Bombing in Syria in Response to Chemical Attack

No, you weren't. You were sprayed with oleoresin capsicum (OC), an all together different agent from 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS). You don't shoot gas in someone's face. Tear gas (CS gas) is an area control/area denial tool used in grenade, mortar, and artillery shell form. OC is a personal control/self-defense tool.

Further, the reactions to OC and CS are very different. OC has a longer lead up time before it activates. It can take 30-45 seconds to really start working while CS is immediate or nearly immediate. The effects of OC are also much shorter in duration compared to CS. With proper first aid and the shedding of clothes, you can be fully recovered from the effects of OC in 10-15 minutes. Even with proper first aid and the shedding of clothes, you're going to to feel the residual effects of CS for at least an hour or more.

 

Yes and no. There are studies that show that OC and CS have been linked to deaths, both at the time of use and long term due to exposure. I've known people that were completely immune to OC. There are also many people that would have a fatal allergic reaction to the same. That's why I loathe the terms "non-lethal" or "less than lethal" when it comes to chemical agents.

 

Tell us more about how you were always too scared to join the military you love so much.

 

I get what you're saying. But in general anything chemical is pretty much divided into "agents designed to kill a large amount of people" (like what some people thought Sadam still had in 2003) and "agents designed to control people". Each of these categories has many different agents for specific uses with specific limitations. In other words you wouldn't want to use "less than lethal" agents in artillery shells in an all-out/no-shit tanks rolling through your AO shooting war. There are always exceptions as you noted when using agents designed to be "safely" used by law enforcement/crowd/inmate control. A few trips through the military "mask confidence course" AKA "gas chamber" shows a huge variation in how people react differently to the same type/levels of gas. Let's just say it's "blooper reel" funny to watch the tough guy shit-talkers turn into shit-losers!

 

Oh. I wasn't aware of the distinction.

 

Yes, we know.

 

The missiles are coming!!! Only Trump didn't mean right now, or maybe even in a bit. And in any event why don't you love him, Daddy??!!!

 

He likely needs congressional approval.

As for "thanks", the West was already winning the fight against ISIS before he took office.

 

Precedent has well established that a U.S. president can order U.S. military forces to engage in combat without congressional approval. The only restriction is that a president cannot declare war.

Which is irrelevant in todays world because "declarations of war" are an anachronism. No longer used.

 

true the word "war" doesn't mean shit any more. "Police Action" "Conflict" all of that shit is the same to the people actually fighting the war (or whatever it's called today). We get paid the same no matter what and the risks are about the same.

 

Our last president called it kinetic action. It seemed to have worked because a lot of Obama followers thought he got us out of the wars like he promised, but instead was a record breaking warmonger because he called it kinetic action. Technically it is not a lie, of course I could say the same thing about me walking up and punching Obama in the face not being assault but rather a kinetic action and those are not against the law.

I am pretty sure the families of the dead and injured don't give a fuck what you call it.

 

British leftists have a long tradition when it comes to being anti-Israel. Just ask Corbyn, friend of Hamas... They don't hate jews, of course, they are too holy for that, they only support the heroic palestinian people in their struggle against oppression by mighty Israel, the true terrorist in the middle east. At least they think so. Hypocrites.

Another reason why the British und European left has become a joke. Xenophilic, brainless hippies.

 

That's dangerous rhetoric. Yes, there are those who use the "but the poor Palestinians!" card as a cloak for anti-Semitism, but to tar anyone who despises the actions of Israel with the same brush is giving cover to genuine human rights abuses and breaches of international law, because atrocities in the past apparently excuse those in the present.

Well, no. They don't. I will, despite his opinion of me here, be the first to put myself right on the line between Chup and anti-Semite assholes (agreed, I might need a heads-up, it's a long taxi ride to London from Aber) but I'm not gonna buy that past mistreatment justifies land grabs or disproportionate retaliation.

 

Dangerous, I agree.

However, while not being completely happy with Israeli action in the occupied territories even or Bibi the idiot, I unterstand their point of view.

Show weakness, get eradicated. Just look at the map. So it is, so it will be in the near future. Israel survives because of superior firepower, or else they will be driven back into the sea.

Their enemies are countless. If they back down, they will be history. What irritates me the most is that many European leftists seem to pray for the day that Israel gets destroyed. Irrational hatred. The Israeli fought three wars for naked survival, they won, they are there to stay.

 

Agreed. Showing strength, however, need not mandate showing cruelty.

 

IMO, they don't. They are really careful, minimizing casualalities against an enemy that wants nothing else but complete annihilation and even prays for total destruction of the Isreali state. Israel could turn the Gaza strip into a parking lot if they felt the need. Evil Israelis....

Accept the right to exist for Israel, and the IDF will calm down. As long as several states and organisations wish for nothing less than the destruction of the Israeli state, the IDF will stay nervous and answer by the biblical maxime "an eye for an eye". It's pure, healthy survival instinct. They ruthlessly bomb Iranian troops in Syria, for good reasons imo. Iranian (Hisbollah) troops close to Isreali borders? Not acceptable! No other alternatives but to bomb them mercilessly. This is Realpolitik or just common sense for the IDF. Healthy survival instinct.

 

Y'know, that IDF soldier that shot an unarmed Palestinian that had already surrendered only got slightly more jail time than the 16 year old that slapped an IDF soldier in the doorway of her own home.

 

Well, we'll have to disagree there. Paladin would too - a kid throwing a rock shouldn't mandate automatic weapons fire, according to him, and he's a big tough guy who wouldn't feel threatened by actual Nazis.

And yet the IDF think otherwise.

 

Rare, but unexcusable incidents, I agree. However, The IDF might have some problems to seperate harmless kids who throw stones from people who want to kill IDF soldiers to become martyrs to die for their oh so holy cause. Far to often, they are the same, thanks to indoctrination which begins at birth.

There is a war raging down there, not a harmless street fight between an evil western police force and peaceful hippie protesters fighting for "the good". It's a little bit more complicated and far more brutal and deadly.