Fosforo bianco contro i civili

I'll translate. It means the US is using white phosporous against civilians in Iraq. That's a chemical weapon, and it's use against anything other than equipment is banned by the UN. And that's what the Italian news service La Repubblica claims we're doing. According to this story, we're also using a new form of NAPALM. Remember napalm? Vietnam? Used to kill all vegetation in the jungle. Caused untold injuries to our own soldiers?

Two weeks ago the UK Independent ran an article which confirmed that the US had “lied to Britain over the use of napalm in Iraq”. (6-17-05) Since then, not one American newspaper or TV station has picked up the story even though the Pentagon has verified the claims. This is the extent to which the American “free press” is yoked to the center of power in Washington. [...] (UK) Defense Minister, Adam Ingram, admitted that the US had misled the British high-command about the use of napalm, but he would not comment on the extent of the cover up. The use of firebombs puts the US in breach of the 1980 Convention on Certain Chemical Weapons (CCW) and is a violation the Geneva Protocol against the use of white phosphorous, “since its use causes indiscriminate and extreme injuries especially when deployed in an urban area.”

I don't know whether or not every claim the US government has made about Saddam Hussein (used chemical weapons, tortured people, created rape rooms) was replicated by our military, but it sure looks that way. Our moral authority is so non-existent as a result of this war, that when the President stammers "We do not torture" but demands that we be allowed to do so, it's sadly consistent.