Saddam did it first: Evidence from a number of international sources is mounting that U.S. troops used chemical weapons in Fallujah during some of the hardest combat of the Iraq War. Please recall that, besides the dangerous imaginary yellowcake uranium he didn’t buy from Niger, Saddam also mustard-gassed Kurdish villages in the 1988 — part of our rationale for Operation Who’s Your Daddy and apparently for using weapons banned by interational treaty.
The Independent of London provides an overview of many of the reports that chemical weapons were used in Fallujah on both insurgents and civilians, though the alleged chemical assaults were not reported by any Western media. A documentary by Italian state television network RAI called “Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre” was released recently and documents, through video and interviews with former U.S. soldiers, how the United States used white phosphorus during the fighting in Fallujah.
The allegations focus on white phosphorus, which apparently melts the skin while leaving clothing intact.
A biologist in Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, interviewed for the film, says: “A rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact.”
The documentary also gives evidence that a new, better napalm, called Mark 77, was also used in Fallujah — a direct violation of United Nations weapons conventions.
Not surprisingly, the Bush administration has fervently denied any and all allegations related to the use of chemical warfare, and, if its past behavior is any indication, is likely to continue to do so in the face of mounting evidence.
