Informed Speculation

The bitter irony is not lost on this war supporter that the WMDs (though thank God, on a very crude level) are now, regrettably, finding their way into Iraq:

A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas blew up in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it may represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians.

It was at least the third truck bomb in a month to employ chlorine, a greenish gas also used in World War I, which burns the skin and can be fatal after only a few concentrated breaths. The bomb killed at least two people and injured 32 others, police and medical officials said.

Iraqi and American officials said the use of chlorine seems aimed at bringing a new level of fear and havoc to Iraq as a new security plan for Baghdad takes shape.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an American military spokesman, said the attacks highlighted the evolving fluidity of insurgent tactics in Iraq, dominated by militant groups who often notice and mimic attacks that attract the most attention and cause the most suffering.

Insurgents have shifted tactics to focus on helicopters, and on Wednesday one group forced down an American Black Hawk helicopter, the eight such incident since Jan. 20. Roadside bombs have been adapted to become deadlier, punching through heavily armored Humvees. Attacks on American soldiers also now include coordinated assaults from multiple locations, with a mix of weapons and in at least one case, counterfeit American uniforms and vehicles.

“The enemy is adaptive,” Colonel Garver said. “The enemy wants to win.”

The Black Hawk attacked on Wednesday was forced into a “hard landing” after taking fire from heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, the United States military said. There were no injuries. A Sunni insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army, claimed credit for the attack in an Internet posting, according to the SITE Institute, which tracks postings by insurgent groups.

The bombing involving chlorine gas on Wednesday followed an explosion on Tuesday north of Baghdad of a tanker filled with chlorine that had been rigged to explode, killing nine people and wounding 148, including 42 women and 52 children. At least one other attack with chlorine also took place on Jan. 28, according to the American military’s statements. Sixteen people were killed in that attack, in the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, when a dump truck with explosives and a chlorine tank blew up in Ramadi.

The attacks seem to have been poorly executed, burning the chemical agent rather than dispersing it, but more sophisticated weapons involving chlorine could injure hundreds and cause mass panic.

Partisanship aside, we owe it to the Iraqi civilians to make our very best effort at stopping this madness. To leave now is not only strategically wrong, it would be a humanitarian disaster. 

It also strikes me that this is a sign of desparation (yes, I know how similar that sounds to some pretty off-the-wall Dick Cheney statements).  That doesn’t, of course, make it any less horrifying.

Chemical weapons are a relic of a more brutal world.  Let’s all pray that the sources of these attacks are discovered and dealt with quickly…