General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSpeaking of burning people alive
This is from Juan Cole | Feb. 5, 2015 |
Is ISILs Shock and Awe more Awe-ful because One Victim?
One technique the US used was the BLU-82B, a 15,000 pound bomb detonated near the ground with a blast radius of about 5000 feet, but leaving no crater. It was intended to intimidate by burning up large numbers of infantrymen or armored personnel. (It is sometimes misidentified as a fuel-air bomb or daisy cutter but is much more powerful than the latter). It was retired in 2008 in favor of something even more destructive.
In the 2003 invasion, The Guardian reported,
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force crossed the Tigris at the town of Kut, reporting only occasional fire from the Baghdad infantry division of the Republican Guard, which had suffered days of intense bombardment, including two massive 15,000lb daisy-cutter fuel-air bombs. Gen Brooks said the Baghdad division, which originally had up to 12,000 troops, had been destroyed.
I think a lot of the destroyed troops were burned up alive.
The purpose of the bombing was to terrify Iraqis into submitting. That is, it was a form of state terrorism. Iraq had not attacked the US. There was no casus belli or legitimate legal grounds for war. The UN Security Council, despite wooing and arm-twisting by Bush officials, declined to authorize the use of force. It was an illegal act of unadulterated aggression with no obvious provocation that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the wounding of millions, and rendered four million of the 25 million Iraqis homeless over time (many of these remain displaced to this day; some have thrown in with Daesh as a result).
Read more here at http://www.juancole.com/2015/02/shock-because-victim.html
arcane1
(38,613 posts)progressoid
(49,991 posts)Shock and awesome!
USA! USA! USA!
cpwm17
(3,829 posts)Our unprovoked wars have cause untold suffering to numerous people in many countries.
Don't vote for any politician that supports war. They are no better than ISIS. Brown people that are murdered by white people suffer and die just like all the other victims of war.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)phrase, prefer it that way. If we do it for Our Freedom, well, sky's the limit in carnage and slaughter. They are just lucky we didn't drop the H-Bomb.
whathehell
(29,067 posts)many are not, just as in other countries.
OldRedneck
(1,397 posts)Read up on napalm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm
As an infantry soldier in Vietnam, we from time to time had Air Force aircraft drop napalm canisters on North Vietnamese troops with whom we were having a gunfight. After things calmed down and we swept the area . . . well, let's say it was ugly.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)They burn people up and crush them under rubble. That may have been one of ISIS's points.
On edit: And, no doubt, what that Jordanian pilot's bombs did.
mahannah
(893 posts)rurallib
(62,423 posts)dembotoz
(16,808 posts)raven mad
(4,940 posts)to drop Shrub and Cheney into.