PrintApril 2, 2007
No WMD in Iraq? (A continuing series)
It seems that since General David Petraeus has taken command of the Coalition forces in Iraq, the official state of denial about Iraq's WMD from both MNF-I Headquarters and the Pentagon has been lifted concerning "insurgent" use of chemical weapons. In a report from the Army News Service, Gen. Petraeus issued a written statement blasting Al-Qaeda and its allied insurgents for the "barbaric actions against innocent Iraqi citizens." The attacks were carried out on crowded market places using conventional high-explosives and chlorine gas, resulting in the deaths of over 50 Iraqis and sickening hundreds, including 14 US Soldiers.
Even the Pentagon has acknowledged the obvious and has provided additional information. Joint Staff deputy director for operations, Army Maj. Gen. Michael D. Barbero said that on March 23, five days before the chlorine bomb attacks, Iraqi police in Ramadi foiled an attack that could have resulted in mass casualties by intercepting a truck carrying 5,000 gallons of chlorine [emphasis added] and two tons of explosives.
Maj. Gen. Barbero noted the significance of these chemical attacks by saying,
"I strongly believe that this use of chlorine should not be dismissed simply as a new tactic or an emerging trend," Barbero said. "Chlorine is a poison gas being used on the Iraqi people. Before these attacks, the last time poison gas was used on the Iraqi people was by Saddam Hussein."
This candor concerning encounters with chemical agents is a much needed injection of honesty into a puzzling and frustrating official policy of denial concerning WMDs in Iraq.
Since the start of OIF, the Coalition and the Pentagon have ignored or sloughed off as inconsequential reports of US Soldiers and Marines finding WMDs and weapons labs containing huge quantities of precursors. These denials continued despite the fact that some of our service members and civilians became sick as a result of either finding chemical storage bunkers near weapons caches or chemical rounds wired as IEDs.
Read the entire report. The poison gas attacks and the use of children as weapons belie a high level of desperation within the Jihadist ranks. But before it's over, expect more operations with WMD.
