Obama Says Chlorine isn’t ‘Historically’ a Chemical Weapon

See for yourself here. Of course someone will issue a “clarification” sometime today.

Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915:

At around 5:00 p.m. on 22 April, the German Army released 168 long tons (171 t) of chlorine gas over a 6.5 km (4.0 mi) front, on the part of the line held by French Territorial and colonial Moroccan and Algerian troops of the French 45th and 87th divisions.^[4] Poison gas had been used before at the Battle of Bolimov three months earlier but the gas liquified in the cold and became inert.

German troops carried 5,730 gas cylinders, weighing 90 pounds (41 kg) each, to the front by hand. The cylinders were opened by hand, relying on the prevailing winds to carry the gas towards enemy lines. Because of this method of dispersal, a large number of German soldiers were injured or killed in the process of carrying out the attack.^[5]

 

Belgian troops wearing early Gas Masks, 1915

The French troops in the path of the gas cloud had c.?6,000 casualties, many of whom died within ten minutes, primarily from asphyxiation and tissue damage in the lungs, many more were blinded. Chlorine gas forms hypochlorous acid when combined with water, destroying moist tissues such as lungs and eyes. The chlorine gas, being denser than air, quickly filled the trenches, forcing the troops to climb out into heavy enemy fire.^[6]