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#11
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washingtonpost.com
America Cluster Bombs Iraq By William M. Arkin Special to Washingtonpost.com Monday, February 26, 2001; 12:00 AM News media reports last week that 50 percent of the weapons fired at Iraqi military installations missed their so-called aimpoints obscures a more disturbing facet of the Feb. 16 attack: The U.S. jets used cluster bombs that have no real aimpoint and that kill and wound innocent civilians for years to come. This is not merely some insider detail. The choice of cluster bombs, still unnoticed by the American media, is likely to prove controversial. The weapon that was used in Iraq is formally known as Joint Stand-off Weapon (JSOW,pronounced jay-sow). It was first used in combat in Iraq on January 25, 1999, when Marine Corps F-18 Hornet's fired three weapons at an air defense site. The missile is described by the Navy, its primary developer, and Raytheon Systems, its manufacturer, as a long-range glide bomb. Acting Pentagon spokesman, Navy Rear Admiral Crag Quigley primly calls it an "area munition," doggedly avoiding the scattershot reality conveyed by the term ³cluster bomb.² Weapon of Choice Twenty eight JSOWs were fired by Navy aircraft in the in the Feb. 16 attack, along with guided missiles and laser-guided bombs. Pentagon sources say that 26 of the 28 JSOWs missed their aimpoints. The 1,000 pound, 14-foot-long weapon carries 145 anti-armor and anti-personnel incendiary bomblets which disperse over an area that is approximately 100 feet long and 200 feet wide. In short, this weapon, which Quigley describes as a "long-range, precision-guided, stand-off weapon," rains down deadly bomblets on an area the size of a football field with six bombs falling in every 1,000 square feet. So much for precision. The JSOW has quickly become a top weapon of choice for Navy and Marine Corps airplanes in the no fly zone mission for at least four reasons. It has as a range of more than 40 nautical miles when delivered from high altitude (20,000 feet about ground level). The dispersal of bomblets inflicts more lasting damage than a small warhead on an anti-radiation missile. Pilots can reprogram target coordinates right up to the moment of launch. And because the JSOW is guided by satellite, the delivering aircraft can "launch and leave.² "With JSOW we can attack SAMs [surface-to-air missiles] from well outside the threat rings and destroy rather than suppress" the target, a Navy document notes. In other words, years of bombing in Iraq have had less than spectacular results of Iraq¹s air defenses and the U.S. military is looking for some way of causing more permanent damage to the country's military capabilities. Launch and Leave Pilots may launch and leave, but the JSOW, like other cluster bombs, is unforgiving once aircraft deliver them. The JSOW releases its sub-munitions about 400 feet above its target. These bomblets are also used in the most prevalent modern U.S. cluster bomb, the CBU-87. But unlike the CBU-87, the JSOW does not spin to disperse its bomblets. Rather the JSOW uses a gasbag to propel the sub-munitions outward from the sides. Once ejected, the bomblets, each the size of soda can, simply fall freely at the mercy of local winds. A few almost always land outside of the center point of the football field size main concentration. On average 5 percent do not detonate. These unexploded bomblets then become highly volatile on the ground. Recently, U.S. Air Force engineers in Kuwait found an entire unexploded CBU-87 at an airbase that had been attacked during the Gulf War. The weapon had apparently malfunctioned and ripped open upon impact, burying bomblets up to six feet deep in the vicinity. To destroy them in place, a series of 10-foot high barriers had to be built inside a 700-foot wide safety cordon. Already this month, there has been one Iraqi civilian death and nine injuries from unexploded cluster bomblets, presumably all left over from the 1991 Gulf War. On Feb. 20, Agence France Press (AFP) reported that a shepherd was wounded near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq when an unexploded bomblet detonated. On Feb. 15, Reuters said two Iraqi boys in western Iraq, also tending sheep, were injured by a cluster bomblet. On Feb. 9, AFP reported a child was killed and six others were wounded by sub-munitions near Basra. February, it seems, is a fairly typical month for cluster bombs inflicting damage on innocent civilians. A Degrading Policy "What we have to do is make sure we continue to tell the world that we are not after the Iraqi people," Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNN on Feb. 12. That is a tough task given the use of a weapon which has unique civilian impact. Saddam Hussein relishes the cat and mouse game in and around the "no-fly" zones, almost welcoming bombing and civilian casualties if they will