Willy Pete Goes To Fallujah
Interesting piece in Think Progress about recent revelations that the U.S. military used white phosphorous (WP) against insurgents in Fallujah in 2004. Despite the persistent and counter-intuitive claims by the Pentagon that WP is not a chemical weapon, it is referred to as such in at least one de-classified document detailing the illegal use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds. (See the links within the link.) The U.S. Army itself has acknowledged that they may be on shaky legal ground.
A section from an instruction manual used by the US Army Command and General Staff School (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, makes clear that white phosphorus (WP) can be used to produce a smoke screen. But it adds: "It is against the law of land warfare to employ WP against personnel targets."
I'm sure there will be explanations in legalese that will explain why there was nothing illegal about the American use of WP. That's almost beside the point. If you launch a pre-emptive war, and your reason is because you believe the enemy has chemical weapons and is willing to use them on you, you're not doing your cause any good by using chemical weapons yourself. If you are fighting a war to righteously lead the Middle East to a better future, you have to hold yourself up to a higher standard than just to say, "We're better than the guy who was here before." I've written before in this blog about how free democracies have to be held to a higher standard, because the people (theoretically) have the power to influence their leaders and hold them accountable. And in a war that's as much political as it is military, even the appearance of impropriety is a setback. Stories of the Americans using chemical weapons are all over the world, with only a weak rationalization put up.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that the Bush administration would play fast and loose with international laws and conventions while, ostensibly, trying to enforce them on others.To paraphrase President Bush, this isn’t a question about what is legal, it’s about what is right.
posted by Jaymeister at 11/21/2005 11:17:00 p.m.
3 Comments:
Interesting. I followed this story a bit about a week ago, when on a non-political mailing list I subscribe to, an Italian posted a rant on Fallujah and about an Italian video. I also followed it on Daily Kos. Around the same time, CJ, who was in Fallujah at the time, posted an explanation of White Phosphorus and its use. Since then, I've seen other milblogs also citing from personal experience on this nonsense, conspiratorial and slanderous story. One of the soldiers from the video also has a blog, btw. You might be able to track it down if you go to Media Lies, by way of Soldier's Perspective. If you want, I can try to dig up the links. I just tried to find a post on this at Mudville Gazette, as it was extremely extensive; but that place has so much news traffic going through it, that it's probably buried 5 pages deep.
Oh...a more recent update by CJ on WP and the army's shooting itself in its own foot.
And one from Mudville Gazette filed under "military", responding a bit directly to Think Progress.
Wordsmith,
I've read the links you provided. If through my ignorance of the distinction between "smoke" and "incendiary" phospherous I was drawn to the wrong conclusion about the legality of the use of these weapons, I apologize. But that still doesn't account for the expplanations and backtracking coming from the Pentagon and administration on this issue. First they say WP weapons were not used as weapons, then they said they were, but it isn't illegal - despite earlier documents that implied they might be. If you didn't do anything wrong, there's nothing to apologize for. (CJ expressed his dismay about that too.) I also disagree with John Cole's diversion from the issue to make the charge that discussing it is akin to smearing the troops. As one of CJ's respondents noted, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
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