Multiple videos are making the rounds today of white phosphorus artillery shells being fired into the Iraqi city of Mosul by Iraqi forces. Though the use of white phosphorus for illumination is technically legal under international law, its high temperature and toxic properties make it wholly unsuitable for use in an urban environment, and such use is almost certainly a war crime.
The videos in this case showed air burst delivery of the white phosphorus, which is particularly dangerous for the civilian population in the massive city of Mosul. The Iraqi Army confirmed that the firing was their doing, insisting that they were delivering a “smokescreen” to help civilians flee from ISIS.
Yet this claim is not a credible one given the chemical used, as the toxic white phosphorus would be far too dangerous for the civilians for this purpose. Later, Iraqi officials issued a statement claiming that the videos themselves were “inaccurate,” though there is no evidence they were not showing exactly what happened.
The videos show the dispersal of the chemical near the Jamhuri Hospital in the Shefa District of western Mosul, an area near a lot of recent fighting, and which is still under control of ISIS. This further adds to the suggestion that Iraq was using this chemical as an offensive weapon.
Dead by artillery explosion, dead by white phosphorus, dead by exposure to depleted uranium, dead by gunfire, dead by untreated disease and toxic water, dead by starvation, dead by forced relocation to refugee camps, dead by the ancient Sunni-Shia conflict in which the local Sunni minority is supported and financed by Wahhabi Saudi Arabia… whatever, it’s all dead.
But since those dead are in Iraq, or Syria, or Africa, or anywhere the population is predominantly brown or black, who in America really cares? Really…
Oh, let me think, who made available those deadly Willy Peter shells? Ummm, that would be the good old US of A, most likely. Hope we made a good profit selling them, what’s good for business is good for the USA.
BTW, the word ‘sarcasm’ comes from the Greek ‘to tear flesh’.