CounterPunch
by David Lindorff

11/27/05

Whether white phosphorus bombs -- what American troops call 'Willie Pete' -- is a chemical weapon or an incendiary weapon, may not seem like a very important distinction to a casual observer. After all, what it does -- burn flesh on contact and eat right down to the bone causing severe pain and, depending on what it eats through, death -- is as cruel and vicious as any poison gas. But it does matter to the Pentagon, and to the mainstream media that is covering the growing scandal of US military use of phosphorus bombs in the assault on Fallujah (and probably elsewhere in the Iraq War/Occupation). ... Why the fuss? Well, recall that the Bush/Cheney adminstration made use ad nauseum of how Saddam Hussein 'used chemical weapons against his own people.' So how would it look if the bombs we are using against Iraqis were also chemical weapons?

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff11262005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp