Valin Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 The Middle East and Beyond: Adam Garfinkle 12/2/13 This morning brings news, clipped news thus far so perhaps not wholly accurate, that the U.S. government has taken responsibility for destroying Syrian chemical arms stockssince, predictably, no other country could be found to agree to undertake the toxic task. That means, Im assuming, that the U.S. government will also foot the bill. Ive heard that we intend to perform these operations on ships at sea. The mind boggles. As noted in previous posts, most of the roughly 1,000 tons of Syrias CW stocks are obsolete, which does not mean denatured and safe. It means they have been superseded by better munitions. Way more than 90 percent of Syrias stocks are militarily superfluous and uselessbut very expensive to dispose of. These are the stocks mainly in the declared sites, not in the 5 or 6 undeclared sites; thats where the good stuff is. (Snip) How long will this take and how much will it cost? No one can possibly know. To my knowledge, we have never tried to neuter large stocks of CW at sea. I would be surprised if we already had sea-borne facilitiesphysical and trained personnelsufficient to do this. So any cost estimate, or time estimate, would be a guess. Is Congress going to be asked to approve more money for this operation, or is the cost going to be ripped from existing O&M budgetspresumably mostly from the Navys O&M budget? What about the environmental risks involved in a sea-based operation? Has anyone carefully studied this? (I doubt it.) Where at sea are we going to do thisin other words, nearest which nations littorals? In the Med? In the Atlantic? Could that be a sensitive decision? I cant imagine that it wouldnt be. (Snip) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now