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August 05, 2003

Firebombing, Not Napalming Iraqis

More lies from the Bush administration.

Back during the war, allegations were made that the US was using banned napalm against Iraqi troops. The charge was quickly denied.

Well it turns out the US military did use use firebombs on Iraqi troops, with weapons that operate essentially like napalm:

Apparently the spokesmen were drawing a distinction between the terms "firebomb" and "napalm." If reporters had asked about firebombs, officials said yesterday they would have confirmed their use. What the Marines dropped, the spokesmen said yesterday, were "Mark 77 firebombs." They acknowledged those are incendiary devices with a function "remarkably similar" to napalm weapons. Rather than using gasoline and benzene as the fuel, the firebombs use kerosene-based jet fuel, which has a smaller concentration of benzene...

"You can call it something other than napalm, but it's napalm," said John Pike, defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan research group in Alexandria, Va. "Incendiaries create burns that are difficult to treat," said Robert Musil, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a Washington group that opposes the use of weapons of mass destruction. Musil described the Pentagon's distinction between napalm and Mark 77 firebombs as "pretty outrageous."...

[Marine spokesman Col. Michael Daily said: "many folks (out of habit) refer to the Mark 77 as 'napalm' because its effect upon the target is remarkably similar."

This is a child's lie by the Bush administration, like crossing your fingers, or claiming a charge you know is false is true because you quote the British government.

To deny Napalm is being used, when what was observed by troops and reporters was a weapon that operates exactly like Napalm and which soldiers in the field refer to as napalm, is plain deceit. Nothing that comes out of their mouths can be trusted as they plain games with the truth at every turn, whether about the war or the economy.

Posted by Nathan at August 5, 2003 03:11 PM

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