ISIS Has WMD’s, and the Kurds Have Been Gassed Again — Does Anyone Care?
Jim Geraghty highlighted this news item in his Morning Jolt e-mail
(subscribe!), but it’s worth mentioning again. ISIS not only has
chemical weapons, it’s reportedly used them against the Kurds:
U.S. military officials in Iraq have issued preliminary confirmation
that Islamic State militants used mustard gas in a mortar attack on
Kurdish forces in August, a Defense Department official said.
After an Aug. 11 attack that reportedly sickened dozens of Kurdish
troops, the Kurds provided U.S. officials with fragments of shells that
later tested positive for the presence of “HD, or what is known as
sulfur mustard,” said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, chief of
staff for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.
I’m not sure which aspect of the report is more disturbing — that ISIS
apparently possesses chemical weapons and has no reluctance to use them,
or that this discovery will apparently have no impact on U.S. policy:
[Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, chief of staff for
Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve,] said the
potential confirmation of the Islamic State’s use of chemical weapons
will not necessarily have any impact on U.S. policy.
“We really don’t need another reason to hunt down ISIL and kill them
wherever we can and whenever we can,” he said. “Any indication of the
use of a chemical warfare agent, purely from our perspective, reinforces
our position that this is an abhorrent group that will kill
indiscriminately without any moral or legal code or restraint.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/422995/isis-has-wmds-and-kurds-have-been-gassed-again-does-anyone-care-david-french
(subscribe!), but it’s worth mentioning again. ISIS not only has
chemical weapons, it’s reportedly used them against the Kurds:
U.S. military officials in Iraq have issued preliminary confirmation
that Islamic State militants used mustard gas in a mortar attack on
Kurdish forces in August, a Defense Department official said.
After an Aug. 11 attack that reportedly sickened dozens of Kurdish
troops, the Kurds provided U.S. officials with fragments of shells that
later tested positive for the presence of “HD, or what is known as
sulfur mustard,” said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, chief of
staff for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.
I’m not sure which aspect of the report is more disturbing — that ISIS
apparently possesses chemical weapons and has no reluctance to use them,
or that this discovery will apparently have no impact on U.S. policy:
[Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, chief of staff for
Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve,] said the
potential confirmation of the Islamic State’s use of chemical weapons
will not necessarily have any impact on U.S. policy.
“We really don’t need another reason to hunt down ISIL and kill them
wherever we can and whenever we can,” he said. “Any indication of the
use of a chemical warfare agent, purely from our perspective, reinforces
our position that this is an abhorrent group that will kill
indiscriminately without any moral or legal code or restraint.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/422995/isis-has-wmds-and-kurds-have-been-gassed-again-does-anyone-care-david-french
