An article looks at a recent Daesh use of chemical weapons in Iraq.   That anyone thinks this is a new revelation or surprise is what I find most disturbing.  The second disturbing issue is the complete lack of attention now being paid to other terrorist groups, like al Qaeda that have not just gone away.  Think of this as a marketing war for laxatives, one good ad spurs competitors to do better.

 

No one (even the great minds in all the government think tanks) should be stunned that any terrorist organization or wanna-be terrorist would be plotting to use chemical weapons against non-military targets.  To quote the response of Sherlock Holmes when advised a secret terrorist organization was planning an attack…”That’s what secret terrorist organizations do isn’t it?”

 

That is the real issue here.  You can be upset that chemical weapons are used in the future against civilian targets in the west, but don’t buy the shocked tirade that will come out of politician’s mouths. There is a reason chemical weapons were developed, deployed and have stuck around.  They work but they only work if your target is not prepared.  This country spent a great deal of money to educate and train public safety and health care providers how to prepare and respond to a chemical weapon attack decades ago. Most of the nation’s top experts in the field who trained me are long since retired or passed away.  Many of those trained have since moved up in organizations or retired as well.  I still offer courses but demand will explode after an attack takes place and that bothers me.  People will suffer when they didn’t have to because we have ignored the threat.

 

I’m not clairvoyant, just not my first rodeo.  I also have observed how many times the intelligence community has been caught off guard or underestimated an opponent.   The way you defeat the value of using chemical weapons is to be prepared. The time to prepare is before they are deployed.  Evaluate your organization’s capabilities today and decide what reasonable next steps should be taken.  Stop focusing on degenerates within Daesh.  Accept there are any number of bad actors who don’t like us who can and most likely will use chemical weapons at some point.  How well we prepare between now and that day is completely up to us not them.