Quote:
Originally Posted by Orruar
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Can anyone explain what makes chemical weapons so special? Is there really a big difference between being killed by sarin gas and being killed by little pieces of metal tearing through your body?
I suspect our aversion to chemical weapons is due to similar reasons for our aversion to terrorism. It's a way for a relatively poor person/people to exert much greater power than they otherwise could. It would take many millions of dollars worth of cruise missiles to do the same damage done by 19 men on 9/11 for a fraction of that. 19 box cutters + 19 plane tickets = ~6k. We want other countries to follow certain rules of war because those rules benefit us. You may be saying that terrorism is qualitatively different because it targets civilians. If you are thinking this, please consider the massive amounts of collateral damage that our bombs cause. We have avenged 9/11 many times over in terms of civilian body count.
Put another way, I wonder if the following is true: The British hated the colonial soldiers that used guerrilla warfare in the same way we hate those that use chemical weapons, and for the same reasons.
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two reasons.
there is a big difference between having an artery shredded by shrapnel and bleeding out in an hour, and being affected by a lethal dose of sarin gas. First, your nose starts to run, and then you vomit. Keep in mind that sarin is odorless and colorless, so chances are you dont even know whats happening. thats too bad, because in under a minute you piss and shit yourself, while again expelling the contents of your stomach. Now the fun starts. Immediately after doubling over to vomit, you snap backwards uncontrollably. if you are lucky, youll snap so hard you break your own spine. if not, youll be treated to the nightmarish hell that is nerve gas in full swing. See, nerve gas makes it so your nerve endings cant shut off. imagine the worst pain you could ever concieve. now put that pain all over your body, inside and out, at the same time. now imagine that while this is happening your body is convulsing uncontrollably in all directions, and you cant breathe. fortunately, most victims die of asphyxiation before this can go on too long. those who dont quickly fall into a coma and
continue to convulse until their brain finally shuts down and they die. this whole process takes about a minute or two, but its likely the most hellish minute or two those victims will ever experience in their entire lives. this is the kind of torture normally reserved for torture porn movies. its the kind of thing we wish was never invented.
id love to hear you try to tell me youd take that over being shredded by shrapnel. no thanks.
number two. collateral damage. we can fire a smart missile through a window laded with just the right amount of explosives to kill the terrorists in that room and cause little damage to the building or anyone else inside it. that same missile armed with sarin gas, even a small amount, would likely clear a city block. heres the really fun part about sarin gas - it can stay on your clothes in lethal doses for around 30 minutes. And you cant see it. imagine arriving home from getting groceries to find your wife covered in shit, piss, and bloody vomit, dead on the floor, and then getting a runny nose while you cry over her dead body....
its nasty shit, kid. its not like being shot, or having your brain splattered by the concussive blast of a bomb. it needs to never be used again, period.