http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1017713/pg1

"When I was in the Marines, I was a supply guy for an infantry battalion. I know first hand how often our equipment fails, and how difficult the stuff can be to repair. ISIS now finds themselves in possession of a lot of US hardware.

It takes a lot of specialized people and equipment to repair broken NVGs. And M60 machine guns are a bit more complicated than their AK counterparts. HMMWV's and MRAPS are no joke either. We've seen incredible ingenuity and creativity in insurgent warfare. We know these guys aren't stupid, and they can make a bomb with a trip to radio shack. But will they be able to maintain and repair our gear?

So ISIS will have all this awesome gear for a little while, but it won't be long till stuff starts to break. I really don't see how they could possibly have the infrastructure and technical knowledge to keep all this hardware up and running for long."
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/michael...g-the-isis-vulnerabilities-in-iraq-1407884145

The first ISIS vulnerability is their weaponry. After U.S. military forces withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011, U.S. contractors performed maintenance on the equipment left behind. Those contractors are no longer in the country.

Today, we estimate that ISIS has less than a total of 30 working M1 Abrams tanks and howitzers that are either self-propelled or towed behind trucks (based on our knowledge of how the Iraqi army is equipped and what divisions were in the north). These are the weapons that gave the Islamic State the advantage over the Peshmerga in recent firefights. Yet ISIS does not have the highly trained maintenance crews that are necessary to keep these weapons in good working order. The same problem exists for its armored Humvees and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected personnel carriers. Without maintenance, these captured U.S. vehicles and weapons will break down.​

Even the Iraqi army can't maintain the vehicles worth a shit. When we left Iraq all of that equipment and the US army pulled out, US contractors were left behind to maintain it. Now they are gone too. We have a stockpile of 3,000 vehicles in Kuwait that were offered free to the Iraqi army after they lost a lot of their equipment to ISIS. They have only taken 300 MRAPS. They won't take any more because we won't pay for and send back the US contractors that maintained it.

Third-world armies and guerrilla groups will just never be able to sustain an armored force because they have no parts, no logistics, and dreadful maintenance capability.

You are both right. Mustard gas is not really gaseous and is not intended to be inhaled. But it is damn sure a weapon and effective as hell. It's not really a killing agent either, its an incapacitating agent. It is delivered by artillery and it produces billions of tiny droplets that stick to everything and cause burning and blistering and can blind. Unlike nerve gas which quickly kills and disperses and is scattered by the wind, mustard gas is a persistent agent. It renders areas unusable for unprotected troops for days.

Gumborue may technically correct but Shane is absolutely accurate. War is not a chemistry lab and mustard "gas" may be a misnomer but it is very real and extremely effective if properly applied. But that ain't easy. You have to saturate an area with artillery shells or bombets which means you have to have a major delivery system. ISIS could have tanker of it and be unable to deliver it without burning themselves.