"Here I stand man among men,
I know no evil, I practice no sin.
I burn, destroy, kill and maim,
It is funny I don't even know my name.
I cover the path that peace had trod,
Some call me man, but I call me God."
One thing I will say for our world. There is never a shortage of bad actors. Just when we thought it was safe to go back into the water, up pops Syria with yet one more tyrant who is a megalomaniac. Yes, this man, this personification of evil, is in control of one of the most vile things ever created by mankind - a weapon of mass destruction.
Don't get me wrong - toxic gas was used as early as World War I. It was a mustard gas, and it had devastating effects on people. After the war, it was considered barbaric and banned by the Geneva Protocol signed in 1929. It, along with other asphyxiating, poisonous or bacteriological methods of warfare, were banned forever.
Then up pops Saddam Hussein. Another bad actor, he decided the 1929 treaty was not for him and he used Mustard Gas against Iran in their eight year war. Mustard Gas, is a very bad agent - however, compared to other nerve agents, it is on the light end of the scale. It was long thought that Saddam had Serin in his toxic bunker as well. Serin is a most deadly nerve agent. It is colorless, odorless and very hard to detect. It is a binary agent, which means it is comprised of two inert agents. When mixed together, these two ingredients form an agent so frightful, it will stop a human heart in seconds.
When we went into Iraq in 2003, there was no trace of any WMD. We knew he had them, the Clinton Administration knew he had them, and our allies knew he had them. Now they were gone. Because Saddam would not let the UN inspect his facilities, we did not know exactly what he had - however, we had our suspicions. We know he had Mustard Gas - he used it on Iran as well as his own Kurdish population. We think he also had Serin as well as some bio agents. In any event, there are many of us who believe when Saddam saw the hand writing on the wall, he moved all that crap into Lebanon, to be stored somewhere in the Bekaa Valley.
Last night on the news both CNN and Fox broke into programming announcing Syria had just weaponized Serin Gas. In other words, they had mixed the two ingredients together and made something which had never been used in warfare before. Putting it another way, this gas is now ready to be used by delivery of either a bomb, missile, or artillery shell. This is huge - this is bigger than the threat we saw in Iraq. If Syria gasses his own people, Israel or Turkey, the world as we know it will change. If Israel is gassed, they will nuke Syria off the planet. Nothing good can come out of any imaginable scenario.
The next time someone talks about our bloated defense budget, please remind them that the list of bad actors continues to grow - there is never a shortage. The world is a dangerous place and there is always someone ready to conquer, control or commit mass murder. There are a growing number who choose to live by a delusion of grandeur, a false credo. There are some that truly believe the lines in the poem: "I burn destroy, kill or maim, it is funny I don't even know my name. I cover the path that peace had trod - some call me man, but I call me God."
Then up pops Saddam Hussein. Another bad actor, he decided the 1929 treaty was not for him and he used Mustard Gas against Iran in their eight year war. Mustard Gas, is a very bad agent - however, compared to other nerve agents, it is on the light end of the scale. It was long thought that Saddam had Serin in his toxic bunker as well. Serin is a most deadly nerve agent. It is colorless, odorless and very hard to detect. It is a binary agent, which means it is comprised of two inert agents. When mixed together, these two ingredients form an agent so frightful, it will stop a human heart in seconds.
When we went into Iraq in 2003, there was no trace of any WMD. We knew he had them, the Clinton Administration knew he had them, and our allies knew he had them. Now they were gone. Because Saddam would not let the UN inspect his facilities, we did not know exactly what he had - however, we had our suspicions. We know he had Mustard Gas - he used it on Iran as well as his own Kurdish population. We think he also had Serin as well as some bio agents. In any event, there are many of us who believe when Saddam saw the hand writing on the wall, he moved all that crap into Lebanon, to be stored somewhere in the Bekaa Valley.
Last night on the news both CNN and Fox broke into programming announcing Syria had just weaponized Serin Gas. In other words, they had mixed the two ingredients together and made something which had never been used in warfare before. Putting it another way, this gas is now ready to be used by delivery of either a bomb, missile, or artillery shell. This is huge - this is bigger than the threat we saw in Iraq. If Syria gasses his own people, Israel or Turkey, the world as we know it will change. If Israel is gassed, they will nuke Syria off the planet. Nothing good can come out of any imaginable scenario.
The next time someone talks about our bloated defense budget, please remind them that the list of bad actors continues to grow - there is never a shortage. The world is a dangerous place and there is always someone ready to conquer, control or commit mass murder. There are a growing number who choose to live by a delusion of grandeur, a false credo. There are some that truly believe the lines in the poem: "I burn destroy, kill or maim, it is funny I don't even know my name. I cover the path that peace had trod - some call me man, but I call me God."
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