Hezbollah’s Exploding Electronics

[bilby]

Question: what could be the source of the red smoke from the Nasrallah strike?

Nitrogen dioxide?

Probably.

Most bulk explosives contain plenty of nitrogen, so it's common to see red smoke from large blasts.

Ammonium Nitrate is used in a lot of cheap bombs, usually with an additive such as Aluminium to scavenge the excess oxygen (Amonal). Home made stuff (and mining explosives) sometimes use diesel fuel for this purpose (Anfo).

Other Nitrates and even more exotic nitrogen containing species are also common oxidants for stuff that goes bang.

For shells and bombs, it's usually not important to avoid smoke. Propellants typically need to be smokeless as far as possible, so as to avoid giving away the location of the shooter (whether artillery, or small-arms, or even rockets). When they don't, it's generally cheaper and easier to use explosives that generate smoke.

Smoke can also appear red if backlit, just due to scattering. But that pic looks to me like NO₂ is the colouring agent - compare the 2020 Beirut Ammonium Nitrate silo explosion, which also produced a very red smoke cloud.

 

[Swammerdami]

Jimmy Carter who brokered the Camp David Accords wrote that the settlements are the major impediment too peace.

Yes they are. Israel has to stop increases in the settlements.

Yes. This simple fact seems to be ignored by so many MANY supporters of Netanyahu's war crimes.

There are One Million illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank. That's One MILLION with an M. Some of these are religious fanatics, proud that The One True God gave this land to their ancestor Jacob some 3500 years ago. But most are just happy to have cheap real estate. And Netanyahu's government even gives subsidies to these settlers.

In some cases the settlers have built their own houses. But in other cases existing houses have simply been stolen from Palestinian families who are still alive.

Some at this Board act as amateur lawyers and compare the brutal treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank to the herding of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps prior to the surrender of Japan. But at least those Japanese eventually got their homes back. Will the Palestinians get their land back when they "surrender"?

And those who defend the Million illegal settlements by some hare-brained legalistic argument should discuss the fact that Netanyahu and his Defense Minister have been charged with war crimes. Or do we only accept the "law" when it agrees with our own obscene positions?

If Mexico had nuclear weapons, took over Texas, and doled out Texans' homes to Mexicans, do the Ilk and their fellow travelers not think Texans and their American friends might be exasperated enough to resort to violence?