[lit-ideas] Re: Willie Pete, well, okay, a little bit

  • From: John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 02:29:49 -0600

Andreas Ramos wrote:

The Pentagon denied using white phosphorus as a weapon in Iraq.
Now, the Pentagon has admitted the truth.

White Phosphorus makes a fair incindiary weapon, but it's not the best way to start fires. It was used against Germany and Japan in WWII as a way to start fires, and this meant that any persons who were near it when the shell exploded would get large jagged shrapnel that tended to decapitate or cut off limbs, and be burned by chunks of phosphorus that could not be extinguished while the phosphorus chunks burned their way through flesh. It was also used in Vietnam against structures and against crop fields to deny the NVA access to food. Despite the nastiness of WP, it's been used for so long by many different armies that it would be difficult to make the case for it being prohibited. It's not as effective against people as high explosive rounds are, so it would be fairly easy for military planners to say, somewhat truthfully, that they were using WP against materiel, not against personnel.

--
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"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence and ignorance." -------------------------------------------------
John Wager johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx
Forest Park, IL, USA


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