Iraq claimed credit for videos earlier this week showing the use of white phosphorus munitions in densely populated parts of the Old City in Mosul, but their use is becoming even more widespread, with new reports suggesting that the US is also using such shells in both Iraq and Syria.
Though white phosphorus shells are not uncommon in the military, and often used as smokescreens, the high temperature at which it burns, and the toxic chemicals emitted makes them wholly unsuitable for populated areas, and their use in any densely populated area or as an incendiary are widely considered war crimes.
In the cases where images are emerging, they are definitely in densely populated areas, with both Mosul and Raqqa apparently facing the use of white phosphorus. The US would neither confirm nor deny the use, though officials did insist that if they were using them, it was in keeping with their ongoing efforts to limit the number of civilians they killed.
That assurance is less and less valuable, as US airstrikes killing soaring numbers of civilians in Mosul and Raqqa at any rate. Rights groups are warning that the use of the shells in populated areas is an undue risk, and they are seeking more information on the context in which they are being deployed. The increasingly secretive Pentagon is doubtless not going to comply with that.
We could drop a nuke on someone and still claim we were trying to “limit the number of civilians killed”.
Apparently even though killing civilians is almost a certainty in these US airstrikes its not as bad as the deliberate killing of civilians.
Last week our society allowed Saudi Arabia to trade their oil for $110 billion of our killing machines, everyone knowing full well that terrorists deliberately killing with these machines would allow our Empire to deliberately slaughter by collateral damage civilians.
Surely, by deliberate indifference, all the blood-guilt is on your head and my head, so what are we going to do about it?
Maybe I’d buy that if it was the first time. But now its way too late.
We’ve dropped many bombs, we’ve fired many missiles, we’ve killed many civilians. Thus, by now, we certainly know for a fact that dropping a bomb or firing a missile does indeed kill civilians. So, by now, we definitely drop these bombs and fire these missiles knowing that it is indeed the deliberate killing of civilians.
Maybe the first time, I’d buy the line about it being an accident. But not by now. They know when they make the decision that civilians will die, and thus its quite deliberate.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. It says “Welcome to Nagasaki”
According to Russian general Surovikin, the U.S. colluded with ISIS to escape so they can fight Syrian army. Perhaps the targets of white phosphorous are those who knew the truth.
But surely, “those who know the truth” are not living in terrorist infested cities, but in the mansions and ranches just down the road from you
and I.
Like the poet said …… “Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.”
So, uh, where are the “save Aleppo” liberal humanitarian interventionist​ World War III supporters now?