Nov 16th, 2005, 10:06 AM
Vinth, Vinth, Vinth.
" 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."
-From the artlce I quoted, this was our official position in December
"An Italian documentary currently making the rounds on BitTorrent websites and the left-wing blogosphere purports to “prove” that the American military used “chemical weapons” during the battle for Fallujah. In our own backyard, Swedish blogger Ali Esbati jumps on the bandwagon, claiming that white phosphorus “bombs” (they are, in fact, flares) were illegially deployed and count as “weapons of mass destruction.” TT and Aftonbladet are now reporting the Italian claims with precious little skepticism. But as the indispensable English blogger Scott Burgess writes, none of these claims withstand the most basic scrutiny."
11/10/05, Vince's first 'source'
His second source doesn't dispute the use of White Phosphorus as a weapon, or even discuss it. It's about how the burns shown in the video probably aren't from white Phosphorus.
The third source isn't about our alleged use of White phosphorus as a weapon at all, it's on the psychology of anti-americanism, and while perhaps interesting, it hardly qualifies as 'research' on the story I'm talking about.
Now, lets look at todays news:
U.S. admits using white phosphorous as weapon
Wednesday, November 16, 2005; Posted: 7:19 a.m. EST (12:19 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Falluja last November.
At the same time, they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material had been used against civilians.
So. The Pentagon now admits that the statement that Whote Phosphorus was used only for illumination was... incorrect. Let's be charitable and say it was a mistatement and not a lie.
"Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is used most frequently to mark targets or obscure positions, it was used at times in Falluja as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants."
Huh. That sounds pretty uniquivecal. Used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.
"The spokesman referred reporters to an article in the March-April 2005 edition of the Army's Field Artillery magazine, an official publication, in which veterans of the Falluja fight spelled out their use of white phosphorous and other weapons. The authors used the shorthand "WP" in referring to white phosphorous.
"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition," the authors wrote. "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 explosive)" munitions.
"We fired `shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."
So, back in MARCH, it was a documented fact that we used White Phosphorus as a weapon. Huhn. I geuss maybe the Penatgon, your miserable little apologist blogs and you might want to 'do a little research before posting on the web.'
You'll never respond to this, because reactionary sack of crap that you are, you'll never read it. You aren't interested in finding out the truth, you don't care when you've been lied to and my guess is you couldn't care less that we used chemical weapons on our enemies and you couldn't care less that you were wrong. I'm not anti American, I'm anti thuggish cowardly little creeps like you who give America bad name.
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