"Sympathetic Detonation"

Euphemisms are wonderful things. They show how powerfully different words can represent the same thing yet create different impressions. Among the organizations that are creating a steady flow of new euphemisms, the military creates the most amusing examples. 100 years ago many governments had a war ministry and a war minister. Nowadays they have defence ministries and defence ministers. In a famous example of doublespeak Orwell's 1984 predicts a future where we have peace ministries and peace ministers.

"Pacification" for the eradication of enemies, "sweep and clear" for search and destroy, and "collateral damage" for blowing the hell out of things, are all well established.

Today I learned "sypmathetic detonation" The briefing was about Afghanistan and prospects of beginning PfP trust fund projects to the region. The PfP (partnership for peace) trust fund is an international fund that NATO countries pay into, mostly for disarmament projects, like destroying the huge stockpiles of cold-war weapons in the former Soviet Union. The Soviet experience in Afghanistan certainly left a legacy that lives to this day, among that is literally thousands of tons of all sorts of ammunition. In a strange twist though, the war in Afghanistan requires NATO countries to bring thousands of more tons of ammo into the country every day...
A lof of ammo in Afghanistan isn't guarded, in fact a lot of it isn't even housed. It sits outside just waiting to be stolen or rendered useless by extreme heat. Some projects in the country are trying to establish groundbreaking security measures like "lights to see people" and "fences that cover the entire perimeter", and then the extras like motion sensors, security cameras, better locks, etc. For now a lot of ammo is housed in poorly constructed Soviet bunkers, which were built from poured concrete but lack steel reinforcement, and some of them are collapsing. Furthermore, the bunkers are not designed with safety measures against "sympathetic detonation".

Ever look closely at a champagne bottle? Well if you do, you might notice that the bottom of the champagne bottle has thinner glass than the rest of the bottle. Champagne's carbonation process puts a lot pressure on the bottle, and during fermentation its not unusual for a cork to blow out, or for a bottle to explode. In the early days, if a champagne bottle exploded the force might make its neighbour bottles explode, causing a chain recation costing an entire cellar of champagne. A champagne bottle is designed to withstand 5 atmospheres of pressure, except the bottom which is weaker. If the bottle does explode, the pressure is naturally directed to the weakest point of the bottle and bottom blows out sending the champagned harmlessly into the middle of the hall.

These Soviet Bunkers, are so tightly packed and lacking in design features, that if some ammunition went off, there would be a serious risk of "sympathetic detonation". The expression makes one imagine about shells seeing one of their fellow shells blowing up, and then deciding to blow up in "sympathy". Or you could just imagine thousands of tons of ammo blowing up all at once to make a fucking goddamn big explosion.

"Sir what kind of consequence could there be from such an event?"
"At worst? The National Afghan Army could find itself short of ammunition during a critical offensive, and the explosion could destroy as much as 10% of the capital"

I would describe that as a very un-sympathetic explosion.