Iraq WMD found finally declassified

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Jun 22 2006, 2:11 am
In response to Mellifluous
As I understand it, the Chernobyl disaster was a result of a combination of bad reactor design and inexperienced/ill-informed operators. So you're both partially correct (if not on specifics). =)

The cause is disputed, with some people blaming it completely on the design and other people blaming it on the operators. As with most things, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. The reactor apparently did have serious design flaws (especially with regard to the control rods, which actually accelerated the reaction when they were initially inserted), but the designers concealed those flaws from the other personnel. If the personnel had known more about the reactor, they might have been able to avoid the disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Causes
Jun 22 2006, 3:19 am
In response to Jp
It's easier to convert chemical and biological weapons from an unusable state to a usable state than to start from scratch.

And about those weapons Saddam had made after 1991: Has anyone gone to see where those trucks went?
Trucks took WMD to Syra

Bill Gertz (Article Author) Said:
...vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria.
(...)
Other goods probably were sent throughout Iraq in small quantities and documents probably were stashed in the homes of weapons scientists, Gen. Clapper told defense reporters at a breakfast.

No, they were carrying food... Really, why do you ask?... No, never... We all know Saddam obeyed every sanction imposed on him...[/sarcasm]

And then there's a top Iraqi scientist who wrote a book about being forced to hide nuclear components in his backyard. I don't remember his name, though... If I find the link, I'll add it here.


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:24 am
In response to Jp
Saddam had a truck division to move forbidden trucks around before inspectrs got there. I read that in a book by a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.The inspectors were USELESS. They were told by saddam "Go here today" and they meekly complied. Then there's "Oil for Food"... The UN was the best thing to happen to Saddam Hussein since he murdered his way to leading the country.


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:26 am
In response to Jp
We found them, though. You can't say "Oh, they weren't ready to fire yet!" and say they don't count. If we found a nuclear bomb you'd have said "oh, the paint's chipped... the arming device was disabled... it doesn't count."

And the jobs of weapons inspectors were to go to Iraq and get bribed by Saddam, who was using Oil-for-Food money to pay them off.


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:29 am
In response to Loduwijk
Ah, yes. More old pre-war degraded WMDs.

Well, it is certainly true that WMDs have been found and that some people are incorrect when they say otherwise. However, it still remains true that the sanctions were working, WMD development was not apparently ongoing and the statements by the Bush administration grossly exagerrated the situation (if not outright lied in some circumstances).

It also does little to address the current situation. Whatever the reasons we started the war on, we are now in a pretty rough sitaution. The Republicans seem focused on recent "successes" like the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the formation of yet a another new Iraqi cabinet and seem intent on ignoring the continuing dangers to our soldiers that show no signs of letting up. Worse, there doesn't seem to be any coherent strategy and the administration is vehemently oppossed to any information sharing, transparency or general accountability for what's going on.

I find it ironic that the Republicans continue to claim that the Democrats don't have a plan for Iraq despites several proposals that lay out strategic redployment to maintain a presence in the Middle East while still decreasing our Iraq liabilities. Yet all the Republicans seem to be able to offer is polemics and "stay the course" as if sticking to the same bungled policies that have cost us over 2500 US soldiers, thousands of wounded, and left Iraq in chaos is a great plan.

Oh well, this is the same group that voted to give themselves raises even as the vigorously oppose any help for the middle class and sit on precariously low approval ratings amidst a ballooning national debt.
Jun 22 2006, 3:33 am
In response to Loduwijk
Guess who gave the North Korean communists a nuclear weapon? Let's guess the character:

(Summarized version of weeks of talks)

"Oh, please, Kim Jong-il, don't make nukes! We'll make a deal with you: we'll give you a nuclear power reactor if you stop your nuclear program. Okay? Wow, that was fast... you know, you aren't allowed to use the technology in the reactor to make nuclear weapons... You promise? That's a deal then."

And it's not France. It's primarily the work of a single person. I wonder if you've heard this in all the news about North Korea in recent days.

--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:35 am
In response to Jp
If the plan on using the test to hit America, I'll bet there isn't a dud in there.

