Weapons of Mass Destruction

Well, we finally found some in Iraq--the only problem is that we brought them there ourselves:

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon...

In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have used 'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfo website said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes.

"They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters."

But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.

In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

A biologist in Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, interviewed for the film, says: "A rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact."

The documentary, entitled Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, also provides what it claims is clinching evidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, a new, improved form of napalm, was used in the attack on Fallujah, in breach of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows its use against military targets.

The Christian Science Monitor has more, as does Information Clearing House. For those who either read Italian, or have broadband access, RAI's site has articles and even streaming video (including an English version), along with a series of photographs that look pretty damning...to the Cheney administration, that is.

Talk about a downward spiral--Team Bush asleep at the wheel prior to 9/11; today we've got a vice president who openly endorses torture regardless of whether or not it produces actionable intelligence...Afghanistan is crumbling, Chalabi is actually allowed to visit DC without being immediately put in handcuffs (if not immediately locked up in a maximum security prison--general population), the GOP is literally chasing its tail when they're not setting themselves up on charges of slander...now, overseas, we've got the specter of gulags, chemical weapons, abuse of prisoners, more or less indiscriminate killing of civilians...and no decline in the number of terrorist nutjobs. In fact, on the last point, we've given terrorist nutjobs a place to hone their skills while simultaneous making a mockery of the 'flypaper' strategery and alienating Iraqi civilians we ostensibly were liberating.

And it's all based on flat out lies. Lies perpetrated by an administration not so much elected as selected back in 2000. An administration that looks after fat-cat cronies, but can't be bothered with looking after its own citizens. On that subject, YRHT and PGR both have posts up noting grandiose plans from Team Bush for wetlands restoration...in IRAQ (fat chance of it happening), while the Gulf Coast is told to talk to the hand...if not the finger. Unbelievable.

I wish I could say "wake me up when it's over." But it isn't a bad dream.