contribute to Baghdad's strategy of breaking the international consensus on sanctions and inspections. The use of cluster bombs against minor out-of-the-way targets, far from doing anything to ³degrade his capacity to harm our pilots,² as President Bush said at his Feb. 22 press conference, actually helps Iraq to achieve its foreign policy goals. "We think we've accomplished what we were looking for in the sense to degrade, disrupt the ability of the Iraqi air defenses to coordinate attacks against our aircraft," Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at the Pentagon on the day of the strikes. The vague objective "to degrade" is straight out of the go-nowhere Clinton playbook. We bomb, and even if virtually all of the JSOWs miss their aimpoints, the United States proclaims: "mission accomplished." After all, some level of degrading of Iraqi capabilities occurred. |
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=432201
US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 10 August 2003 American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions. The Pentagon denied using napalm at the time, but Marine pilots and their commanders have confirmed that they used an upgraded version of the weapon against dug-in positions. They said napalm, which has a distinctive smell, was used because of its psychological effect on an enemy. A 1980 UN convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns. The US, which did not sign the treaty, is one of the few countries that makes use of the weapon. It was employed notoriously against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam war. The upgraded weapon, which uses kerosene rather than petrol, was used in March and April, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river, south of Baghdad. "We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches," said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. "Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect." A reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald who witnessed another napalm attack on 21 March on an Iraqi observation post at Safwan Hill, close to the Kuwaiti border, wrote the following day: "Safwan Hill went up in a huge fireball and the observation post was obliterated. 'I pity anyone who is in there,' a Marine sergeant said. 'We told them to surrender.'" At the time, the Pentagon insisted the report was untrue. "We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on 4 April, 2001," it said. The revelation that napalm was used in the war against Iraq, while the Pentagon denied it, has outraged opponents of the war. "Most of the world understands that napalm and incendiaries are a horrible, horrible weapon," said Robert Musil, director of the organisation Physicians for Social Responsibility. "It takes up an awful lot of medical resources. It creates horrible wounds." Mr Musil said denial of its use "fits a pattern of deception [by the US administration]". The Pentagon said it had not tried to deceive. It drew a distinction between traditional napalm, first invented in 1942, and the weapons dropped in Iraq, which it calls Mark 77 firebombs. They weigh 510lbs, and consist of 44lbs of polystyrene-like gel and 63 gallons of jet fuel. Officials said that if journalists had asked about the firebombs their use would have been confirmed. A spokesman admitted they were "remarkably similar" to napalm but said they caused less environmental damage. But John Pike, director of the military studies group GlobalSecurity.Org, said: "You can call it something other than napalm but it is still napalm. It has been reformulated in the sense that they now use a different petroleum distillate, but that is it. The US is the only country that has used napalm for a long time. I am not aware of any other country that uses it." Marines returning from Iraq chose to call the firebombs "napalm". Mr Musil said the Pentagon's effort to draw a distinction between the weapons was outrageous. He said: "It's Orwellian. They do not want the public to know. It's a lie." In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Marine Corps Maj-Gen Jim Amos confirmed that napalm was used on several occasions in the war. |
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On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 06:24:27 -0500, Cub Driver wrote:
Social psychologists have for years known that when people are confronted with a message that challenges their beliefs they suffer dissonance which causes psychological discomfort Psychological discomfort! That's Teddy Kennedy, all right! There are a number of people who give me that kind of psychological discomfort, including Richard Nixon. It's not the message that causes the discomfort, my friend. It's the messenger. Some people could recite the Ten Commandments, and I would dismiss everything they say, including Richard Nixon and Teddy Kennedy, and Adolf Hitler and Richard Dahlmer, and ... all the best -- Dan Ford email: see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com Not to mention the fact that "social psychologists" read tea leaves, consult the intestines of goats, etc. They are, by any reasonable measure, not scientists and anything that they "know" is derived from PFM. (Pure F******* Magic). Al Minyard |
