By Walter Simpson
Buffalo, NY – Some people have compared the war in Iraq to the Vietnam war. WBFO commentator Walter Simpson said that revelations about weaponry used last year in Fallujah strengthen that comparison. In his monthly commentary, "Reality Check," Simpson said the Iraq war burns to the bone.
You can read the commentary below, or hear it by clicking the "listen" icon above.
In this Christmas season, as many of us prepare to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, the Iraq debacle roars on in all its horror. We can wonder, "What would Jesus do?," as the ugliness of this war unfolds.
We now know that the U.S. military used white phosphorus in the battle for Fallujah a year ago. An Italian TV station broke the story, releasing a documentary - "Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre" - showing the bodies of Iraqi civilians who, we are told, were killed by white phosphorus, an incendiary weapon which burns and melts flesh to the bone.
Initially, the Bush Administration called the Italian film propaganda. The official line was that white phosphorus was used in Fallujah only to light the battlefield at night and to create smoke to obscure our troop movements. But this story changed to an admission that white phosphorus, called "Willey Pete" by American troops, was used as a weapon. The Pentagon says it was only used against enemy combatants despite reports by an embedded journalist that American troops fired round after round of white phosphorus into Fallujah without knowing what the targets were and what damage was being caused.
Earlier in the Iraq War the U.S. denied using napalm - only to reverse itself by admitting that 500 pound MK-77 firebombs had been used. The MK-77 is essentially updated napalm, using jet fuel for its incendiary effects instead of napalm's gasoline.
Depleted uranium munitions have been widely used in Iraq. Made of radioactive uranium waste, these bullets and artillery shells are very heavy and can penetrate armor. However, when they do, they vaporize, leaving cancer-causing contamination. Iraq is now littered by these areas of contamination.
Cluster bombs have also been used in Iraq as well as in Afghanistan. These are large bombs which contain hundreds of smaller bomblets. Human Rights Watch condemns their use against civilian targets and is concerned about their "dud rates" of up to 15%, guaranteeing plenty of unexploded ordinance on the ground for kids to step on for years to come.
Cluster bombs are now called "area denial" munitions. During the Vietnam War they were called "anti-personnel weapons."
The Vietnam War was raging when I was in high school and I was in favor it. Back then I played the trombone in our town's Memorial Day parades and I felt an inexplicable tingle in my spine whenever I heard the Star Spangled Banner.
Things changed in college when I got past the propaganda about the war and began learning what was really going on. I subscribed to the New York Review of Books and became haunted by an advertisement which appeared in each issue, paid for by a religious peace group called Clergy and Laity Concerned. The ad explained that the Honeywell Corporation - maker of cameras, computers and thermostats -- was also making anti-personnel weapons which the U.S. was using in Vietnam.
The ad contained a haunting photo of a Vietnamese woman with nearly fifty puncture wounds in her back caused by shrapnel from one of Honeywell's weapons. Twenty Four years later, I still have that ad with the photo. I was horrified then and I am horrified now that "we" would use weapons deliberately intended to cause as much misery as possible - in this case by slicing people up with shrapnel.
When I came to Buffalo in 1972 I immediately located the local chapter of Clergy and Laity Concerned, now the Western new York Peace Center, and joined the Honeywell Campaign. After purchasing one share of Honeywell stock, I was sent, as a stockholder, to Honeywell's annual stockholders meeting in Minneapolis. There, I joined other church activists in challenging the Honeywell's leaders. We asked them repeatedly: "What criteria do you use when you decide what products to make and sell?" In the end, they were honest and admitted it was all about technical know-how and making money.
I recall that Honeywell's corporate officers were so well dressed and so decent looking. They were good people, they said, who attended church every Sunday. Don't blame them for the consequences of those anti-personnel weapons. They were just filling orders and conducting business. And, presumably, the pilot who drops the bomb or the soldier who fires the shell is just following orders, and the taxpayer just paying the bills.
Tell that to the woman with fifty holes sliced in her back or the mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters of those whose faces were burned off.
Who is responsible when horrific weapons of war are used to maim and murder innocent people? Is it those who support the war? Is it those who have remained silent? When do we look in the mirror and say "enough"?
"Reality Check" with Commentator Walter Simpson is a monthly feature of WBFO News. Please respond by clicking the "contact us" button at this website.