Tuesday, November 29, 2005

On White Phosphorous

The Times weighs in on the use of white phosphorous in Iraq:

Iraq, where winning over wary civilians is as critical as defeating armed insurgents, is no place to be using a weapon like this. More broadly, American demands for counterproliferation efforts and international arms control ring a bit hollow when the United States refuses to give up white phosphorus, not to mention cluster bombs and land mines.

The United States should be leading the world, not dragging its feet, when it comes to this sort of issue - because it's right and because all of us, including Americans, are safer in a world in which certain forms of conduct are regarded as too inhumane even for war. That is why torture should be banned in American prisons. And it is why the United States should stop using white phosphorus.
What is it about this that George W. Bush does not understand?

1 comments:

actual said...

You nor the Times understands anything about warfare...WP is an effective weapon against the enemy and is legal under the Law of Land Warfare as given by the Geneva Conventions. Banning it would do nothing to promote a "safer" or "more humane" world. Are these so called "freedom fighters" (i.e. suicide bombers who do not wear a military uniform and, by doing so, are violating the Geneva Convention's established Law of Land Warfare) who kill innocent women and children making this world more humane?

Why don't you apply a little reason and practice some of that "uncommon sense" you are talking about, go to Iraq and report this blog from there where you can rely on personal experince for the truth rather than quoting secondary sources of dubious repute?