#14
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gee, ain't it interesting that the object of war is to KILL PEOPLE
What's your point? End war? Nice ideal, but not possible in the current political situation. (sorry, I'm less than sympathetic) "Werner J. Severin" wrote in message t... Arming Iraq and the Path to War A crisis always has a history, and the current crisis with Iraq is no exception. Below are some relevant dates. September,1980. Iraq invades Iran. The beginning of the Iraq-Iran war. (8) February, 1982. Despite objections from congress, President Reagan removes Iraq from its list of known terrorist countries. (1) December, 1982. Hughes Aircraft ships 60 Defender helicopters to Iraq. (9) 1982-1988. Defense Intelligence Agency provides detailed information for Iraq on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for air strikes and bomb damage assessments. (4) November, 1983. A National Security Directive states that the U.S would do "whatever was necessary and legal" to prevent Iraq from losing its war with Iran. (1) (15) November, 1983. Banca Nazionale del Lavoro of Italy and its Branch in Atlanta begin to funnel $5 billion in unreported loans to Iraq. Iraq, with the blessing and official approval of the US government, purchased computer controlled machine tools, computers, scientific instruments, special alloy steel and aluminum, chemicals, and other industrial goods for Iraq's missile, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. (14) October, 1983. The Reagan Administration begins secretly allowing Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt to transfer United States weapons, including Howitzers, Huey helicopters, and bombs to Iraq. These shipments violated the Arms Export Control Act. (16) November 1983. George Schultz, the Secretary of State, is given intelligence reports showing that Iraqi troops are daily using chemical weapons against the Iranians. (1) December 20, 1983 Donald Rumsfeld , then a civilian and now Defense Secretary, meets with Saddam Hussein to assure him of US friendship and materials support. (1) (15) July, 1984. CIA begins giving Iraq intelligence necessary to calibrate its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. (19) January 14, 1984. State Department memo acknowledges United States shipment of "dual-use" export hardware and technology. Dual use items are civilian items such as heavy trucks, armored ambulances and communications gear as well as industrial technology that can have a military application. (2) March, 1986. The United States with Great Britain block all Security Council resolutions condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons, and on March 21 the US becomes the only country refusing to sign a Security Council statement condemning Iraq's use of these weapons. (10) May, 1986. The US Department of Commerce licenses 70 biological exports to Iraq between May of 1985 and 1989, including at least 21 batches of lethal strains of anthrax. (3) May, 1986. US Department of Commerce approves shipment of weapons grade botulin poison to Iraq. (7) March, 1987. President Reagan bows to the findings of the Tower Commission admitting the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for hostages. Oliver North uses the profits from the sale to fund an illegal war in Nicaragua. (17) Late 1987. The Iraqi Air Force begins using chemical agents against Kurdish resistance forces in northern Iraq. (1) February, 1988. Saddam Hussein begins the "Anfal" campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq. The Iraq regime used chemical weapons against the Kurds killing over 100,000 civilians and destroying over 1,200 Kurdish villages. (8) April, 1988. US Department of Commerce approves shipment of chemicals used in manufacture of mustard gas. (7) August, 1988. Four major battles were fought from April to August 1988, in which the Iraqis massively and effectively used chemical weapons to defeat the Iranians. Nerve gas and blister agents such as mustard gas are used. By this time the US Defense Intelligence Agency is heavily involved with Saddam Hussein in battle plan assistance, intelligence gathering and post battle debriefing. In the last major battle with of the war, 65,000 Iranians are killed, many with poison gas. Use of chemical weapons in war is in violation of the Geneva accords of 1925. (6) (13) August, 1988. Iraq and Iran declare a cease fire. (8) August, 1988. Five days after the cease fire Saddam Hussein sends his planes and helicopters to northern Iraq to begin massive chemical attacks against the Kurds. (8) September, 1988. US Department of Commerce approves shipment of weapons grade anthrax and botulinum to Iraq. (7) September 1988. Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State: "The US-Iraqi relationship is... important to our long-term political and economic objectives." (15) December, 1988. Dow chemical sells $1.5 million in pesticides to Iraq despite knowledge that these would be used in chemical weapons. (1) July 25, 1990. US Ambassador to Baghdad meets with Hussein to assure him that President Bush "wanted better and deeper relations". Many believe this visit was a trap set for Hussein. A month later Hussein invaded Kuwait thinking the US would not respond. (12) August, 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait. The precursor to the Gulf War. (8) July, 1991 The Financial Times of London reveals that a Florida chemical company had produced and shipped cyanide to Iraq during the 80's using a special CIA courier. Cyanide was used extensively against the Iranians. (11) August, 1991. Christopher Droguol of Atlanta's branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro is arrested for his role in supplying loans to Iraq for the purchase of military supplies. He is charged with 347 counts of felony. Droguol is found guilty, but US officials plead innocent of any knowledge of his crime. (14) June, 1992. Ted Kopple of ABC Nightline reports: "It is becoming increasingly clear that George Bush Sr., operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980's, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into [an aggressive power]." (5) July, 1992. "The Bush administration deliberately, not inadvertently, helped to arm Iraq by allowing U.S. technology to be shipped to Iraqi military and to Iraqi defense factories... Throughout the course of the Bush administration, U.S. and foreign firms were granted export licenses to ship U.S. technology directly to Iraqi weapons facilities despite ample evidence showing that these factories were producing weapons." Representative Henry Gonzalez, Texas, testimony before the House. (18) February, 1994. Senator Riegle from Michigan, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, testifies before the senate revealing large US shipments of dual-use biological and chemical agents to Iraq that may have been used against US troops in the Gulf War and probably was the cause of the illness known as Gulf War Syndrome. (7) August, 2002. "The use of gas [during the Iran-Iraq war] on the battle field by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern... We were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose". Colonel Walter Lang, former senior US Defense Intelligence officer tells the New York Times. (4) This chronology of the United States' sordid involvement in the arming of Iraq can be summarized in this way: The United States used methods both legal and illegal to help build Saddam's army into the most powerful army in the Mideast outside of Israel. The US supplied chemical and biological agents and technology to Iraq when it knew Iraq was using chemical weapons against the Iranians. The US supplied the materials and technology for these weapons of mass destruction to Iraq at a time when it was know that Saddam was using this technology to kill his Kurdish citizens. The United States supplied intelligence and battle planning information to Iraq when those battle plans included the use of cyanide, mustard gas and nerve agents. The United States blocked UN censure of Iraq's use of chemical weapons. The United States did not act alone in this effort. The Soviet Union was the largest weapons supplier, but England, France and Germany were also involved in the shipment of arms and technology. So what do these events have to do with the current conflict? Just this: If we do go to war with Iraq, it is important to know why. War will not really be about terrorism. Twenty years ago the United States threw its support behind Saddam Hussein in a geopolitical bid for enhanced access to oil. The trajectory given him by our support lead directly to the Gulf War and to the current crises. War, after all, will be about a history of misdeeds and miscalculations. And war will not be about morality. War will be about cynicism, deceit and a thirst for oil that knows no boundaries. John King Long Prairie, MN 1. Washingtonpost.com. December 30, 2002 2. Jonathan Broder. Nuclear times, Winter 1990-91 3. Kurt Nimno. AlterNet. September 23, 2002 4. Newyorktimes.com. August 29, 2002 5. ABC Nightline. June9, 1992 6. Counter Punch, October 10, 2002 7. Riegle Report: Dual Use Exports. Senate Committee on Banking. May 25, 1994 8. Timeline: A walk Through Iraq's History. U.S. Department of State 9. Doing Business: The Arming of Iraq. Daniel Robichear 10. Glen Rangwala. Labor Left Briefing, 16 September, 2002 11. Financial Times of London. July 3, 1991 12. Elson E. Boles. Counter Punch. October 10, 2002 13. Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988. Iranchamber.com 14. Columbia Journalism Review. March/April 1993. Iraqgate 15. Times Online. December 31, 2002. How U.S. Helped Iraq Build Deadly Arsenal 16. Bush's Secret Mission. The New Yorker Magazine. November 2, 1992 17. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia: Iran-Contra Affair 18. Congressional Record. July 27, 1992. Representative Henry B. Gonzalez 19. Bob Woodward. CIA Aiding Iraq in Gulf War. Washington Post. 15 December, 1986 20. WWW.gendercide.com http://www.gendercide.com . Case Study: The Anfal Campaign |
