Yep, they are too concerned the United States might not look sensitive to other cultures.Obama wouldn't care less. Golf and the destruction of America are his main concerns.
Neither does Rotten Clinton. She is too sick for carrying on a normal life, let alone worry about mustard gas on American troops.
Yep, they are too concerned the United States might not look sensitive to other cultures.Obama wouldn't care less. Golf and the destruction of America are his main concerns.
Neither does Rotten Clinton. She is too sick for carrying on a normal life, let alone worry about mustard gas on American troops.
You are a person of high intelligence and common sense. You strike me as someone who loves freedom and liberty, and appreciates the men and women who serve and defend those things for us.Yep, they are too concerned the United States might not look sensitive to other cultures.Obama wouldn't care less. Golf and the destruction of America are his main concerns.
Neither does Rotten Clinton. She is too sick for carrying on a normal life, let alone worry about mustard gas on American troops.
You know ...they should all burn in hell Clinton and Obama and all their crazy sycophant followers and enablers... ..I'm so tired of all of them I can not begin to tell you!
But it enough to cause the mental midgets to revolt..
The first test of an oily substance found on fragments of a shell fired near the Qayarah West airfield about 40 miles southeast of Mosul was positive for mustard agent, a second test was negative and a third was inconclusive, said Army Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. There were no deaths or injuries to U.S. or Iraqi personnel in the incident. In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said his initial information was that the shell contained "sulfur-mustard blister agent," but Dorrian said more testing will have to be done to confirm the initial finding. At the moment, "we have no conclusive evidence" that mustard gas was used, Dorrian said.
In a video briefing from Baghdad to the Pentagon, Dorrian also said that the U.S. has at times used a controversial agent -- white phosphorus -- in the campaign in Iraq against militants affiliated with the the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Dorrian essentially confirmed an article in The Washington Post saying that U.S. artillery had fired white phosphorous rounds in support of local forces, possibly to act as smokescreens. The use of white phosphorous, which has been condemned by human rights groups, can cause severe burns even for medical personnel treating victims, the Post said. White phosphorous has been used in previous campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Vietnam, U.S. artillery would often fire first with a white phosphorous "marker round" to be followed by a high-explosives barrage.
A UN investigative team member in Ain Terma, Syria, takes samples at the site of a reported ISIS chemical missile attack
Dorrian said the U.S. use of white phosphorous adhered to U.S. military rules and the Law of Armed Conflict by limiting the firing of white phosphorous rounds to areas where civilians were not thought to be present. Dunford has called the possible use of mustard gas by ISIS a "concerning development" as the U.S. continues to build up Qayarah West as a logistics and training hub for the planned offensive to retake the ISIS stronghold of Mosul. Dorrian said eight to 12 brigades of the Iraqi Security Forces were "ready to go" against Mosul, where ISIS has had nearly two years to build up defenses. The U.S. estimates that the group "no longer is able to mass enough forces to stop the advance" on the city and its fighters were experiencing "flagging morale" from the loss of territory and the unrelenting coalition airstrikes, Dorrian said.
U.S. airstrikes recently destroyed an estimated 29 ISIS boats on the Tigris River and also blew up a bridge over which the group's vehicles were attempting to escape, Dorrian said. To defend Mosul, ISIS has built "intricate defenses," including elaborate tunnel networks and interconnected layers of improvised explosive devices along likely "avenues of approach" to the city, Dorrian said. The U.S. has also seen reports that ISIS has dug trenches and filled them with oil to be set on fire once the offensive begins. "They've built a hell on earth around themselves," Dorrian said.
Pentagon Casts Doubt on Mustard Gas Use against US Troops | Military.com
Black smoke continues to billow into the air from the Qayara oil field, damaged by IS militants last month as they fled the town, creating health risks for civilians and troops amassing there. The fires are also clogging up the skies in the area, where critically important airstrikes and aerial reconnaissance missions are taking place almost daily. Located on the west bank of the Tigris River, about 40 miles south of Mosul, Qayara has since become an important staging ground for military and humanitarian efforts ahead of the Mosul operation since it was recaptured by Iraqi forces last month. "Stabilizing Qayara can't wait -- it has to happen now," Lise Grande, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, told The Associated Press. "Everything for the Mosul operation hinges on Qayara," she said. "It's the staging ground for military forces and it's where 350,000 of the 1 million people who are expected to flee (Mosul) will either find shelter or pass through."
This satellite image shows oil fields burning in the Qayara oil field on Aug. 26, south of Mosul, Iraq, on the west bank of the Tigris River
There are slow-going Iraqi efforts to contain the fires, but nearly a month after the town was recaptured from the militants, smoke and toxic fumes continue to pollute the air in and around Qayara. The Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman, Assem Jihad, said Wednesday that IS militants set fire to 11 oil wells in Qayara to derail security forces and wreak havoc in the area as they fled. He said fires at nine of the wells have been extinguished, but two continue to burn powerfully. "It does cause some problems. It certainly doesn't stop anything," Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition in Baghdad, said. "The Iraqis have asked for coalition help to determine what can be done to put those fires out. We'll do what we can to support them."
The images of smoke and flames from the oil wells are reminiscent of the oil fires in Kuwait after the Iraqi military reportedly set fire to hundreds of wells when Saddam Hussein invaded the neighboring Persian Gulf nation in the early 1990s. "In putting out the fires in Kuwait, the firefighters used water pipes and pumped the water from the Persian Gulf to spray at the base of the fires," said Kourosh Kian, an expert in petroleum drilling and reservoir engineering. Kian, a system engineer at GE Aviation, said the simplest method to extinguish these types of fires is to inject water under high pressure at the base of the fire. Since Qayara is on the Tigris River, there would be no problem with the water supply, he said.
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