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‘Treasure’ of a different sort turned up in one bunker in 2004. Some 16 tons of mustard gas canisters were found in a bunker only 40km from Tirana – the US had
by quibono 8y ago
‘Treasure’ of a different sort turned up in one bunker in 2004. Some 16 tons of mustard gas canisters were found in a bunker only 40km from Tirana – the US had to pay the Albanian government some $20m to safely dispose of the weapons.
Why was that something the US had to pay for?
- eveningcoffee 8y agoProbably because the Albanian government did not have resources (or will) and US did not want to exists a change that this will end up in the black market.
- mikeash 8y agoYep, same reason the US paid for various former Soviet states to secure or dispose of their nuclear weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunn–Lugar_Cooperative_Threat_Reduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunn–Lugar_Cooperative_Threat_...
- onetimemanytime 8y agoAlbanian gov then would have sold them in the black market or dump them in a river or cave. No doubt USA used corruption in the 90's to buy Russian secrets or weapons. General "Dimitri" takes suitcase full of cash and screw the glorious motherland.
- azernik 8y agoBecause global hegemony comes with certain responsibilities
- 420codebro 8y agoYou're not wrong.
- caprese 8y ago> responsibilities possibilities
- goodcanadian 8y agoA sibling comment covers it fairly well, but . . . Strictly speaking, the US did not have to pay. They chose to pay as they preferred that to the alternative: unsecured chemical weapons sitting around waiting for anyone to take them.