Lucille
Lucille
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fact is the West has no right to undermine Syrian sovereignty
Anyway look on the bright side, Qatar will get bored in a few years and things will go back to normal.
You don't need to present a complicated argument in defense of Assad. "The FSA are thugs and terrorists" is enough, and it's mostly accurate. Even if Assad kills a lot of people, the FSA would too if they took over the country and got their hands on artillery.
Anyway look on the bright side, Qatar will get bored in a few years and things will go back to normal.
You don't need to present a complicated argument in defense of Assad. "The FSA are thugs and terrorists" is enough, and it's mostly accurate. Even if Assad kills a lot of people, the FSA would too if they took over the country and got their hands on artillery.
Edited by Lucille ()
Superabound
Superabound
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
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it is legal for government officials to kill their own citizens if those citizens threaten the government
Lucille
Lucille
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Why is chemical weapons use being used as an excuse to invade Syria? Shouldn't it be an excuse not to invade Syria, as a display of Assad's valiant stand against the terrorists and liberals invading his country?
Panopticon
Panopticon
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have western NBC technologies ever been widely tested in combat? i know chemical weapons were used in the iran-iraq were but have american troops had to face them since the great war
Lucille
Lucille
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Only against other Americans. There have been very few instances of chemical weapons use. There have been civil wars, terrorist attacks, etc but WWI and Iran-Iraq were the only major cases.
People call Agent Orange, white phosphorous and depleted uranium chemicals but using real chems is bad PR and the US never really had to do that.
People call Agent Orange, white phosphorous and depleted uranium chemicals but using real chems is bad PR and the US never really had to do that.
Edited by Lucille ()
Panopticon
Panopticon
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assad could kill millions of people if he wanted to. maybe it would actually be better from a utilitarian perspective to intervene against the FSA, in order to bring the fighting to an end more quickly (and perhaps secure concessions from assad on not killing even more rebels after their surrender)
Lucille
Lucille
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11919382
Much controversy still surrounds accusations that American forces in the Far East during the Korean War used biological warfare against North Korea and China. An analysis of recently declassified documents reveals that, although the United States attempted to accelerate its development and acquisition of such weapons during that period, its efforts to create a viable biological warfare capability were unsuccessful. Plans to similarly expand chemical warfare stocks and capabilities were also frustrated. Technological difficulties, personnel shortages, bureaucratic battles between the armed services, and policy limitations combined to hold back advances in American chemical and biological warfare. In light of the recent fears of terrorist attacks with such weapons, this analysis highlights the great difficulties involved in developing, acquiring, and delivering such capabilities.
Much controversy still surrounds accusations that American forces in the Far East during the Korean War used biological warfare against North Korea and China. An analysis of recently declassified documents reveals that, although the United States attempted to accelerate its development and acquisition of such weapons during that period, its efforts to create a viable biological warfare capability were unsuccessful. Plans to similarly expand chemical warfare stocks and capabilities were also frustrated. Technological difficulties, personnel shortages, bureaucratic battles between the armed services, and policy limitations combined to hold back advances in American chemical and biological warfare. In light of the recent fears of terrorist attacks with such weapons, this analysis highlights the great difficulties involved in developing, acquiring, and delivering such capabilities.
Lucille
Lucille
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I don't think chemical weapons actually are that effective. The FSA's advantage is in numbers, Assad's advantage is logistics, so he's just trying to hold on to what parts of the country he can.
In any case I'd bet that the second FSA took over Syria there would be a massive civil war with no safe areas like there are now. They're not likely to win but it could happen.
In any case I'd bet that the second FSA took over Syria there would be a massive civil war with no safe areas like there are now. They're not likely to win but it could happen.
Edited by Lucille ()
Superabound
Superabound
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
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Following World War II, the United States military investigated a wide range of possible nonlethal, psychoactive incapacitating agents including psychedelic drugs such as LSD and THC, dissociative drugs such as ketamine and phencyclidine, potent opioids such as fentanyl, as well as several glycolate anticholinergics.
History
One of the anticholinergic compounds, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, was assigned the NATO code BZ and was weaponized at the beginning of the 1960s for possible battlefield use. BZ was invented by Hoffman-LaRoche in 1951. The company was investigating anti-spasmodic agents, similar to tropine, for treating gastrointestinal issues when the chemical was discovered. In 1959 the United States Army began to show interest in using the chemical as a chemical warfare agent. The agent was originally designated TK but when it was standardized by the U.S. Army in 1961 it was designated BZ. The agent commonly became known as "Buzz" because of this abbreviation and the effects it had on the mental state of its casualties.
The United States had weaponized BZ for delivery in the M44 generator cluster and the M43 cluster bomb until stocks were "destroyed" in 1989.
In January 2013, an unidentified U.S. administration official, referring to an undisclosed U.S. State Department cable, claimed that "Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15, a hallucinogenic chemical similar to BZ, was used in Homs". However in response to these reports U.S. National Security Council spokesman stated "The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program".
