"Living under the bombs"--- article from Asia Times

[TexasLawyer]

Good article about America's new strategy to avoid US casualties in Iraq through indiscriminate bombing of resistance targets. It is now estimated that 75% of the homes and buildings in Fallujah were destroyed either by warplanes, helicopters or artillery barrages; most of the remaining 25% were damaged. This is another moral issue, possibly even bigger than Abu Ghraib.


Middle East
Feb 4, 2005

Living under the bombs
By Dahr Jamail

One of the least reported aspects of the US occupation of Iraq is the oftentimes indiscriminate use of air power by the US military. The Western mainstream media have generally failed to attend to the F-16 warplanes dropping their payloads of 500-, 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs on Iraqi cities - or to the results of these attacks. While some of the bombs and missiles fall on resistance fighters, the majority of the casualties are civilian - mothers, children, the elderly, and other unarmed civilians.


<snip>

With their ground troops stretched thin and growing haggard - 30% of them, after all, are already on their second tour of duty in the brutal occupation of Iraq - US military commanders appear to be relying more than ever on air power to give themselves an edge. The November assault on Fallujah did not even begin until warplanes had, on a near-daily basis, dropped 500-1,000-pound (227-454-kilogram) bombs on suspected resistance targets in the besieged city. During that period, fighter jets ripped through the air over Baghdad for nights on end, heading out on mission after mission to drop their payloads on Fallujah.

"Air power remains the single greatest asymmetrical advantage the United States has over its foes," writes Thomas Searle, a military defense analyst with the Airpower Research Institute at Maxwell Air Force Base in the US state of Alabama. "To make air power truly effective against guerrillas in that war, we cannot wait for the joint force commander or the ground component commander to tell us what to do. Rather, we must aggressively develop and employ air power's counter-guerrilla capabilities."

"Aggressively employ air power's capabilities" - indeed they have.

<snip>
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB04Ak04.html

[Oversea Visitor]

1. And Napalm being use on targets

There are many photographic evidence of napalm being use on civilians.

[slay]

2. America is indeed the bully of the world

We use our massive weapons to slaughter relatively primitive people and call it a "war". :(

[slipslidingaway]

3. Another moral issue is the depleted uranium weapons

If this topic was covered more by the media people would be outraged.

http://www.barremore.net/depleted-uranium-kills.html

"Depleted Uranium On The Battlefield
Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a "liberation" gift that will keep on giving. Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually stored at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear.

According to a report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; & the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.

Ironically, support for our troops will extend well beyond the war in Iraq. Americans will be supporting Gulf War II veterans for years as they slowly and painfully succumb to radiation poisoning."


http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/4.html

"Amy Goodman interviewed Durakovic later the same month on Democracy Now!— don't know if it was thanks to my story. AlterNet rejected the story because their source on depleted uranium, John Fahey, did not agree with it.
I don't know of any mainstream media that has picked up the story, and I don't find any references to the Gonzalez piece either. The BBC and the Seattle Post Intelligencer covered it before me.

To learn more about uranium weapons search the web! It's a huge topic. Start with the world Uranium Weapons Conference held last October in Hamburg: <http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de> The Power Point by Dr. Ali shows the most excruciating consequences of Persian Gulf One -- deformed babies. Also, Join WBW! Women for a Better World has begun an information campaign to educate the public about depleted uranium, especially young people who might be called to join the military and their families, regarding the contamination of Central Eurasia. Come to our web site for more information, flyers, and to sign a petition opposing the draft for the same reason. <http://www.awakenedwoman.com/wbw.htm>"

[OneBlueSky]

4. DU not only contaminates Iraq and Iraqis, it also . . .

has devastating health effects on our own troops . . . Gulf War Syndrome is likely due, in large part, to exposure to DU weapons, and a huge percentage of the troops who served in the first Gulf war are now experiencing all kinds of major health problems . . . imagine what the situation will be following this war, in which the use of DU weapons increased dramatically . . . not to mention the impact on the Iraqis themselves, and large portions of their country . . .

George W. Bush and his cronies are war criminals who must be brought to justice not only for invading and occupying a sovreign nation that posed no threat to us, but for what they have done to that nation and its people . . .

[slipslidingaway]

5. Yes our own troops as well are being hurt. I wonder how many

people in the US are aware of this fact, I just learned last year and have tried to spread the word.

Here is the Superbox site at Aberdeen Testing Center that was built for testing purposes. If it was safe then why was this built. Aside from the financial cost of this war, if the people knew more about this danger I doubt they would be as quick to fight the 'terrorists' in Iraq.

http://www.atc.army.mil/fac_guide/facilities/superbox.html

http://nucnews.net/2000/du/du.htm

You probably know this but maybe others will read.