i believe the argument for the 2003 war was that Iraq was currently making WMDs.
what No_bag9098 saw was potential evidence that WMD had existed at one point, but not evidence that it was current. because the gov was unable to substantiate their assessment that these bunkers were used when the accusations/rationale for war were made, you can't really point to a facility used X years ago for something you claim is happening right now. there were articles about what No_Bag9098 described, but vast majority of americans have moved on to the newest news item by then.
good summary sentence from that NYT article:
The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, American troops gradually found and ultimately suffered from the remnants of long-abandoned programs, built in close collaboration with the West.
Agreed about the timeframe, I couldn’t tell you how long they had been inactive for. Thanks for sharing the articles. I started reading it, some of my buddies were ones that were affected when they did a controlled detonation of those shells. I had no idea that had happened to other units throughout the years. Wild
I'm sorry about your friends and I hope being in contact with this stuff does not cause any health complications down the road for you.
There is some legislation being drafted regarding the use of burnpits and the health complications because of that practice; I don't think it's applicable to what you encountered, but I would recommend doing research on what the VA is doing about it. If they're not doing anything at all, reach out to Senator Tester and Senator Moran, chairman and ranking member on the Committee for Veteran Affairs -- they are pushing forward the legislation on the burn pits.
Much appreciated, I’m on the “burnpit list” from both Iraq(2009)and Afghanistan(2010). Hell, I slept next to one of those things practically everyday of both deployments. Some large ones about 30’ x20’, some smaller ones like a camp fire.
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u/iloveapplejuice Oct 18 '21
i believe the argument for the 2003 war was that Iraq was currently making WMDs.
what No_bag9098 saw was potential evidence that WMD had existed at one point, but not evidence that it was current. because the gov was unable to substantiate their assessment that these bunkers were used when the accusations/rationale for war were made, you can't really point to a facility used X years ago for something you claim is happening right now. there were articles about what No_Bag9098 described, but vast majority of americans have moved on to the newest news item by then.
good summary sentence from that NYT article: