I saw a lot of questions on how this might be accomplished in the comments during the Syria debate:
The United States and its partners are planning a series of rapid steps to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons program, a strategy that is intended to guard against backsliding by President Bashar al-Assad and limit the time that international experts need to work in the country, according to senior American officials.
A major step is to be taken in early November, when equipment for producing chemicals and filling warheads and bombs with poison gas is to be destroyed by the Syrians under international supervision. That move can be carried out by equipment as simple as sledgehammers and bulldozers.
The basic plan for eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons program was outlined last month in a framework agreement between American and Russian officials and has been refined in consultation with experts at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international watchdog group.
While the plan has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, its goal is unprecedented: the elimination of a nation’s chemical weapons, agents and equipment on an accelerated schedule in the middle of a civil war.
International inspectors who recently arrived in Syria have generally had good cooperation with the Assad government. Still, the disarmament effort will depend heavily on the cooperation of the Syrian military and on Russia’s willingness to use its leverage with the Syrian authorities.
The State Department official said that there were “good grounds” to think the target date for eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons program could be met. “We take nothing for granted,” he added. “It could go off the rails in many ways, but we are planning for success under both ideal and difficult circumstances.”
Omnes Omnibus
Sounds like they are being realistic.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m hopeful this can be pulled off, but there are always details that crop up that make things difficult.
For one thing, disposing of the agents themselves (not the delivery means) is complicated, unless you’re looking to create a bunch of Syria superfund sites. This stuff is nasty. It will of course deteriorate over time, but that only means it loses it’s immediate lethal effect, not the long term problems of the toxics. Like pesticides, unless handled properly in disposal, it can linger in some waste dump for decades, leeching into the water supply and causing all sorts of deleterious effects for years to come.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
It seems they do have an excellent grasp of the challenge ahead of them, and they’re making contingency plans to deal with a variety of scenarios.
Totally unlike the planning (ha!) for post-invasion Iraq…
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: I presume the actual shells and warheads are being seized and removed for destruction elsewhere.
God, I hated NBC officer training.
Hill Dweller
The Obama admin has been conducting a massive operation to recover enriched uranium all over the planet since he came into office. Maddow occasionally reports on it, but for the most part it has gone unnoticed.
I suspect that crew will be involved in the coordination and execution of this operation.
joel hanes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Totally unlike the planning (ha!) for post-invasion Iraq…
I’m sure I don’t know what you mean — Rumsfeld/Feith had a perfectly cromulent plan :
1. Put former Heritage Foundation interns with a strong ideological comittment to “free market solutions” in charge of post-combat operations and reconstruction
2. ???
3. Profit from that sweet, sweet Iraqi crude.
? Martin
@Hill Dweller:
I suspect that crew isn’t being paid right now. Might even not be allowed to go to work.
Like with the guys that just captured Abu Anas al Libi, fuck the GOP’s temper tantrum.
Debbie(aussie)
Sorry to go o/t so quickly, but I a seeing an add from John Cronyn saying he needs 5 votes to stop Obamacare and then names five dens to please contact? WTF? I am in Aus for one thing, are any of you getting it . If so I might suggest you contact the dens and suggest the stay on th correct side of history.
Ba k to :Syria: I hope the UN can get it right Assad has as much right to defend his country as any leader has, regime change. Organised. Y uS not the corre t way to go
MikeJ
@? Martin: 350k civvies being ordered back at the Pentagon.
Kay
@Debbie(aussie):
They’re raising money off the shut down. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
joel hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
God, I hated NBC officer training.
Grunt training for the nuclear/biological/chemical agent battlefield was not much fun either. We did a lot of it, because our 8-inch howitzers were capable of quarter-kiloton tactical nukes.
“Men, it’s 80 degrees and 80 percent humidity. Uniform will be long pants and long sleeves, covered with waterproof pants, overshoes, and poncho, with full field gear and rifle. We’ll be donning gas-masks under our steel helmets and double-timing around the perimeter of this sun-blasted empty field, where we’re “simulating” an NBC site. Be sure not to dislodge your mask; drink only through the mask’s canteen drinking tube attatchment. Watch your platoon leaders, who will direct you in squad tactics. Remember to shout “bang!” when you simulate covering fire. Form up!”
