Our View: Military white phosphorus usage unethical

The war in Iraq has been bogged down in controversy since its beginning. The question of whether or not it is ethical to invade another country with unclear motives is one of the major focuses of those opposing the war. People advocating peace demonstrated in droves throughout major cities across the globe when President George W. Bush first declared war.

Activist signs frequently protested the loss of life, the unfair reasoning and even questioned the competence of our commander in chief. Never did these protestors mention qualms with the soldiers serving abroad or the methods they might employ.

Recent discoveries about attack techniques were exposed in the Nov. 28 issue of the Los Angeles Times. It appears that the respect and dignity U.S. citizens have gratuitously granted soldiers might have been premature.

Some soldiers in Iraq have been using a brutal, disrespectful method for outing Iraq’s insurgents, namely white phosphorous. White phosphorous is an extremely flammable substance soldiers usually use to illuminate the dark deserts they occupy, but the material has been applied to the task of torturously killing Iraqi insurgents.

The controversial aspect about white phosphorous is it can only be extinguished when its air supply has been consumed or the substance is otherwise cut off from oxygen. It is capable of burning through bone to reach an oxygen supply and has been likened to napalm with regards to the effects it has upon human contact.

Napalm was the infamous weapon used in Vietnam on communist foes and innocent civilians. The picture that sparked
much of the anti-Vietnam sentiment in America was the photograph of Kim Phuc, a small child in North Vietnam, running nude through the streets wailing in pain because the napalm had burnt through her clothes and part of her skin.

Although war is measured in the amount of blood shed, using a technique as inhuman as an incendiary is abominable and should be openly condemned by those in the White House. Instead, our imprudent political leaders chose to deny the allegations until overwhelming evidence forced them to acknowledge the use of this substance as a weapon.

Fallujah residents claim the chemical was used on non-militant citizens, but U.S. officials purport the claim is false.

Officials may never have to claim responsibility for the death of Fallujah citizens because the charred remains of victims of white phosphorous barely resemble human beings after the chemical has been extinguished.

The White House used claims about the cruel and torturous methods Sadaam Hussein employed against his people to gather support from sympathetic Americans who wished to rescue suffering Iraqis from the clutches of an evil dictator.

War is brutal, and it always has been, but if we are to condemn other political leaders for unethical treatment and using chemicals against innocent civilians, we must also strive to incorporate these standards in our own methods as we fight our battles.

If we are to act as a strong and forceful presence pressuring Western morality upon our Eastern neighbors we must lead by example, beginning with the ethical and humane treatment of those whose country we have invaded.

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