Well, yesterday we got the news that several vials of phosgene, a very nasty poisonous gas, were discovered in the UN headquarters. They were supposed to have been destroyed years ago, but apparently some UN bureaucrat with more greed than common sense (which narrows down the suspect list to... well, every single person who works there) kept them as souvenirs.
There was a bit of a foofaraw at first that this was nerve gas, but phosgene is actually a blistering agent. That this mistake happened is unsurprising; to the uninitiated, all poison gases are "nerve gases," much like any big, scary gun is an "assault weapon." That the cognoscenti actually draw distinctions is lost on the hysterical masses -- in this case, apparently, that includes Brian Ross of ABC News.
What should not be overlooked is that even though phosgene is not a nerve agent, it is still quite clearly and indisputably a "weapon of mass destruction," as a chemical weapon. In fact, some argue that phosgene is worse than nerve agents, as it kills more slowly and painfully -- but just as thoroughly.
So we have the United Nations, who so many want to hold up as the ultimate moral authority, the exemplar of the right and proper and correct way to run the world, not only bringing vials of poison gas into New York City, but then losing them -- and not even realizing that they had lost them for about a decade.
Remember that this is the same United Nations that uncovered evidence that North Korea had been counterfeiting United States currency -- committing acts of war against the US -- and decided the best thing to do was to hide that for years, too.
And this is the same United Nations whose "peacekeepers" are often better described as "piece-getters" -- whether or not the females in question are willing, healthy, or even of age. The same United Nations that oversaw the Oil For Food program that Saddam turned into a cash cow for international bribery on a scale never seen before. The same United Nations... well, I could go on, but I'm making myself sick.
Tell me again... why precisely does the United States fork over 22% of the entire budget for that pit?
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Comments (8)
Stamps.=====... (Below threshold)1. Posted by kim | August 31, 2007 11:33 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Stamps.
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1. Posted by kim | August 31, 2007 11:33 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 11:33
2. Posted by yo | August 31, 2007 11:43 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
"... why precisely does the United States fork over 22% of the entire budget for that pit?"
Well, if we don't pay for it, how are the other countries in the world going to work against us?
2. Posted by yo | August 31, 2007 11:43 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 11:43
3. Posted by langtry | August 31, 2007 12:18 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
What should not be overlooked is that even though phosgene is not a nerve agent, it is still quite clearly and indisputably a "weapon of mass destruction," as a chemical weapon.
3. Posted by langtry | August 31, 2007 12:18 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 12:18
4. Posted by Parker | August 31, 2007 12:22 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Technical note - the amount of phosgene required to produce a fatal result would be significantly greater than the amount of nerve agent it would take to do the same thing.
Still, it wouldn't take much, especially if any quantity was inhaled.
4. Posted by Parker | August 31, 2007 12:22 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 12:22
5. Posted by Socratease | August 31, 2007 1:26 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Actually, it's not a blistering agent, either. It's a "nettle agent".
5. Posted by Socratease | August 31, 2007 1:26 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 13:26
6. Posted by Wolf Pangloss | August 31, 2007 3:51 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
One other thing you missed. The vial was brought from Iraq in 1996. The UN claimed in 2004 that Iraq possessed no chemical WMDs after 1994. Clearly someone at the UN was lying about WMDs. The question is what else were they lying about.
6. Posted by Wolf Pangloss | August 31, 2007 3:51 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 15:51
7. Posted by spurwing plover | August 31, 2007 5:40 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Why should we have anything more to do with this rotten UN its time we dumped the whole darn UN and moved them to bejing
7. Posted by spurwing plover | August 31, 2007 5:40 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2007 17:40
8. Posted by Larkin | September 7, 2007 12:43 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Turns out to be cleaning solvent.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/06/un.solvent/index.html
Time for a retraction Jay?
8. Posted by Larkin | September 7, 2007 12:43 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 7, 2007 00:43