Sarin Gas is absolutely horrific!

Akrasia

The weapons inspectors in Syria have announced that there is conclusive evidence that the weapon used in the chemical attack against civilians in Damascus was Sarin Gas.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0916/474468-syria/
Sarin gas is probably the worst most depraved 'technology' that humans have ever come up with.

It is repulsive, even thinking about it ought to turn your stomach

Sarin is a nerve agent, so it works by injestion into your nervous system where it interferes with your nerve receptors and prevents them from turning off.
It is 26 times more lethal than Cyanide and it can kill in tiny doses. If you get a less than lethal dose, you can suffer permanent neurological damage.

It is odourless and colourless and it is extremely volitile, meaning that it turns from liquid into a gas very easily. It also means that it can be absorbed through your skin, so even if you are wearing a gas mask, you will be affected.

So this means that a Sarin attack releases an invisible cloud of poison gas that is toxic at extremely low doses. The initial symptoms are a runny nose, dilated pupils and a tightness in your chest followed by the rapid loss of all muscle and organ control. You will struggle for breath, vomit, urinate and deficate before asphyxiating to death. This can take just one minute from first exposure.

All of that is horrible, awful, disgusting, but the worst aspect of all of this is that the human instinct to help others who are in trouble is used against us. If someone is exposed to Sarin, they will have the chemical on their clothes where it will continue to release into the environment. If you see someone dying and you go to help them, you will probably die too. If someone runs away from the scene, even if they are not showing symptoms, they might have sarin on their clothes, if you give them shelter, they might expose you and your family.

The chemical can remain in the environment for days or weeks. If your loved ones are dead you can't even go to their side to mourn them.

What kind of monster would stockpile a weapon such as this?

I know that other forms of warfare are just as destructive. Bombs and bullets and machetes are all brutal violent things and innocent people who find themselves caught up in this violence can have their lives utterly destroyed, but these chemical weapons take this to a new level.

The standards of warfare as low as they are, have to have limits on what the world will allow in combat. Until we can figure out a way to end all violent conflict, there will be wars, and there will be war crimes and atrocities, but we have to make the absolute minimum standards as below.

We do not allow the use of nuclear weapons, Chemical weapons or Biological weapons.
There is absolutely no justification for any of these. None.

MadsL

The UN team's mandate was solely to determine whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them.

Part 1 is handy.

Part 2 was pretty essential information I would have thought? :mad:

force eleven

'What kind of monster would stockpile a weapon such as this?'

Pretty much all sides have access to these weapons, it's not just Assad. Apparently, the chemistry to make these are pretty straightforward,unfortunately. It is the method of delivery that is key.

anncoates

force eleven wrote: »

'What kind of monster would stockpile a weapon such as this?'.

Humans?

Jonny7

MadsL wrote: »

Part 1 is handy.

Part 2 was pretty essential information I would have thought? :mad:

It cannot be proven 100% who fired the weapon.

Victor

Akrasia wrote: »

What kind of monster would stockpile a weapon such as this?

Germany, Iraq, Syria, UK, USA, USSR, Aum Shinrikyo religious sect (Japan) and Syrian rebels amongst others.

Augmerson

Akrasia wrote: »

What kind of monster would stockpile a weapon such as this?

The US and the Russian Federation would still have it. And although they will deny it to the ground, Israel will have probably had some project involving Sarin gas in their NBC program. UK and France the same.

Akrasia

The individuals who make the decision that it is necessary to create and hold and maintain stockpiles of these weapons are beneath contempt.

Paulzx

..........it's much more pleasant to obliterated by a standard artillery shell.

shamrock55

To release this horror on your own people, i just cant get my head around it, this man needs a bullet between the eyes quick

o1s1n

Don't google VX gas OP!

Frosty McSnowballs

Dreadful weapon of war. The worst part is, if it wasnt so effective, they wouldn't stockpile/use it.

