Illuminating Reports

I suspect you've been hearing about the accusations that the United States used "chemical" weapons in Iraq. Specificially, it's been surfacing that white phosphorus was used in Falluja. The story first emerged in the middle east news and was then picked up in Britain by The Independent:

In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

No U.S. media has covered the story....natch. The Pentagon has denied using white phosphorus for anything other than "illuminating" the battlefield. It just happens that the "battlefield" was a city of around 300,000 civilians, many of which did not evacuate. And also, as usual, it appears that the media has marched right along, immediately assuming that our government wouldn't lie about such an atrocity. Right?

But now we have this From Steven D. at Daily Kos:

That's right. Not from Al Jazheera, or Al Arabiya, but the US fucking Army, in their very own publication, from the (WARNING: pdf file) March edition of Field Artillery Magazine in an article entitled "The Fight for Fallujah":

"WP [i.e., white phosphorus rounds] proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

StevenD posts a picture of a "shake and bake" baby (an insurgent no doubt who wielded an AK47) on his post. You can go look at it if you need to do so, I can promise you it's not pretty. Here's some info on the stuff:

Munitions-quality white phosphorus commonly is found in solid form. When exposed to air, it spontaneously ignites and is oxidized rapidly to phosphorus pentoxide. Such heat is produced by this reaction that the element bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. Phosphorus also becomes luminous in the dark, and this property is conveyed to "tracer bullets." This chemical reaction continues until either all the material is consumed or the element is deprived of oxygen.

White phosphorus results in painful chemical burn injuries. The resultant burn typically appears as a necrotic area with a yellowish color and characteristic garliclike odor. White phosphorus is highly lipid soluble and as such, is believed to have rapid dermal penetration once particles are embedded under the skin. Because of its enhanced lipid solubility, many have believed that these injuries result in delayed wound healing. This has not been well studied; therefore, all that can be stated is that white phosphorus burns represent a small subsegment of chemical burns, all of which typically result in delayed wound healing.

So, the use of a chemical weapon in Iraq, by Americans, was reported, verified by Middle Eastern sources and Italian documentarians who interviewed U.S. soldiers, denied by the Pentagon, then verified by a U.S. Army magazine.

How low can we go? Look around you at the non-outcry by Americans at what is being done in our name. Torture. Sexually sadistic acts. Gulags. Chemical weapons. Murder of civilians including women and children. And who knows what is yet to be told as soldiers return home and attempt to heal.

Can anyone, any longer, claim to be amazed at the German people's passive acceptance of Nazism and atrocities by Hitler?

If you can stomach it, here's a link to the video of the Italian documentary. It should be required watching for all red state Americans.