Stoopid Stuff

Willie Pete

Now, I love to see this administration taking it's lumps for their brutal, criminal actions in Iraq. But unlike them, I insist on using facts, not made-up interpretations. It's an imaginary and very dubious assertion that White Phospherous is a Chemical Weapon, as we have come to understand the term. Look, pretty much ALL weapons are made from chemicals. High Explosives are nothing but chemicals that react "energetically" to certain conditions. A ballistic projectile, whether a rifle round or an artillery shell, is launched on its parabolic path by the energy created when some version of gunpowder "deflagrates" and creates the energy that pushes the round down the barrel. Chemicals themselves make up pretty much everything we use as weapons of war, so the fact that a weapon is comprised primarilly of "chemicals" cannot in and of itself make it a "Chemical Weapon".

It is also true that we do not outlaw "Chemical Weapons" primarly because of their horrific effects on human beings. I keep hearing how White Phospherous is a horrible weapon because it burns the skin off babies. Yes, that's horrible. But a 500 pound aerial bomb dropped on that same house that blows off the same baby's leg, causing the baby to die slowly, in cold shock, terror and pain by way of exsanguination is, to my way of thinking, equivelently horrific. Weapons are weapons. They hurt, maim and kill. And dead, ultimately, is dead.

No, we outlaw and proscribe the use of what we have classified as "Chemical Weapons" not due to their horrific effects, which are undeniable, but due to their indiscrimenate nature. A rifle round, an artillery shell, an antitank rocket, even an incindiery like White Phospherous, is targetted at a specific area. Even if it misses that area, it's effects are confined to a limited area. When true chemical weapons are used, be they irritants like Tear Gas, Blister agents like Mustard and Phosgene or lethal agents like VX and Sarin, their effects cannot be controlled. There is no way to confine their effects to a limited target. Once they are released, there is nothing anyone can do to control or mitigate their effects. At the mercy of meteorological variations at the smallest level, these horrble weapons can drift into civilian areas, causing tremendous suffering. The other reason the world recoiled in horror from the use of chemical weapons in WWI was the horrible physical effects on the survivors. The sores, the infections, the blindness, the respratory damage, the pain and misery suffered by litterally thousands of survivors caused the world to back away from the use of these weapons.

But ask yourself one thing. The amputations, the burns, the incredible physical and emotional damage done to combatants and civilians alike in warfare, aren't these horrible things also? Put another way, if the chemical weapons used in WWI were more discriminate, more controllable, more effective, with most of their victims buried rather than hospitalized, would we have had the same reaction to these weapons? Probably not.

My main point here is not that Willy Pete is a good thing. It's that ALL weapons are a bad thing. When I say killing is killing and dead is dead, I'm not encouraging killing. I'm saying that those people who rail against the use of White Phospherous or Napalm or Cluster Bombs are missing the real issue. We need to stop shooting. In Iraq, all of our killing is wrong. If our security as Americans was truly threatened, I don't think we'd hesitate to use anything at our disposal to protect ourselves. But here is a case where we needlessly invaded a sovereign nation and are occupying it under force of arms. WE ARE THE PROBLEM. It's not that we should stop using White Phospherous, or dropping bombs, or shooting machine guns. We need to get out. Now. We are the reason for the killing, the target of the killing, and the source of the killing. We are no more right in shooting a civilian with an M16 than we are wrong firing a round of Willy Pete into a bunker.

Iraq is a waste of lives, and of treasure. Every death there is a murder, as horrible as a murder can possibly be. And all that blood is on the hands of the American Administration. It is not a specific weapon that is somehow evil, it is the military occupation and use of force altogether that is evil. You can't blame our soldiers for using whatever is available to them to fight to protect their lives and each other. And you can't blame our leadership merely for the use of White Phospherous weapons, or for torture of detainees, or of political and economic manipulation. They are responsible for the whole disaterous mess, and MUST be held accountable.

posted by mikey @ 7:50 PM