Last Straw

In response to a blog of mine in which I made fun of George Bush Junior a friend of mine wrote to me, oh christiaan, it’s sad that you enjoy other’s people misery! This surprised me; to me Bush is not some other person. To me he’s a very important person, a war criminal to be precise. Below you’ll find photos of real misery, of Iraqi people who have been burnt to the bone by chemical weapons because this person and others like him continue to hold positions of power, because the rest of us allow them to.

Back in June I wrote about an attempted cover up by cowards in the Pentagon regarding the use of firebombs (a.k.a. Napalm) in Iraq.

Now RAI, Italy’s state-owned radio and television broadcasting corporation, has broadcast a documentary—Fallujah - the hidden massacre—that details the use of white phosphorus against Iraqi people during the U.S. assault on Fallujah in November last year.

It’s available online at RAI’s News 24 website or on Information Clearing House.

Apart from showing the heinous damage wrought by the U.S. bombardment of Fallujah, and the carnage to Iraqi people, some of whom lay sleeping, the documentary also uses witness accounts from former U.S. soldiers, Fallujah residents, video footage and photographs, to support its claim that contrary to U.S. State Department denials, white phosphorous was used indiscriminately on the city, causing terrible injuries to Iraqi people, including women and children.

In the documentary a former U.S. soldier who fought at Fallujah comments, ‘I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it’s known as Whiskey 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.’

On top of this a document in the report claims to prove that the U.S. forces have used Mark 77 firebombs—the direct successor to Napalm—in the bombing of Iraq. As I pointed out in my blog in June, Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, has already confirmed its use on Iraqi soldiers during the invasion:

We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches. Unfortunately there were people there … you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It’s no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect.

Photos sourced from RAI News 24.

Update, 29 Sep 2008, a few links added:

• Wikipedia | White phosphorus use in Iraq
• Wikipedia | Mark 77 bomb
• U.S. Army handbook published in 1999 stating that the use of white phosphorus burster bombs against enemy personnel is “against the law of land warfare.”
• U.S. denies use of white phosphorus in Iraq | 15 November 2005
• Dept. of Defense spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Venable confirms white phosphorus used in Iraq | 16 November 2005
• Escalating rate of birth deformities in Fallujah caused by white phosphorus? | 29 September 2009