During operations in Fallujah, Iraq, white phosphorus munitions were used as an incendiary weapon

[J_J_]

This is a war crime!

In April 2004, during the First Battle of Fallujah, Darrin Mortenson of California's North County Times reported that white phosphorus was used as an incendiary weapon.

In November 2004, during the Second Battle of Fallujah, Washington Post reporters embedded with Task Force 2-2, Regimental Combat Team 7, wrote on November 9, 2004 that "Some artillery guns fired white phosphorus (WP) rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water." Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorus burns.

On November 9, 2005 the Italian state-run broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A. aired a documentary titled "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre", alleging that the United States' used white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah causing insurgents and civilians to be killed or injured by chemical burns. The filmmakers further claimed that the United States used incendiary MK-77 bombs in violation of Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, quoted in the documentary, white phosphorus is permitted for use as an illumination device and as a weapon with regard to heat energy, but not permitted as an offensive weapon with regard to its toxic chemical properties

On November 15, 2005, U.S. Department of Defense spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable confirmed to the BBC that white phosphorus had been used as an incendiary antipersonnel weapon in Fallujah.

On November 16, 2005, BBC News reported that an article published in the March–April 2005 issue of Field Artillery, a U.S. Army magazine, noted that white phosphorus had been used during the battle.

On November 22, 2005, the Iraqi government stated it would investigate the use of white phosphorus in the battle of Fallujah.[11]

On November 30, 2005, General Peter Pace stated that white phosphorus munitions were a "legitimate tool of the military" used to illuminate targets and create smokescreens, saying "It is not a chemical weapon. It is an incendiary. And it is well within the law of war to use those weapons as they're being used, for marking and for screening"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_use_in_Iraq


It was a war crime when Israel used it


Israel accused of indiscriminate phosphorus use in Gaza
Human Rights Watch report claims Israel committed war crimes in its use of air-burst white phosphorus artillery shells
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/25/israel-white-phosphorus-gaza

We sure didn't like it when Saddam did it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack

White phosphorus was used by Saddam Hussein during the Halabja poison gas attack. According to an undated ANSA article quoted by an RAI documentary, on the morning of March 16, 1988, the Iraqi Air Force bombed Halabja several times with a chemical cocktail of yperite, tabun, VX, napalm and white phosphorus."



I don't think we are the 'good guys' anymore.

Where is the UN when you need them?

[PeoViejo]

1. We lost our Cherry a long time ago.

The Day we brought Nazis to this Country to fight the Cold War was the Day the US lost its Soul.

[arcane1]

2. We raised a lot of hell about this on DU at the time. Sadly, it's not a war crime if we do it.

[newfie11]

3. So much for being the "good guys"

Look at all the birth defects in Iraq from the radiation in the weapons we used. A country that had nothing to do with the fake 911 charges.

[JEB]

4. War crime. eom

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. No. No. It was used to burn up the surplus candy and flowers given us by the grateful populace.

Well...at least...the ones who survived our "help".

[Chathamization]

6. And it was used precisely because it was so savage. Or rather, as a “potent psychological weapon”

during “shake and bake” operations. Of course, its use was denied at first.

[gratuitous]

7. Oh, quit lookin' backwards to the past

We're all about looking forward to the future in the United States. Now, let's look forward to some heretofore unknown group of unreasoning, savage terrorists carrying out despicable atrocities against innocent Americans. Why are those people so bloodthirsty? Are they just evil? I think they're just evil. Certainly there's no reason anyone should be that upset with us - we're the good guys!

Damn, I need to watch "Falling Down" again.