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On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 18:36:55 GMT, "DALing"
daling43[delete]-at-hotmail.com wrote: gee, ain't it interesting that the object of war is to KILL PEOPLE Err, no. That's a tactic or strategy. The object is to accomplish whatever got you into the war in the first place. And "people" is not an undifferentiated mass. |
#16
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In article , "DALing"
daling43[delete]-at-hotmail.com wrote: gee, ain't it interesting that the object of war is to KILL PEOPLE What's your point? End war? Nice ideal, but not possible in the current political situation. (sorry, I'm less than sympathetic) "Werner J. Severin" wrote in message t... Arming Iraq and the Path to War A crisis always has a history, and the current crisis with Iraq is no exception. Below are some relevant dates. You need not lecture me on the object of war. More than half a century ago I soldiered my way across half of Europe (probably long before you were born). Served 45 months in the Army, 39 consecutive months overseas. Shipped over on a troopship at age 18 and returned to be discharged as a Staff Sgt. six weeks before my 22 birthday. I have seen what war does to people and cities. We do have the Geneva conventions and other international treaties. Too bad we ignore them. And the point of my post was that we were highly involved in providing Iraq with the weapons we now condemn them for having used. And we knew they were using them. |
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In article ,
Goomba38 wrote: "Werner J. Severin" wrote: I may agree with your evaluation of the communicator, but how about the content? That it doesn't belong on a cooking group, nor crossposted So why continue to cross-post it? |
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OK, so HOW do you accomplish the objective? You kill people. (ever hear of
a "bloodless war?") Some "collateral damages" are essentially inevitable. Tough - that's the nature of the beast. "Dick Locke" wrote in message news On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 18:36:55 GMT, "DALing" daling43[delete]-at-hotmail.com wrote: gee, ain't it interesting that the object of war is to KILL PEOPLE Err, no. That's a tactic or strategy. The object is to accomplish whatever got you into the war in the first place. And "people" is not an undifferentiated mass. |
#19
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True, US supplying of Iraq was more the issue of "my enemy's enemy is my
friend" than anything else. Politics makes strange bedfellows, doesn't it? (oh, and I got out of the army myself about 40 years ago - VietNam and all that) "Werner J. Severin" wrote in message .... In article , "DALing" daling43[delete]-at-hotmail.com wrote: gee, ain't it interesting that the object of war is to KILL PEOPLE What's your point? End war? Nice ideal, but not possible in the current political situation. (sorry, I'm less than sympathetic) "Werner J. Severin" wrote in message t... Arming Iraq and the Path to War A crisis always has a history, and the current crisis with Iraq is no exception. Below are some relevant dates. You need not lecture me on the object of war. More than half a century ago I soldiered my way across half of Europe (probably long before you were born). Served 45 months in the Army, 39 consecutive months overseas. Shipped over on a troopship at age 18 and returned to be discharged as a Staff Sgt. six weeks before my 22 birthday. I have seen what war does to people and cities. We do have the Geneva conventions and other international treaties. Too bad we ignore them. And the point of my post was that we were highly involved in providing Iraq with the weapons we now condemn them for having used. And we knew they were using them. |
#20
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"DALing" daling43[delete]-at-hotmail.com wrote in message ... True, US supplying of Iraq was more the issue of "my enemy's enemy is my friend" than anything else. Politics makes strange bedfellows, doesn't it? (oh, and I got out of the army myself about 40 years ago - VietNam and all that) As an american citizen, I humbly apologize for what our country did to our VietNam veterans and their families. I shudder to think what we will be doing to our Iraqi Invasion vets. |
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