Nightmare in Libya: 20,000 Surface-to-Air Missiles Missing

[pmulcahy11b]

You know, this cycle has happened several times in history before. Repressive government to relatively free country to repressive again to revolution to democracy to repressive government...

The saying doesn't actually say, " History repeats itself." That's a bad misquote. The actual quote is, "Those who do not remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them." And mankind has a really bad memory.

No superpower lasts forever. Our British and Spanish friends on this board know that well. Both countries were once superpowers -- at its height, Britain had a better claim to the title of "superpower" than the US has ever had. What does that tell you about the future of the US?

Remember, history is cyclic. The exact events are different, but the overall pattern remains the same.

[ArmySGT.]

I am less concerned by the mustard gas. In the Libyan climate if it wasn't stored properly (properly is not an arabic word), the stuff has likely degraded into fertilizer.

[Sanjuro]

No superpower lasts forever. Our British and Spanish friends on this board know that well.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair..."

[manunancy]

I'm not worried abouyt mustard gaz either - WWI is ample proof that if you want large scale effects out of it, you need a lot of it. As in 'truckloads'. Sure you can use some to spice up a bomb or the like, but there's no way you can get a city-wide effect from a terrorist group...

More modern nasties like Sarin are another matter, as you ned far less to acheive significant results, but it seems there wasn't any in Lybia.

Note that it's a bit odd that the rebels managed to get their hand on that much hardware still neatly packed into the wharehouses. It seems Khadafi's army fell for the common dictator trick : large stockpiles of hardware that looks impressive on paper an buy friends in the manufacturing countries and a shortage of reliable bodies to use said hardware. Also possibly a questionable storage that begs the question of how functionnal said hardware is.

All in all, in my option it's something that should be investigated serisouly, not something to get into the 'wring your hands in terror and yell for all-out action' mode.

[kcdusk]

Can we get a recount on those Missiles?

[95th Rifleman]

They don't need to hit anything to shut down an international airport. Just launching a SAM at an aircraft landing/taking off from a major airport will shut it down through fear alone. Doesn't matter about the warheads as long as they launch.

[Jason]

If terrorists really wanted SAM's they could have gotten them before this. I really do not fear this stuff being used in the U.S. I imagine some might find their way to Afganistan to be used against U.S. forces there.

Also, do we really think none of these weapon systems were a threat when Kadaffi was in power? Kadaffi supported terrorists for years and years after all.

Also, the U.S. has lost Billions of dollars worth of gear (including weapons) in Iraq and Afganistan. Honestly, any well-funded established terror group could lay there hands on SAM's and chemical weapons.