Think Progress

11 Responses to “Pentagon officials last week”

1. Average TV Viewer says:

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   More duplicity. Ho hum.

   November 21st, 2005 at 10:16 am

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2. Mary Poppin says:

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   This White phospharous eats at your skin. What a horrible way to suffer. I thought we went into Iraq to get rid of Saddam because he gas his people. I like to know what we are doing using this White Phospharous on the Iraqi people? Isn’t this administration a bunch of hypocrites.

   November 21st, 2005 at 10:37 am

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3. Don says:

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   This is the applicable paragraph from the Law of Land Warfare:
   36. Weapons Employing Fire
   The use of weapons which employ fire, such as tracer ammunition, flamethrowers, napalm and other incendiary agents, against targets requiring their use is not violative of international law. They should not, however, be employed in such a way as to cause unnecessary suffering to individuals.
   http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~nstanton/FM27-10.htm

   This restriction is widely abused in practice, including: flamethrowers and firebombing (of civilians) in WWII and Korea, and the use of napalm (jellied gasoline) in Vietnam (on civilians).

   The problem is not the use of ‘Willy Peter’ but the use of war itself to expand the empire. In other words, painless dying is not a worthwhile goal.

   November 21st, 2005 at 10:55 am

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4. Ron says:

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   i dunno, but these neocon cats like perle, wolfowitz, rumhead, cheney et al should all be given a good dose of saltpeter.

   November 21st, 2005 at 11:10 am

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5. beep52 says:

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   Nothing surprises me anymore. This adminstration does what it wants. Laws, ethics, logic, truth, accountability — none of that matters. What’s worse is they don’t even care.

   November 21st, 2005 at 11:14 am

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6. Zookeeper says:

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   The Pentagon doesn’t even know what they’re teaching at sword waving school. No wonder… Although it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out WP would be a poor choice.

   November 21st, 2005 at 11:16 am

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7. Alvord says:

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   I have read newspaper articles with statements to the effect that white phosporous is not a chemical weapon.

   Excuse me, but white phosphorous is a chemical that will eat away your skin. If it is fired at enemy soldiers as a weapon, it is by definition a chemical weapon. It may not be one of the chemical weapons banned by a convention, but denying it is a chemical weapon follows the same logic as denying that a performance enhancing drug isn’t illegal because some creative chemist made a small change to the original banned drug.

   November 21st, 2005 at 11:40 am

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8. Don says:

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   The Marines also tested a new ‘theromobaric’ fuel-air explosive weapon in Fallujah, that has been used by the Russians in Chechnya. The weapon is “likely to kill and injure people in bunkers, shelters, and caves, [and buildings]and kill and injure in a particularly brutal manner over a wide area.”
   http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-US-Marines-Used-Thermobaric-Weapons-in-Iraq-12666.shtml
   http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/02/chech0215b.htm

   November 21st, 2005 at 12:31 pm

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9. Don says:

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   that’s ‘thermobaric’

   November 21st, 2005 at 12:31 pm

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10. Zookeeper says:

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    #8 – So, kill ‘em at home so we don’t have to kill ‘em outside? Yikes.

    November 21st, 2005 at 1:03 pm

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11. Paul in LA says:

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    As I noted above, phosphorus is not spelled ‘-ous’ in the United States.

    ‘-ous’ is an adjectival suffix, not the noun ending.

    Though phosphorus is used as a concealment weapon, that is a canard, because it is so dangerous that it cannot be used for local concealment because it would kill our troops if the wind shifted.

    The military has other non-lethal concealment weapons which it uses for the purpose.

    As an illumination weapon, phosphorus has to burn completely by the time it reaches the ground, to avoid similar toxic effects on OUR troops.

    Used from a helicopter, as in the Italian video of the Fallujah attack, it is not being used for concealment or illumination, but to attack the population, under the guise of a COLLECTIVE GUILT label, which is Nazi racism by another name.

    November 21st, 2005 at 5:30 pm

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