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u.s. states using chemical weapons in iraw?!
Originally posted by (e) U.S. States?You do know what USA stands for right?
Originally posted by mm i moved to downtown baghdad?why didn\'t anyone tell me!
Reaching for the moral low groundNov 17th 2005 | BAGHDADFrom The Economist print editionAmerica\'s promotion of democracy and human rights looks awkwardA VILE discovery and a grave allegation apparently backed up by hideous photographic evidence have made the United States look hypocritical in its promotion of democracy and human rights in the Middle East. The discovery, by America\'s own troops, was of 173 starving prisoners, some tortured, in a building run by America\'s allies in Iraq\'s interior ministry. The grave allegation concerned the use, by American soldiers when they recaptured the rebel town of Fallujah last year, of white phosphorus. Did the Americans flout the rules governing the use of chemical weapons, one reason for ousting Saddam Hussein?That Iraq\'s security forces habitually mistreat suspected insurgents is no secret. People in Sunni Arab districts, where the insurgency is rooted, say that they are sometimes arrested en masse by units conducting counter-insurgency sweeps and held in bad conditions and beaten, before being freed with a warning to “stop supporting terrorists”. There are also reports of sophisticated and systematic torture by some Iraqi units and of assassinations by death-squads, often connected to the ministry of interior, which in turn is dominated by the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the strongest Shia Arab party in the coalition government. Both American and Iraqi government officials readily concede they are worried by human-rights abuses by Iraqi forces. So far, however, little has been done to rein them in or charge any of them.This may change. The prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who heads the Dawa party, the main Shia rival to SCIRI within the ruling coalition, has promised an internal investigation; Sunni politicians have demanded an international inquiry. The interior minister, Bayan Jaber, a SCIRI man, is a particular bugbear of Sunnis, who say that SCIRI militias are taking revenge on behalf of Iran for the war Mr Hussein unleashed against it from 1980-88.The scandal over prisoners may sharpen enmity between Dawa and SCIRI, as the two parties stake claims for more powerful cabinet posts in the election run-up. How the Shias address allegations of abuse will strongly influence Sunnis. If the latter believe they have a secure place in a new Iraq, they may start distancing themselves from the insurgency; if they come to believe they are just another persecuted minority, they will still back it.The white phosphorus scandal is more complicated. The military use of the stuff for illuminating the sky during a night attack or for creating a smokescreen to cover an infantry or tank attack is generally regarded as acceptable. The Pentagon says it was used in those ways during its successful assault on Fallujah late last year.What is widely considered unacceptable, however, though perhaps not technically illegal, is the use of white phosphorus (“willy pete”, in military lingo) to winkle insurgents out of bunkers and foxholes by means of “shake and burn”. Moreover, filmshots shown on one of Italy\'s state-owned TV channels suggested that civilians were horribly burned by the stuff during the siege. If it was deliberately or negligently used in a manner that was bound to cause many civilian casualties, that would be a war crime.Using white phosphorus as a weapon (as opposed to a smokescreen) will be widely seen as breaching the spirit of a treaty—one that restricts “certain conventional weapons” deemed particularly cruel—to which America is party, even though it hasn\'t ratified the articles dealing specifically with incendiary materials.Exactly how the phosphorus was used, what the orders were or from how high up the chain of command they may have come, is not yet known. But it is clear that the Pentagon has some awkward explaining to do—and must come clean if the Americans are to claim the moral high ground in their war against terrorism.As for the behaviour of the Iraqi government and its security forces, the American conundrum is trickier. On the one hand, the Americans must give the elected government its head, for fear of making it look like a stooge. On the other, they cannot look the other way if human-rights abuses are committed that match those perpetrated by Mr Hussein\'s regime. The hope is that the emerging Iraqi authorities will seek out those who maltreated the 173 suspects and bring them to account. But this seems unlikely if SCIRI remains the strongest arm of Iraq\'s government.
