Having read 'War or wonder' by Hayfa, I remembered a poem I wrote last year that was inspired by images from a RAI TV documentary, 'Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre'.
This showed that the US Military repeatedly used chemical weapons on the civilian population of this city. Whisky Pete is slang name used by the military for White Phosphorus.
Love from Whiskey Pete
Whispered on the airwaves
Sent down from Heaven
A luminous flower
Bursting into lurid bloom
Incandescent droplets
Twisting tendrils of white heat
Trailing fire
Radiant faces look upwards,
A steady pulse of
Far off crusaders fly over
On wings of death.
Their fate is sealed
By a light show to remember.
Touched by a silent burning kiss -
To the bone.
Leaving forever
Blackened lips stretched
Into an agonised smile
Underneath a veil untouched
How should we remember you?
Fallujah
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Written by wt (137 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | I'll have to tell you about the summer I spent in Lebanon in 2006 or maybe 1982 or maybe....
Wt  |
Written by Fledermaus (3238 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | | The smell of napalm in the morning... It becomes more and more like Vietnam, although they seemed a little bit more succesful in keeping the journalists out. | Where have all the journalists gone...?
Written by jillrabbit (57 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | | If you're not embedded, you have a high chance of being killed. Oh, the joys of a managed war. |
Written by maipenrai (783 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | Napalm?not outlawed is it?
WT you were in Beiruit 82? |
Written by maipenrai (783 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | in some this is a good piece but it also could be seen as a anti-american piece, at least the intro gives me that impression.
questions could be asked
was there any confirmation of the use of Napalm apart from the claims of the tv crew, who of course were not in any way trying to push their prog.
what were the reported number of Napalm victims in this " massarcre".
do we know?
just questions | Outlawed?
Written by jillrabbit (57 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | Napalm was not the chemical in question.
However, since you've raised this issue, the current situation is that Napalm has not been banned for use against military targets. Article III of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons 1981 banned its use against civilian populations. For some reason the US signed the treaty but decided against signing up to Article III? Questions could be asked.
It is well documented that the US has used MK77, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Its chemical composition is so similar to Napalm that members of the US military use the generic term 'Napalm' to refer to both.
As well as MK77 there is compelling evidence from, not only journalists, but also military sources that white phosphorus was also used in both conflicts. And that it was used in built-up civilian areas.
It is impossible to ascetain the number of civilian victims in the Fallujah massacre because the city was locked down by the US military and the majority of the reporting was done by journalists embedded with the US military.
Anti-American? No. Do some research. It really is all out there, in mainstream media sources, if you want to know the truth. |
Written by maipenrai (783 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | | Will do, WP is an accepted military weopon, yes /no? | maipenrai
Written by wt (137 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | Yes I was there
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Written by stevetroster (1549 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | Anything that the American military choose to use is an accepted military weapon, at least by them!
November 16, 2005
Last week I reported on an Italian documentary that claimed white phosphorus, code named "Whiskey Pete" by the American military, killed residents of Fallujah a year ago in our offensive against that city. At the time many of our most dedicated readers expressed skepticism at that possibility. Sadly, the story appears to be true. Forbes Online reported this about 6 hours ago:
WASHINGTON (AFX) - The US today defended the use of white phosphorus munitions against insurgents in Iraq last year but denied civilians were targeted. The toxic agent was used during what a US army journal called 'shake and bake' missions against insurgents in the battle for Fallujah last year. "
"It's part of our conventional weapons inventory. We use it like we use any other conventional weapon,' said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
*****
'We don't target civilian populations. We go to great lengths to do everything possible to prevent civilian casualties, and collateral damage to property,' he said.
*****
Incandescent particles of white phosphorus can cause deep, painful chemical burns, said GlobalSecurity.Org, a Washington group that gathers information on military subjects.
A report on the battle of Fallujah published in April in the army journal Field Artillery said white phosphorous 'proved to be an effective and versatile munition' in Fallujah.
'We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE (high explosives),' said the report.
'We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out,' it said.
'We used improved WP for screening missions when HC smoke would have been more effective and saved our WP for lethal missions,' it said.
Whitman said US forces used the munition mainly to create smoke screens in battle and to mark targets, but he acknowledged they were used against insurgents as well.
Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable, another Pentagon spokesman, said the white phosphorus also was used as an incendiary weapon.
'It has been used in armies the world over for most the past century, I believe. It was used by US forces in Operation Al Fajr, specifically to target enemy combatants so we could defeat them,' he said.
Good work, jillrabbit.
All the best,
Steve. |
Written by jillrabbit (57 comments posted) 30th November 2007 | Hi All
You said you were in Lebanon, WT, during the awful events of last summer and that time back in the 80's. Would be interested in hearing what you witnessed.
To answer your question, Maipenrai, white phosphorous is an accepted military weapon. But there are a whole lot of things, which are accepted in this world of ours, which damn well shoudn't be.
Thanks Steve, for posting some of the press material. Especially the "shake and bake" stuff from the US Army journal. It's real, published material and it leaves one feeling somewhat cold.
"Love From Whisky Pete" is not an anti-American piece of writing. I not only hope, but also trust, that it is a viewpoint shared by many US citizens. |
Written by audrie (444 comments posted) 1st December 2007 | There was I thinking that the US was concerned about the use of WMD, when all the time it was concern that nobody ELSE should use them!
All weapons of war should be abolished and the billions of money saved spent on making this world fit to live in for ALL its peoples. Never happen, Mankind is too destructive.
Glad you brought it to our attention, Jillrabbit. |
Written by maipenrai (783 comments posted) 1st December 2007 | Audrie, all good thoughts, All good wishe's All good intentions will not come true, that is sad but thats a fact,
from my point view as an ex-soldier in the sitution of the original write my actions would be first and foremost in a very big way to protect the soldiers under my command, any weopons which may may be at my disposal to minimise the casulitys of my soldiers I would use. | Maipenrai
Written by jillrabbit (57 comments posted) 1st December 2007 | The US forces attacking Fallujah used PA loudspeaker systems to warn people to get out of the city, stating that anyone who remained would be a legitimate military target.
However invdividual military formations fired on civilians attempting to get out of the city and military checkpoints were set up around it. These actions prevented many people from leaving. They are predictable consequences - accidents just waiting to happen - when you introduce military formations into a civilian area.
The US Military then proceeded to use chemical weapons indiscriminately on the people in that area.
This was never about using any means to protect "our boys". It was like shooting rats in a barrel. An unjustifiable homicide against a penned-in civilian population.
In other words - a war crime.
We can argue about whether it is ok to use this weapon, or that weapon, till the cows come home. I would take it from your last post that you do not rule out the use of any weapon, however destructive, when confronted with a threat to "your boys".
However that way lies madness (otherwise known as military doctrine).
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