of nerve gases will be maintained by all governments just in case the other side has it and is prepared to use it.

Les

Cpt Jack Sparrow

iTrader: (14)

Agent orange

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23632245

cster

Well a weapon that is a defoliant and is not feared by the enemy because they are unaware that it may have some effect on them in the future.
You want to include this in a list of chemical weapons in a thread about nerve agents.
Why don't you cut the crap and just say you don't like Americans?

cster

And that you love Jews.

boomer

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Weapons_Convention aimed for "complete destruction of chemical weapons" by April 2007.

Funny (NOT) that Merka want to extent the deadline to 2023 (despite the fact that most chemical weapons have a "shelf life" of weeks, never minds years!!).

mb

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Hi Les

They not used only Chlorine,but they used too Sulfur mustard(many people rather this know as Yperite) and many other

As per Syria there has been used cocktail of more than one gas I would say

Jura

CrisPDuk

If you read my post properly, you will note that I said whilst it was used as a defoliant, it had side effects.

Those side effects were known at the time, yet it was used anyway. This to my mind makes it an offensive weapon

Why do you say that I don't like Americans

There are things about America that I do not like, but overall I would say they are no worse, or better, than any other nation.

BlkKnight

If you have the pleasure of visiting Vietnam (which I recommend). You mist visit the War museum - it certainly puts a different slant on things.

The contamination of AO are still being felt today. Large areas of land are unusable. Even the once clean neighbouring areas are now contaminated.

The Half-Life of this stuff is 8 x longer than nuclear weapons - so it's not going away any time soon.

The horrible side affects are also prevalent - mainly exhibited with gruesome birth defects & cancers.

Leslie

Yes I forgot about mustard gas. Also pretty unpleasant for certain.

Les