The 400,000 tons of "munitions" destroyed by the military are not all munitions either. Tanks. Delivery systems. RPG launchers and rockets. Probably even trucks carrying weapons are included in such a total. Big numbers sound impressive. Bet they didn't weigh everthing first!
I don't think the "400,000 tons" number is one that can be used with any degree of certainty that its accurate. And as stated many times here, its not an apples to apples comparison to compare "explosives and weapons" to explosives.
I'm rather tired of repeating the apples to oranges argument so lets put some numbers to this.
NATO hand grenade
Total weight: 475 grams
Explosive weight: 205 grams
Munition weight to explosive ratio: 2.3X
NATO Fragmentation Grenade
* Weight: 670 grams. F-3)
* Body Material: Cast iron.
* Filler Weight: 55 grams.
* Filler Material: TNT powdered.
Munition weight to explosive ratio: 12X
Typical anti aircraft fighting vehicle
Gross weight: 25,000 kilograms
Weight no ordinance and fuel: 20,000 KG
5,000KG of ordinance at 4:1 ratio of explosives = just 1,125KG of explosives (probably way high estimate) out of 25,000 KG.
You see where I am going with this...
But gross estimated weight for weapons caches destroyed does not matter, in the end. And at least the 380 tons of high explosives at least has a component of accuracy attached to it.
380 tons = 760,000 pounds of high explosives, enough to down 760,000 airplanes with bombs like that which downed Pan Am 103. 1,500,000 simple anti-civilian weapons.
360,000 train destroying suitcases.
You get the picture. Compare weights all you want, but this material was, and still is, extremely dangerous and should have been either secured immediately (which Iraqi's apparently asked for) or destroyed. |
