General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhite Phosphorous - the Guardian and the 575 page UN report
On white phosphorous and how that chemical weapon was used on citizens of Gaza.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/09/15/UNFFMGCReport.pdf
On edit, this is a summary of the UN report's findings from Amnesty International, and is NOT 575 pages long:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/israeli-armys-use-white-phosphorus-gaza-clear-undeniable-20090119
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)civilians I mean...was it intended to kill civilians?
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Note how the Amnesty International researcher ends up calling this indiscriminate use of White Phosphorous as utilized in this event a "war crime."
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)if that is what you are trying to do...false equivalency. White Phosperous isn't illegal to use the way Sarin is... Though I disagree with its use in the case in Fallujah...its still not the same thing.
In April 2004, during the First Battle of Fallujah, a reporter from the North County Times described U.S. Marine mortar teams using a mixture of white phosphorus and high explosives to shell a cluster of buildings where Iraqi insurgents had been spotted throughout the week.[11] In November 2004, during the Second Battle of Fallujah, Washington Post embedded reporters stated that some U.S. artillery guns fired white phosphorus rounds that "create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water." [12] Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorus burns.[12]
On November 9, 2005 the Italian state-run broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A. aired a documentary titled "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre", alleging that the United States' used white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah causing insurgents and civilians to be killed or injured by chemical burns.[citation needed] The filmmakers further claimed that the United States used incendiary MK-77 bombs in violation of Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, quoted in the documentary, white phosphorus is permitted for use as an illumination device and as a weapon with regard to heat energy, but not permitted as an offensive weapon with regard to its toxic chemical properties.[13][14]
On November 15, 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed to the BBC that white phosphorus had been used as an incendiary antipersonnel weapon in Fallujah, stating "When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on and you wish to get them out of those positions, one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round into the position because the combined effects of the fire and smoke - and in some case the terror brought about by the explosion on the ground - will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives."[15][16]
malaise
(268,998 posts)VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)From the Protocol to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Protocol III (pertaining to use of incendiary weapons, including white phosphorous):
Protection of civilians and civilian objects
1. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons.
2. It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.
3. It is further prohibited to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by means of incendiary weapons other than air-delivered incendiary weapons, except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.
4. It is prohibited to make forests or other kinds of plant cover the object of attack by incendiary weapons except when such natural elements are used to cover, conceal or camouflage combatants or other military objectives, or are themselves military objectives.
http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/ccwc_p3/text
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Did you miss the provisions prohibiting targeting of military objectives within a concentration of civilians?
And the overall point is that these uses are NOT legal, whether or not they lead to prosecution.
HangOnKids
(4,291 posts)Thanks for the link, disturbing read for sure.
malaise
(268,998 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Ironical fashion.
malaise
(268,998 posts)HangOnKids
(4,291 posts)Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,362 posts)Thanks for the thread, trudelphi.