The PNS effects of BZ are essentially side effects that are useful in diagnosis, but incidental to the CNS effects for which the incapacitating agents were developed. These CNS effects include a dose-dependent decrease in the level of consciousness, beginning with drowsiness and progressing through sedation to stupor and coma. The patient is often disoriented to time and place. Disturbances in judgment and insight appear. The patient may abandon socially imposed restraints and resort to vulgar and inappropriate behavior. Perceptual clues may no longer be readily interpretable, and the patient is easily distracted and may have memory loss, most notably short-term memory. In the face of these deficits, the patient still tries to make sense of his environment and will not hesitate to make up answers on the spot to questions that confuse him. Speech becomes slurred and often senseless, and loss of inflection produces a flat, monotonous voice. References become concrete and semiautomatic with colloquialisms, clichés, profanity, and perseveration. Handwriting also deteriorates. Semiautomatic behavior may also include disrobing (perhaps partly because of increased body temperature), mumbling, and phantom behaviors such as constant picking, plucking, or grasping motions ("woolgathering" or carphology).
Central nervous system mediated perceptual disturbances in BZ poisoning include both illusions (misidentification of real objects) and hallucinations (the perception of objects or attributes that have no objective reality). Hallucinations resulting from anticholinergics such as BZ tend to be realistic, distinct, easily identifiable (often commonly encountered objects or persons), panoramic, and difficult to distinguish from reality. They also have the tendency to decrease in size during the course of the intoxication. This is in contrast to the typically vague, ineffable, and transcendent-appearing hallucinations induced by psychedelics such as LSD.
Another prominent CNS finding in BZ poisoning is behavioral lability, with patients swinging back and forth between quiet confusion and self-absorption in hallucinations, to frank combativeness. Moreover, as other symptoms begin to resolve, intermittent paranoia may be seen. Automatic behaviors common during resolution include the crawling or climbing motions called "progresso obstinato" in old descriptions of dementia.
BZ produces effects not just in individuals, but also in groups. Sharing of illusions and hallucinations (folie à deux, folie en famille, and "mass hysteria") is exemplified by two BZ-intoxicated individuals who would take turns smoking an imaginary cigarette clearly visible to both of them but to no one else. When one observed subject mumbled, "Gotta cigarette?" His delirious companion held out an invisible pack, he followed with, "S'okay, don't wanna take your last one." In another test it was reported two victims of BZ played tennis with imaginary rackets.
History
One of the anticholinergic compounds, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, was assigned the NATO code BZ and was weaponized at the beginning of the 1960s for possible battlefield use. BZ was invented by Hoffman-LaRoche in 1951. The company was investigating anti-spasmodic agents, similar to tropine, for treating gastrointestinal issues when the chemical was discovered. In 1959 the United States Army began to show interest in using the chemical as a chemical warfare agent. The agent was originally designated TK but when it was standardized by the U.S. Army in 1961 it was designated BZ. The agent commonly became known as "Buzz" because of this abbreviation and the effects it had on the mental state of its casualties.
The United States had weaponized BZ for delivery in the M44 generator cluster and the M43 cluster bomb until stocks were "destroyed" in 1989.
In January 2013, an unidentified U.S. administration official, referring to an undisclosed U.S. State Department cable, claimed that "Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15, a hallucinogenic chemical similar to BZ, was used in Homs". However in response to these reports U.S. National Security Council spokesman stated "The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program".
The PNS effects of BZ are essentially side effects that are useful in diagnosis, but incidental to the CNS effects for which the incapacitating agents were developed. These CNS effects include a dose-dependent decrease in the level of consciousness, beginning with drowsiness and progressing through sedation to stupor and coma. The patient is often disoriented to time and place. Disturbances in judgment and insight appear. The patient may abandon socially imposed restraints and resort to vulgar and inappropriate behavior. Perceptual clues may no longer be readily interpretable, and the patient is easily distracted and may have memory loss, most notably short-term memory. In the face of these deficits, the patient still tries to make sense of his environment and will not hesitate to make up answers on the spot to questions that confuse him. Speech becomes slurred and often senseless, and loss of inflection produces a flat, monotonous voice. References become concrete and semiautomatic with colloquialisms, clichés, profanity, and perseveration. Handwriting also deteriorates. Semiautomatic behavior may also include disrobing (perhaps partly because of increased body temperature), mumbling, and phantom behaviors such as constant picking, plucking, or grasping motions ("woolgathering" or carphology).
Central nervous system mediated perceptual disturbances in BZ poisoning include both illusions (misidentification of real objects) and hallucinations (the perception of objects or attributes that have no objective reality). Hallucinations resulting from anticholinergics such as BZ tend to be realistic, distinct, easily identifiable (often commonly encountered objects or persons), panoramic, and difficult to distinguish from reality. They also have the tendency to decrease in size during the course of the intoxication. This is in contrast to the typically vague, ineffable, and transcendent-appearing hallucinations induced by psychedelics such as LSD.
Another prominent CNS finding in BZ poisoning is behavioral lability, with patients swinging back and forth between quiet confusion and self-absorption in hallucinations, to frank combativeness. Moreover, as other symptoms begin to resolve, intermittent paranoia may be seen. Automatic behaviors common during resolution include the crawling or climbing motions called "progresso obstinato" in old descriptions of dementia.
BZ produces effects not just in individuals, but also in groups. Sharing of illusions and hallucinations (folie à deux, folie en famille, and "mass hysteria") is exemplified by two BZ-intoxicated individuals who would take turns smoking an imaginary cigarette clearly visible to both of them but to no one else. When one observed subject mumbled, "Gotta cigarette?" His delirious companion held out an invisible pack, he followed with, "S'okay, don't wanna take your last one." In another test it was reported two victims of BZ played tennis with imaginary rackets.