Archive for the 'Iraq' Category
While rummaging through one of my drawers today I came across a small memory card for the digital camera I took to Iraq in 2003, and it held photos that I’d forgotten I had. Here’s a few of the better ones. You can find the original fullsize versions of these and my other photos from Iraq on Flickr.com.
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
“Support our troops†is the mantra of the day. It’s code for “shutup and support the war.†Many military people may get played for pawns but some are my biggest heroes, and the newest happens to be a expat Kiwi. (Hat tip No Right Turn)
Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, born in Australia and raised in New Zealand, is a decorated British army officer who refused to return to Iraq on grounds that the US-led invasion of Iraq was illegal. On 5 October 2005 he was charged with refusing to obey orders. He’s the first British officer to face criminal charges for challenging the legality of the war.
His solicitor, Justin Hugheston-Roberts, told the Sunday Times “He is not arguing that he is a conscientious objector. He is arguing that the war is manifestly unlawful.â€
According to a colleague, “He takes the view this is something which is worth going to prison for.â€
This guy is a hero.
Update: A couple more links. This one gives a little insight into what makes this guy tick. Apparently he has a medical degree and a postgraduate qualification in philosophy from Otago University. His philosophy thesis, a 65-page bound critique on the philosopher Immanuel Kant, grapples with ethics, human freedom and morality. I’d say Tony Blair and his cronies are a little worried at this point. As Kendall-Smith’s main legal spokesman points out, the ramifications of the case are quite awesome.
Jounalist John Pilger elaborates; it could force Britain before the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Yummy.
Update: Photo updated (19 March, 2006).
In their efforts to drum up more war, armchair war criminals can make some pretty outlandish statements.
This from the prep school punk draft dodging fanatic himself:
There’s always a temptation in the middle of a long struggle to seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the world and to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder. We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory.
And then there’s this pearler from his poodle:
There is no justification for Iran or any other country interfering in Iraq.
Blair apparently said this at a news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. It reminds me of when they talk about the jihadists in Iraq being foreign fighters,
as if the hundreds of thousands of Americans and British weren’t foreign.
Here’s a convincing and thoughtful essay on why immediate withdrawl from Iraq makes sense, written by Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York. It starts with an introduction from Tom Engelhardt, which includes:
Michael Schwartz makes the case, both simple and sophisticated, for withdrawing quickly from Iraq, but more than that for stopping thinking of ourselves as part of the solution—a bulwark, for instance, against an onrushing civil war—rather than part of the problem.
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