US used white phosphorus in Iraq

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US used white phosphorus in Iraq
When will the lies end! Just last week I heard some offical denying that we used this stuff over there. I thought that we weren’t like Saddam Hussein and didn’t use chemical weapons!

4 thoughts on “US used white phosphorus in Iraq”

  1. We dont’ use chemical weapons.

    The UN Convention bans the use of incendiary weapons against civilans, not against humans. See for yourself:
    http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/515?OpenDocument

    Of course any deliberate engagement or targeting of civilians is
    already a war crime. so that the US has not signed this one is not of especial import except to say that we aren’t bound by it expressly.

    White Phosphorus is not banned.

    It also isn’t a chemical weapon. We are signtory to the Chemical Weapons Convention which defines chemical weapons. See here:
    http://www.opcw.org/html/db/cwc/eng/cwc_frameset.html

    So it isn’t a chemical weapon and it isn’t banned.

    Indiscriminate use is. The stories circulating do not support that
    contention. See here:
    http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/04/11/military/iraq/19_30_504_10…

    Cpl. Bogert received the coordinates for the targets and recorded them on a map. This is proper procedure. He’s receiving coordinates from a Forward Observer, indirect fire weapons never see their targets, the FOs do. The coordinates are plotted so that it is known what was ordered where. There is also a verification that takes place in the call for indirect fire to avoid problems with numerical transposition or other mistakes.

  2. All sematics to me. White phosophorus by chemisty is a chemical. The fact that it is used against an enemy, or the fact that a government or worldwide agency decides it isn’t a chemical or a weapon doesn’t make it so. I just don’t see how there is any justification for it’s use against people, enemy or otherwise. The other issue is that our government denied they even used it!!!!

  3. So is trinitrotolulene. Must this also be banned from warfare as a chemical weapon?

    Get down to it, runing hte enemy through wiht a pointy stick is chemical warfare as the wood is comprised of many chemicals and compounds.

  4. My point is that we condemn Saddam for using chemical weapons, I believe being blown up by tnt isn’t very nice either but we don’t deny using that!

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