Page 124 - American Survival Guide - October 2017

can release sarin for about 30 minutes › French infan-
trymen wear
after it has come in contact with this protective gear
poisonous killer. That can lead to in anticipation
of gas attacks
exposure of other people and, if not kill from the
them, make them critically ill. German oppo-
sition during
Critically, the antidote for sarin World War I.
poisoning—atropine—is a cheap and
effective medication available on just
about every resuscitation cart in most
hospitals in North America. But with large-
scale attacks in active war zones, rescue
efforts could be futile.
THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT
AND CHEMICAL WARFARE
At the crux of it, toward the end of
2017, we are seeing a lot about Syria’s
civil war in the media every day. Yet,
there is only sporadic mention of
President Assad’s enormous arsenal of
chemical weapons. Some news reports
have emerged from Syria that maintain
that these weapons have been “moved › Some of the
around,” presumably to more-secure large number
of civilian
locations (or, as one British television casualties in
report detailed recently, “possibly for use the Syrian
against government enemies”). chemical
weapons
Almost overnight, with more American attack on
forces entering the Syrian theater of Aleppo (Photo:
United Na-
military activity, it is important that the tions)
chemical weapons issue in this ongoing
conflict becomes more transparent.
For a start, it is no longer a secret that
President Assad has these weapons of
mass destruction and that a number of
his Scud-C guided missiles, many of which
have been amassed on the country’s
borders, have been tipped with sarin and
VX nerve gasses. Sources in the Israeli
capital say the numbers of these Russian-
supplied missiles run into the hundreds.

IT IS WORTH RECALLING THAT IN MARCH
1988, TYRANT SADDAM HUSSEIN WENT
ON TO MURDER UP TO 5,000 OF HIS
OWN PEOPLE BY USING CHEMICAL
WEAPONS AGAINST THE CIVILIAN
RESIDENTS OF THE NORTHERN
KURDISH TOWN OF HALABJA.
‹ The chemical
warfare sym-
bol is used to
identify weap-
ons, agents,
work areas or While several Arab countries were attempting to acquire or develop their own weapons of
contaminated
locations mass destruction in the days after Gulf War 1, Syria was in a class of its own when it came to
where these chemical and biological warfare. For decades, the Damascus government had the biggest
toxins might be
present. chemical laboratories in the Middle East.

124 AMERICAN SURVIVAL GUIDE [OCTOBER 2017]

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