Colin Powell

Reese reeza at flex.com
Thu Dec 21 20:20:30 PST 2000


At 04:54 AM 12/20/00 +0000, Justin Schwartz wrote:

Max:

>>Before the war started

>>there were press accounts of a terrifying, inhumane weapon the Iraqis

>>might use. I forget the name but it entailed spraying a fine, flammable

>>mist over a wide area, then igniting it, creating a huge fireball. Of

>>course, it was the U.S. that used this weapon.

There was great agitation about the skills and military might of the Iraqi Republican Guard, honed in the recent conflict with Iran, too.

>Fuel-Air Explosive. Nasty, evil shit. Did the US use it in the Gulf War? I

>wasn't aware of that.

Fuel Air Bomb, whatever. The US isn't the only nation to have used this weapon, see http://www.igc.org/hrw/press/2000/02/chech0215b.htm or http://www.aeronautics.ru/img001/odab500pm.htm

this is neat, http://www.halcyon.com/wfrazier/iraq.htm

<excerpt>

During the Gulf War, some of the weapons systems deployed are considered

the most powerful weapons short of a nuclear bomb. One is called a fuel-

air bomb. The bomb works thusly: there are two detonations; the first

spreads a fine mist of fuel into the air, turning the area into an

explosive mix of vast proportion; then a second detonation ignites the

mixture, causing an awesome explosion. The explosion is about the most

powerful "conventional" explosion we know of. At a pressure shock of up

to 200 pounds per square inch (PSI), people in its detonation zone are

often killed by the sheer compression of the air around them. Human

beings can typically withstand up to about a 40-PSI shock. The bomb

sucks oxygen out of the air, and can apparently even suck the lungs out

through the mouths of people unfortunate enough to be in the detonation

zone. Our military used it on helpless people. The U.S. also dropped a

bomb called "Big Blue," with a specialized high-tech explosive mixture

that can produce up to a 1,000-PSI shock wave, a magnitude only exceeded

by nuclear weapons.(29) That kind of shock wave turns a body into

hamburger, even if no shrapnel hits it.

Reese



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list