Australia accused of lying about Iraq

[JohnDubYa]

As I understand it from reading the Web, Sarin is not made and then stored. Usually the mixing of the two necessary chemicals is done shortly before the sarin is released as a weapon, or during the release. Both chemicals are more stable than sarin. One is perfectly stable.

How does the roadside bomb containing sarin fit into this discussion?

 

[selfAdjoint]

As I understand it from reading the Web, Sarin is not made and then stored. Usually the mixing of the two necessary chemicals is done shortly before the sarin is released as a weapon, or during the release. Both chemicals are more stable than sarin. One is perfectly stable.

If this is so, then it explains why no WMD were ever found in Iraq. After all, poison gas was the only mass weapon he was demonstrated to have, whatever wannabe projects he initiated. And if you can't keep the best poison gas, there wouldn't be anything stored.

 

[JohnDubYa]

True, but the main point is that poison gas would be readily available when needed. So when someone says that a country is stockpiling sarin, that is not entirely accurate -- rather the country is stockpiling the agents necessary to create the gas.

Keep in mind that factories are not required to make sarin from its constituents. A simple mixing is all that is necessary. In fact, the mixing of sarin takes place inside the artillery shell during flight. So the shelf-life of sarin is completely meaningless.

 

[Adam]

Russ, chemical agents have a limited shelf life.

Apparently I need to repeat.

 

[Hurkyl]

Apparently I need to repeat.

No, you need to elaborate.

 

[JohnDubYa]

For those that don't quite understand my argument, I thought of a fairly relevant analogy.

Epoxy is formed by taking two different chemicals and mixing them together. The reason the glue isn't pre-mixed is obvious: The shelf-life of epoxy is measured in mere minutes (the glue would harden inside the tube). The shelf life of the two constituent chemicals is measured in months or years.

So if you are wanting to find out if a hardware store stocks epoxy, you don't look for epoxy itself, you look for the individual tubes containing its constituent chemicals.

This is why the shelf-life of sarin is IRRELEVANT. Sarin is typicaly not made and then stored, just like epoxy is not mixed then stored. Instead the constituent chemicals are mixed during the release of the weapon, just like epoxy is mixed shortly before application.

This issue is one reason why Scott Ritter cannot be trusted. He should have known that his statements about the shelf life of sarin were completely irrelevant and misleading. He made them anyway, and I think we know why.