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Topic: US may cremate soldiers killed with toxic weapons
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Trafield
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77,000 body bags
February 11, 2003
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5966947%5E401,00.html
FEARS that Iraq will inflict heavy casualties on British and American troops intensified yesterday when it emerged the Pentagon had ordered almost five times the number of body bags it requested before the last Gulf War.
Within weeks it will have more than 77,000 bags at the ready, compared with 16,000 in 1991.
In the last conflict, 148 US soldiers were killed in combat, including 35 by "friendly fire", while Iraqi forces suffered some 30,000 casualties.
The increased order will reinforce concern that Saddam might be preparing to use chemical or biological weapons.
It will also fuel speculation that planners are expecting to suffer high casualties in street fighting as the troops try to take major cities such as Basra and Baghdad.
"We hope no one dies, but you just don't know what will happen," said Frank Johnson, director of public affairs for the Defence Supply Centre in Philadelphia.
US military sources say that if soldiers are killed as a result of an Iraqi attack with chemical or biological weapons, the bodies will most probably be cremated on the battlefield to avoid the spread of contamination.
The Pentagon yesterday denied a claim by a senior Vatican official that the US was secretly shipping 100,000 body bags and 6000 coffins to a military base in Sicily.
But it admitted that it has 34,000 of the bags stored at military bases around the world and available to be sent to the Gulf at short notice.
It has ordered another 8890 for delivery this week and is about to sign a contract for another 30,000 to be delivered next month.
That will bring the total to 72,890 of the black vinyl bags. Each bag has a full-length zip and six handles and costs $70. The Pentagon is also buying 3500 heavier duty olive-green bags at a cost of $150 each.
These bags are coated with rubber and are used to lift bodies by helicopter from rugged terrain. Hundreds of coffins have also been ordered for those soldiers flown back to the US for burial.
Herald Sun
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Trafield
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The following article made me the think of this scripture...
Ezekiel 39:11-16
11 “On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog.
12 “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
13 “Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I glorify Myself,” declares the Lord God.
14 “They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search.
15 “As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.
16 “And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.” ’
US may cremate soldiers killed with toxic weapons
By Esther Schrader in Washington
February 8 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/07/1044579932945.html
The United States President, George Bush, said Iraqi field commanders had been given authority to launch chemical weapons against advancing US forces, prompting the Pentagon to consider battlefield cremations of slain soldiers.
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorised Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons, the very weapons the dictator tells the world he does not have," Mr Bush said. He did not elaborate.
It is the first time the Administration has made such a charge.
Cremation is being considered to prevent the spread of chemical or biological agents from contaminated bodies to the US, defence officials said.
The Pentagon has for decades gone to great lengths to recover and bury every US serviceman and woman killed abroad.
"This would be a first," said Lieutenant-Colonel Cynthia Colin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. It is prudent to look at the policy again, she said, "and make sure we give commanders a variety of options. Cremation is one of the options being considered."
US troops are training to combat chemical or biological attacks and are receiving protective gear in the hope of guarding against the worst effects.
The issue is controversial and fraught with emotion. Pentagon officials declined to elaborate on the substance of the review, saying only that cremation is among the options being considered "if remains pose a hazard to the health and safety of the living".
During the 1991 Gulf War, plans were reportedly in place for mass burials and cremation of troops killed by chemical or biological agents. Those plans never had to be implemented.
The review began last month. It is being conducted by the US army's mortuary affairs program - which is charged with the recovery of all service member remains - and by health and safety officials from all four branches of the military, Colonel Colin said.
Since the repatriation of remains became a political rallying point during and after the Vietnam War, the military has sought to immediately return personnel killed overseas. In the two world wars, more than 307,000 soldiers were buried in temporary cemeteries overseas. Of those, more than 47,000 were later returned to the US for interment.
Soldiers often risk their lives to retrieve the remains and personal effects of fallen comrades and bring them back to families for burial. "We want to bring the remains back, that's our goal. But we have to do it safely," Colonel Colin said.
Los Angeles Times, Hearst Newspapers
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