--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:38 am
In response to CaptFalcon33035
A nuke will only detonate if the detonator is activated - unless we're talking low-grade soviet bombs, or, for that matter, any kind of low-quality nuke.

However, I'm willing to bet Korean nukes aren't exactly state-of-the-art, high-quality jobs.

--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:41 am
In response to Jp
Blowing a Nuke in the upper atmosphere would cause an EMP blast, wiping out all electronic circuits in a great area below. It could turn a first-world nation to a third-world nation in less time than it takes you to say "Did you hear that?"

--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:42 am
In response to Vito Stolidus
Nuke them before they nuke us. 'Nuf said.
Jun 22 2006, 3:50 am
In response to Jp
What about Patriot Missile arrays? They worked perfectly against Saddam's Scud missiles in the Gulf War. (Scuds are short-range ICBMs, I believe former soviet technology) (by short-range, I mean Saddam could hit Israel from Iraq)

For that matter, what about Minutemen (Anti-soviet-missle missiles)? They were effective, that is obvious by the way they were deployed all over the northern US during the Cold War.

We don't need billions of dollars spent on new systems. These two older systems worked fine when used (Minutemen, tested - never really saw action).


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 3:52 am
In response to DarkCampainger
That's the basis for Regan's SDI (Star Wars) system. It was never put into action, but I heard Bush was thinking on putting some work into it. In theory, it's effective - What can outrun light?


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 4:24 am
In response to Jp
Chernobyl was well-maintained. Right. And the Soviet people were happy, there was no oppression in the soviet union, and Stalin was a peaceful leader.


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 4:58 am
In response to Jon88
Jon88 wrote:
I think the russians did. They blew up a nuke above a battlefield where their soldiers were practicing to see what the effects would be.

Wow, that's terrible! That's almost as bad as when that other country dropped those nukes on...uhm, hirosh...something, and nagasa-thingamajig.
Jun 22 2006, 5:56 am
In response to CaptFalcon33035
The Former Soviet Union had a great deal of success with so called Killer Satelites. Basically, they would shoot down ICBMS and low orbit targets not with one bullet, but with a shotgunlike spray of flaklike munition that would tear apart the hull, fins, etc and disable the rocket.

Cheap and efficient. Far more effective than hairbrained laser shots and similar money sinks. Why we never adopted the idea, I cannot imagine. Probably, much like the AK47, the fact that the Soviets had developed it was enough to ignore any development advantages.
Jun 22 2006, 6:14 am
In response to Elation
Wartime. There was no other way to end World War II because of Japanese fanatacism. Would you rather that literally millions of American soldiers had died in a D-day-style invasion of the Japanese coast and a 25-year occupation?


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 6:25 am
In response to Crispy
3 people have died at Guantanimo. They committed suicide to become martyrs. Remember, we're talking about people captured on the battlefield fighting the US. These aren't random innocents.

Anyway, they're still treated an order of magnitudes better than the approximately 20 soldiers accused by a radical antiwar journalist of massacring civilians at Haditha and at a second such incedent. These troops, by all sides' admissions, followed standard operating procedure at Haditha - and they're jailed, in chains, in solitary confinement for it.


--Vito
Jun 22 2006, 9:47 am
In response to Jp
It's not like were going to chase the missiles, so speed isn't the big a deal. We just need the precision to pinpoint it's location by the time it will take the projectile to reach the missles alititude and fire.

But, what I meant by not having to be able to hit it is a fact someone. We don't have to hit it. We can make it hit something else. Maybe we can disable it by radiowaves or something, I dunno much about them.

I'm pretty sure a giant microwave could do it without a problem, being gigantic and all. Or maybe we can kill it by an electro-magnetic feild or something. I've got tons of ideas. Point is, we don't have to shoot it, or throw a counter-missle or anything like that. It just needs to be stopped.
Jun 22 2006, 9:53 am
In response to Jp
Jp wrote:
2 - The Russians did indeed conduct some nuclear tests. So has every other country that has ever developed nuclear weapons.

The USSR dropped a couple of bombs in the water near their country to test them out. We, as in Americans, tested our bombs on Japan. They were huge successes.
Jun 22 2006, 9:56 am
In response to CaptFalcon33035
We tested one in the desert first.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6