Reply #72: Call me what you will... [View All]

"1. ...no matter what it's official designation."

OK - you go run and tell the UN! I'll wait here. Mate.

WP is not a WMD. It is an incendiary. Its use is restricted to targets of military value and it should never be used against civilians deliberately.

2. ... the US military excluded all able bodied males from those permitted to "vacate the premesise".

They could vacate, but they would be detained until the cessation of hostilities and until they had been vetted. The insurgents and civilians knew full well what was coming their way.

"The powers that be knew that these WP rounds would be falling amongst women and children, and with that knowledge, chose to deploy them anyway."

Announcing your assault weeks in advance, letting civilians out, etc., is pretty gracious in the middle of a war. The insurgents deliberately hide amongst civilians which is one major reason they are excluded deliberately from Geneva. I suppose we could use your argument and proposethat the liberation of France in 1944 was illegal, or loathsome, or criminal, because the allies were forced to bomb populated towns/villages.

"3. Certain practices (most often with deplorable laggardness) are deemed to be practices that go beyond the pale in any sane and rational person's world. Deploying "living" fire against children is one of those practices."

See above. And you don't really believe that US soldiers deliberately targeted children - do you? Why would a loving father freedom fighter put his children in such circumstances?

"4. Did you actually read anything writen about the manner in which white phosphorus burns."

Believe me, if you had a piece of WP burning through your skin, you would not sleep through it. You would not by lying all snug in your blanket and pj's. You would be frantically trying to pry the burning shards from your burning flesh and tear off your burning clothes. Those people were not killed by WP.

"Nor does it matter eactly what turned those living people into blackened, bloated corpses."

OK - Why don't you take that up in a different thread. I thought we were discussing the allegations of US use of WMD on civilians as presented in the Italian documentary.