No, not gasoline, but gas, specifically, sarin and mustard gas
As it turns out, some more WMDs were found in Iraq where coalition forces have recovered about 500 shells, canisters or other munitions that contain degraded mustard gas or sarin nerve agent. The story has gone mostly ignored by the MSM, while the NYT (along with the LA Times) for instance, leaks another national security program, again.
I say some more because just a week ago substantial evidence was found of more buried WMDs.
Then there’s
- the two tons of low-enriched uranium and about 1,000 radioactive samples that were removed from Iraq’s Tuwaitha Nuclear Center;
- the 17 chemical munitions the Poles found in July 2004 and the two containing cyclosarin, a substance many times stronger than sarin;
- and all the others shells containing sarin and mustard gas that have been found over the past three years, some of which were reported by CNN.
- [Update, More, via Cassandra, the Detailed Preliminary Assessment of Chemical Weapons Findings by the CIA]
- Heck, two weeks ago on June 8 CNN even said that Zarqawi had been hiding in Northern Iraq, where he had installed a sarin factory as an al-Qaeda operative in 2002 (if you sincerely believe that anyone could have installed a factory in Iraq without Saddam’s countenance, you have more problems than you know).
Even the UN has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003.
Yet the Left continues to wallow in denial and repeat the “Bush lied” mantra.
However, this one takes the cake:
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif), who is normally fairly level-headed about War on Terror matters, asserted on Fox News today the newly-reported chemical weapons discovered in Iraq were old and therefore no more dangerous than aging items one might find “under the kitchen sink.”
Commenter Good Ole Charlie explains on sarin
This is the chemical agent that even Adolph Hitler refused to use during WWII (largely perhaps because Adolph was gassed himself during WWI [see Mein Kampf’s opening pages for his description]).
The same impure (~1% pure) agent that raised a ruckus in the Tokyo subway system a few years ago. Even the decomposition products are nasty, but not as deadly as sarin itself.
The Husband, who also has a background in science, tells me that the main difference between fresh mustard gas and decayed mustard gas is that the decayed mustard gas doesn’t burn the skin, lungs and eyes as badly as the fresh [clarification] yet remains lethal.
Jane Harman, along with her party, need to stop inhaling the toxic gas fumes of their own partisanship. And rather than look under the sink, they should examine their own consciences.
Update: Dr. Sanity
National security be damned. They have their own war to win. And they won’t cut and run or redeply their forces until their mission is accomplished and Bush is defeated. Anything that furthers that specific goal, by their definition, is truly heroic.
