Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq...

washingtonpost ^ | Tuesday, November 15, 2005; 6:02 PM | ROBERT BURNS (AP)

[fontoon]

Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq By ROBERT BURNS The Associated Press Tuesday, November 15, 2005; 6:02 PM

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November. But they denied an Italian television news report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.

"It was not used against civilians," Venable said.

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 Fallujah 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.

[fontoon]

I don't understand how using a smoke screan is illegal, but I notice the left wing blogs are going crazy over this.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I don't understand how using a smoke screen is illegal, but I notice the left wing blogs are going crazy over this.

Jesse Jackson says we have to use Black Phosphorus.

[nevergore]

So? Burn the terrorists.....

Nothing better than the smell of Napalm in the morning...

[dighton]

White phosphorous article by Mr. Burns.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Left-Wing Headline: WAR IS HECK

[Texas_Jarhead]

Willie Pete is some nasty stuff but if we gotta use it to accomplish the mission and save American lives then so be it.

[Lexington Green]

Yeah... we killed the bad guys real good.

[Pedrobud]

You mean the Anti- Maerican blogs. I honestly believe they want America to lose. How sad.
I say whatever the troops need to avoid American casualties, go for it !!!!!!!

[Travis McGee]

We should have only fired nerf balls at the terrorists.

[Pedrobud]

Anti - American Sorry !!

[JustDoItAlways]

Wille Pete is too effective and saves too many lives in the end to allow the left-wingers to take it off the table.

[Redgirl]

What weapons don't inflict pain on the enemy? I'm pretty sure grenades and bullets are painful.

How do the libtards think our soldiers kill the enemy? With feathers? They're sad that we kicked ass in Fallujah, and their heroes (the enemy) were killed. Boo Hoo.

[Anti-Bubba182]

All you need to know about why is's OK to use "Willie Pete" in Iraq

[fontoon]

how is willie pete nasty stuff, what makes it more nasty than other smoke incendiaries

[DoughtyOne]

Can we just offer $5,000,000 to every leftist and his family who want to leave the nation. It would be so worth it. Raise my taxes, PLEASE, just do it!

[Odyssey-x]

Oh my goodness! You mean they actually KILLED PEOPLE in Iraq by burning them instead of splattering their guts all over the place? Must be a human rights violation! BTW, White Phospherous is just another way to kill the enemy that isn't banned by any treaty that the U.S is a signatory of: (Cribbed from Wikipedia)

Use of white phosphorus is not specifically banned by any treaty, however the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations or by air attack against military forces that are located within concentrations of civilians. [2] The United States is among the nations that are parties to the convention but have not signed protocol III.

[putupjob]

People should go back and see the firethrowers used to clean out the caves of Saipan. White Phosphorus would have been a big plus in that battle. So would have thermobaric bombs.

[varyouga]

Sweet. Now they can get the sensation of burning alive before they get their 72 goats.

[tet68]

Willie Pete bump.

Jesse says, "White phosphorous across the Bosporus is
preposterous."

[SeeRushToldU_So]

Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq.

So?