BeerWolf

shamrock55 wrote: »

To release this horror on your own people, i just cant get my head around it, this man needs a bullet between the eyes quick

I seriously doubt it was Assad that did it - Why would he, when he needs all the support he can get, specially when the whole world's watching?


It being an inside job, probably by the Americans... as a means of getting into the country, sounds more plausible. You might note how incredibly adamant they were in trying to enter the conflict...


I'm unsure of how legitimate it is, but a while ago I read up that Saudi Arabia was trying to bribe [or Blackmail?] Russia to pull out it's support with Syria with some oil related deal.

sbsquarepants

Sarin Gas is absolutely horrific!
[/QUOTE]

Eh, newsflash - getting shot ain't all that pleasant either. Either is being blown apart by a bomb, or incinerated by napalm or thermite. There really isn't a nice way to indiscriminately slaughter people.
Accept if western forces do it through "surgical strikes" of course. Thankfully I've never had to have an operation, but if I did I would sincerely hope the surgeon used a scalpel to open me up rather than half a ton of high explosives.
Sarin gas is indeed horrible - but so is every other aspect of war. Don't be fooled by Americas concern for the suffering of innocent Syrians - they didn't give a flying fúck about the hundreds of thousands killed by "conventional" means.

EyeSight

BeerWolf wrote: »

I seriously doubt it was Assad that did it - Why would he, when he needs all the support he can get, specially when the whole world's watching?


It being an inside job, probably by the Americans... as a means of getting into the country, sounds more plausible. You might note how incredibly adamant they were in trying to enter the conflict...


I'm unsure of how legitimate it is, but a while ago I read up that Saudi Arabia was trying to bribe [or Blackmail?] Russia to pull out it's support with Syria with some oil related deal.

Yes it was the evil Americans :rolleyes: Look at what they gained from it...nothing. Maybe a political loss

There's less evidence to blame it on the Americans than there is to blame it on Bosco

Mr Benevolent

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Don't be fooled by Americas concern for the suffering of innocent Syrians - they didn't give a flying fúck about the hundreds of thousands killed by "conventional" means.

Indeed. This UN search is really the search for evidence to convince US allies to join the party. The US doesn't want to be seen doing anything alone nowadays.

dublinbhoy88

What kind of monster would stockpile nucleur weapons or use them?

BeerWolf

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Eh, newsflash - getting shot ain't all that pleasant either. Either is being blown apart by a bomb, or incinerated by napalm or thermite. There really isn't a nice way to indiscriminately slaughter people.
Accept if western forces do it through "surgical strikes" of course. Thankfully I've never had to have an operation, but if I did I would sincerely hope the surgeon used a scalpel to open me up rather than half a ton of high explosives.
Sarin gas is indeed horrible - but so is every other aspect of war. Don't be fooled by Americas concern for the suffering of innocent Syrians - they didn't give a flying fúck about the hundreds of thousands killed by "conventional" means.

You'd probably find that most people would agree that death is terrible.

But there's a big difference between a quick death, and a death endured with a lot of suffering.

Example; The US got rid of death penalty by the Electric Chair for a reason...

dublinbhoy88 wrote: »

What kind of monster would stockpile nucleur weapons or use them?

As a deterrent. You don't have to use it. Nuke testings aside, the only usage of a nuke on people was the end of WW2.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

the facts that cameron lost his war vote and putin publically bitch slapped obama are all that stopped the us going to war this time. the sarin was still an excellent excuse and it's not like the united states is some supremely moral actor on the world stage.

Maximus Alexander

Ah here, are you guys really saying you'd prefer to be exposed to this stuff than blown up or shot? This stuff is horrific.

Most people don't even die from gunshot wounds, but it removes them from the battle. As much as I dislike the concept of war and murder in general, a bullet is infinitely more humane.

o1s1n

dublinbhoy88 wrote: »

What kind of monster would stockpile nucleur weapons or use them?

