Monday, November 07, 2005

Wrong!

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The Kos Crazies, abetted by Arianna, are accusing the US of using chemical weapons in Iraq. What chemical weapon would that be? White phosphorous:

A news program on Italian satellite TV, RAI News 24, has substantiated the claim that the US military has been exploiting the dual use of white phosporus. In its siege of Fallujah, the chemical was used on the civilian populace. The story is in today's Repubblica. The Bush Adminstration and the DoD are about to be shamed before the eyes of the world.
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Shocking revelation RAI News 24. Use of chemical weapons by the US military in Iraq. Veteran admits: Bodies melted away before us.


White phosphorous used on the civilian populace: This is how the US "took" Fallujah.

New napalm formula also used.

Note that the link is in Italian. As I don't speak Italian, and I imagine a very small percentage of Americans do, the link is useless. Now onto the claim that white phosphorous is a chemical weapon:

White Phosphorus (WP), known as Willy Pete, is used for signaling, screening, and incendiary purposes. WP is a colorless to yellow wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. White phosphorus, a pyrophoric material (ie, spontaneously flammable), creates a smoke screen. A side benefit of white phosphorus is that white phosphorus smoke is toxic and readily penetrates protective mask filters. Phosphorus smokes are generated by a variety of munitions. Some of these munitions such as the MA25 (155-mm round) may, on explosion, distribute particles of incompletely oxidized white phosphorus.

White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty. The United States retains its ability to employ incendiaries to hold high-priority military targets at risk in a manner consistent with the principle of proportionality that governs the use of all weapons under existing law. The use of white phosphorus or fuel air explosives are not prohibited or restricted by Protocol II of the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention (CCWC), the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects .

White phophorus is used by every country for weapons purposes.

A question; by your thinking, Paper Tigress, if we found a large stash of white phosphorus in Iraq, would that mean that indeed we did find WMD? Would you then say that we were not lied to by the Bush administration, that Saddam did indeed posess WMD? I know that Saddam, as does every other nation, had numerous uses for this chemical and had it in large amounts.

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