And the War Burns On

The search for weapons of mass destruction has ended on the home front. The latest US recruit, Willy Peter, appeared in Iraq using chemical weapons against the Iraqi insurgency. This is Willy Peter’s second tour of duty. He made his first appearance in November 2004 during the battle of Fallujah in what the US called the “shake and bake” missions to force out insurgent positions.

Willy Peter, the military nickname of white phosphorus, has again become the latest military tactic in the US’s attempt to bring democracy to Iraq. White phosphorus is a chemical weapon similar to napalm, except the 800-1,000 °C burns of white phosphorus penetrate through to the bone.

Two reports revealed the Pentagon regarded the use of white phosphorus as “an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.”* A March 2005 magazine article in Field Artillery and reports from embedded US journalists conflicted with the Pentagon’s original message of “we don’t use napalm or chemical weapons.”*

In a war that was never meant to last years and was to liberate persecuted people, the line between oppressors and oppressed is blurred. Using chemical force to drive the enemies “out of their holes*” is a tactic that should be unfamiliar to most Americans.

As our country attempts to establish who can and cannot have weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon claims the use of white phosphorus as an illumination tactic should in no capacity categorize this compound as a chemical weapon. The use of white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon skirts the boundaries of the Geneva Convention on Biological and Chemical Weapons of 1980. The US has yet to sign this agreement that bans using incendiary weapons in civilian regions.*

Clearly our country, with its great wisdom, has decided to become not only the weapons inspector but weapons enforcer. And as the weapons czar, the US has the power to use any weapon it deems necessary to complete a military mission, despite such weapons outlawed by countries of potential terrorist capabilities.

With a global agreement in place to reduce the stockpiling of weaponry and withhold the use of chemical and biological weapons in civilian areas, the US should not rise above international law. If white phosphorus is not considered a chemical weapon, despite phosphorus as one of the most volatile periodic elements, the US again enters the rhetorical war as the self-proclaimed weapons czar who decides what is correct and not correct.

The Iraq War has been a battle of rhetoric since the first bombs destroyed Iraqi homes. The public must understand the chemistry and the barbaric effects of this pyrophoric substance so that considering white phosphorus a non chemical weapon is meaningless.

The reports of torture, clandestine prisons, and now the questionable use of white phosphorus should make everyone wonder about the mission our country has undertaken. The most powerful and technologically sophisticated country in the world uses warfare tactics that were only thought capable by the enemy? What country sets these examples for a burgeoning democracy?

The trenches have grown so deep that the current government seems to now turn to any means necessary to dig itself out. A country of such wealth and privilege should have the ingenuity and wisdom to save itself while saving the lives of others, for power is useful if one knows how to use it and not abuse it.

*Quotes and facts provided by “Chemical Weapons: Willy Peter” by Danny Mayer for the January 2006 issue of Z Magazine.

This Article Published in "The Hurricane"