Incinerating Iraqis: The napalm cover up

[HomerRamone]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=21693

Mike Whitney: 'Incinerating Iraqis: The napalm cover up'
Date: Monday, June 27 @ 09:57:46 EDT
Topic: War & Terrorism

By Mike Whitney

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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. As we've seen with the treatment of the Downing Street memo, (which was reluctantly reported 5 weeks after it appeared in the British press) the air-tight American media ignores any story that doesn't embrace their collective support for the war. The prospect that the US military is using "universally reviled" weapons runs counter to the media-generated narrative that the war was motivated by humanitarian concerns (to topple a brutal dictator) as well as to eliminate the elusive WMDs. We can now say with certainty that the only WMDs in Iraq were those that were introduced by foreign invaders from the US who used them to incinerate the indigenous people who dared to resist.

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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."

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Dr Shaykhli's claims have been corroborated by numerous eyewitness accounts as well as reports that "all forms of nature were wiped out in Falluja"...as well as "hundreds, of stray dogs, cats, and birds that had perished as a result of those gasses." An unidentified chemical was used in the bombing raids that killed every living creature in certain areas of the city.

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The US "free press" is a completely integrated part of the state-information system. Their meticulously managed message has been the only part of the entire Iraqi debacle that hasn't suffered the ill-effects of the bunglers in Washington. From Dana Milbank to Judith Miller, from FOX News to CNN, from Tom Friedman to Tom Brokaw, they have been a steadfast ally to the powerbrokers they serve; providing the diversions, omissions and cheerleading that are required to keep the public acquiescent during a savage colonial war. Given the scope of their culpability for the violence in Iraq, it's unlikely that the use of napalm will cause any great crisis of conscience. Their deft coverage has already facilitated the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people; a few more charred Iraqis shouldn't matter.