Somehow this didn’t entice me when the opportunity came to re-enlist.
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: You were in a 8-inch unit? Cool. Me too.
What I was talking about though was a two week course where one learned to calculate dispersion patterns of persistent nerve agents and shit like that.
Joseph Nobles
@Debbie(aussie): I’m getting the one where Cornyn (my senator, sigh, and you know what that means) says he voted to defund Obamacare – would I stand with him?
No.
joel hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
HHB, 1/94th FA, 2nd Armored Div, Furth 1973-1975
I was “Flexible 38 foxtrot”, MOS 13 bravo, field radio and computer mechanic for the battalion; spent four months a year in Grafenwoehr, two months a year at alert sites or guarding ammo dumps, one month a year doing Reforger, and the remaining six months trying to repair all the stuff we busted during the six months of off-base training.
amk
@Debbie(aussie): Already 4 dinos backed off from signing on to Nancy’s discharge petition. But I am in a red district excuse is as pathetic and as cowardly as the boner and his ilk hiding behind teaparty twits caucus.
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: I was in Bamberg – in the late 80s. The routine was pretty similar.
joel hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Did you ever make it down to Chiemsee ?
My final duty assignment was TDY there as sailing instructor at the Rasthaus am Chiemsee Lake Hotel AFRC resort.
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: No. I hit a couple of the other resorts, but not that one.
scav
Oh it’s somehow going to get even more interesting. California is going to singlehandedly both splody-head the right and get the state’s rights! Nullification! crowd to have a melt-down about not obeying the Feds in every minute measure (my land of birth is back!! and the moralists will spiral into the next level of Miley Tizzy (might even manage a quantum leap or two) — all the actual solid accomplishments on multiple international fronts they were going to ignore in any case will absolutely be lost in the screeching. I need to rest up for this one.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Chiemsee has a really nice palace built by Mad King Ludwig, modeled on Versailles. I went in 1979 as a side trip from Saltzburg.
? Martin
Holy shit – there were two military operations at the same time – one in Libya capturing al Liby, and another in Somalia targeting an Al Shabab guy, that may or may not have been successful.
I saw the headline talking about the Somalia one, and when I reloaded the page a bit later and it said Libya and I figured they just fucked up the story.
fuckwit
Great! Now can we bring that team home to disarm the Teabaggers and oversee the destruction of their suicide-bomb weapons?
NotMax
One thing the U.S. is very proficient at is capably collecting, transporting and destroying chemical munitions.
See Johnston Atoll (now a wildlife refuge), etc.
NotMax
@amk
The discharge option (as planned) is an extremely long shot anyway.
Yes, Dems and enough Rs may vote to pass the discharge, and then the Rs turn around and vote against substituting the clean CR for the language in the bill which has been discharged.
Result: nil.
Amir Khalid
@Debbie(aussie):
I too get John Cronyn’s ads from time to time, and I don’t vote in America either. But if you click on the ads, I’ve been told, a few American cents out of John Cronyn’s campaign money will come John Cole’s way.
Chyron HR
Who needs a plan? Everybody knows the chemical weapons are just an excuse Obama made up so that he could go swing his giant war dick to distract everyone from Snowden. DON’T ROLL OUT A NEW PRODUCT IN AUGUST AMIRITE? LOLLLLLL!!!!!
Davis X. Machina
Does this happen before, after, or instead of the dick-swinging?
And when’s the invasion?
Morbo
Step 1: attach wings to pig.
Cheryl Rofer
Regular lurker and very occasional commenter here.
I worked with the Army back in the eighties on a possible way to destroy chemical agents. It’s not as hard as some have made it out to be; they’ve been destroyed in Iraq after the 1991 war – took two or three years – and in Libya, although that was interrupted by the revolution. And Russia and the United States have been destroying theirs for some time. OTOH, I wouldn’t want to do it in a war zone.
I wrote up how to do it here and explained a bit more of my background here, with a few more links.
A caution on New York Times articles on the subject: their reporters and headline writers seem to want to come across as swashbuckling heroes of chemical destruction. An article about a week ago strongly implied that open burning would be a good way to dispose of the agents. NOT!
I’ve been traveling, but I’ll try to weigh in here when questions come up.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Not necessarily – Edgewood has this in its back pocket.