The ultimate tool of destruction has become the ultimate peace keeper. Countries who have the bomb are less likely to come under attack as the attacker fears them using it.

Sad to say, but we'd probably have had a WW III many decades ago if nuclear devices never existed.

All we can hope now is that it stays the way it is with all the world's major superpowers too afraid to attack each other head on out of MAD fear.

drunkmonkey

Not as horrific as what the scumbag US Army did not so long ago, it's still causing grotesque deformities to this today, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Let's not us allow America to take the moral high ground in Syria for even a second. What they done in Vietnam still causes more pain every year than the attack in Syria ever will.

meathstevie

Anyone ever contemplated the possible consequences of the more fundamentalists streaks of political Islamism getting their hands on that stuff combined with a half decent delivery system ( in that case it could well be in the form of suicide operatives ) to launch an attack of substantial scale on Israel ?

Unfortunately so far it only appear to be the fundamentalists who are organised to any worthwhile extent in the whole so called Arab Spring. Ultimately the only thing that appears to be happening is that secular dictators are being replaced by Koran thumping dictators who could well end up being more brutal than their predecessors and a lot more dangerous and volatile in an international setting.

dublinbhoy88

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Not as horrific as what the scumbag US Army did not so long ago, it's still causing grotesque deformities to this today, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Let's not us allow America to take the moral high ground in Syria for even a second. What they done in Vietnam still causes more pain every year than the attack in Syria ever will.

The fact that they are using the deaths of Syrian civilians as propaganda for their imperialistic goals is pretty monsterous considering the war crimes the U.S. has commited

dublinbhoy88

o1s1n wrote: »

The ultimate tool of destruction has become the ultimate peace keeper. Countries who have the bomb are less likely to come under attack as the attacker fears them using it.

Sad to say, but we'd probably have had a WW III many decades ago if nuclear devices never existed.

All we can hope now is that it stays the way it is with all the world's major superpowers too afraid to attack each other head on out of MAD fear.

well then if other countries have nukes shouldn't Iran be allowed to have them to prevent them from being attacked so?

smoking_kills

dublinbhoy88 wrote: »

The fact that they are using the deaths of Syrian civilians as propaganda for their imperialistic goals is pretty monsterous considering the war crimes the U.S. has commited

Every country commits war crimes lets not forget...

Irish war crimes....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executions_during_the_Irish_Civil_War

The executions during the Irish Civil War took place during the guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War (June 1922 – May 1923). This phase of the war was bitter, and both sides, the government forces of the Irish Free State and the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA) insurgents, used executions and terror in what developed into a cycle of atrocities.

BeerWolf

dublinbhoy88 wrote: »

well then if other countries have nukes shouldn't Iran be allowed to have them to prevent them from being attacked so?

/shrug - guessing because of how volatile the whole middle east is?

MonaPizza

shamrock55 wrote: »

To release this horror on your own people, i just cant get my head around it, this man needs a bullet between the eyes quick

Who exactly released it on his own people? Who are you talking about?

dublinbhoy88

smoking_kills wrote: »

Every country commits war crimes lets not forget...

Irish war crimes....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executions_during_the_Irish_Civil_War

The executions during the Irish Civil War took place during the guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War (June 1922 – May 1923). This phase of the war was bitter, and both sides, the government forces of the Irish Free State and the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA) insurgents, used executions and terror in what developed into a cycle of atrocities.

totally agree with you, this country is a lap dog for American imperialism and has aided U.S. war crimes with regards to Shannon airport

dublinbhoy88

BeerWolf wrote: »

/shrug - guessing because of how volatile the whole middle east is?

is Israel not in the middle east?

o1s1n

dublinbhoy88 wrote: »

well then if other countries have nukes shouldn't Iran be allowed to have them to prevent them from being attacked so?

Iran want to develop nuclear weapons for that very reason, so they are less likely to be attacked and will be considered a bigger 'player' on the world's stage - that's the reason any country wants them.