I was in London in November of last year after the disappointment of the 2004 elections. I wanted to get as far away as I could from the depressing whining of the lefties who were unable to understand how Americans could re-elect George W. To me, the answer was simple, America hated gays more than they loved their own children that we sent to war. I found the dark drizzle of London and the warm pubs with good beer comforting to my frame of mind at the time. While American newspapers were singing dirges to the Democratic Party, the London papers were full of the dreadful siege of Fallujah. The headlines screamed, "Americans Go All Out In Fallujah", not mentioning the obvious fact that if it weren't for the Brits and their support for the war, we wouldn't be there at all. The assault on Fallujah was reported on heavily in London last year, while getting little to no play in the American press. To this day, I don't think any American is aware of the extent that we reduced that city to rubble, and the terrible destruction we brought to that very populated city. With our mandate to the President, we Americans unleashed a fiery hell for anyone who did not evacuate that damned city.
What was most horrible about the assault on Fallujah? Was it the chemical weapon White Phosphorous that burned through human flesh to the bone? Was it the marines denying exit to any man of fighting age within the city? Was it the use of water and food deprivation to a city of many civilians? Do we know even Know the true story of Fallujah? Naomi Kline says this from the Guardian of London:
Eliminating Doctors. The first major operation by US Marines and Iraqi soldiers was to storm Fallujah General Hospital, arresting doctors and placing the facility under military control. The New York Times reported that, "The hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties," noting that "This time around, the American military intends to fight its own information war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent weapons." The Los Angeles Times quoted a doctor saying that the soldiers 'stole the mobile phones at the hospital preventing doctors from communicating with the outside world.
No communication, no reports of casualties.
What was most horrible about Fallujah? It's really hard to say. Maybe the use of cluster bombs in a crowded civilian area? A cluster bomb is one large bomb with hundreds of smaller bombs inside it. At some point in it's descention, the large bomb opens to unleash many small explosives about the size of a coke bottle When they explode, the bomblets cause damage and injury across a wide area. The explosive charge is capable of piercing armour to a depth of about 7 ins (17 cms). The blast has a radius of as much as 250 ft (76 m). Imagine what these might do to humans who have no protective armour, and having hundreds of these things dropped on a city as populated as Fallujah. Some of the bomblets fail to explode on impact, and litter the targets to explode at some later indefinite time.
Is the most horrible thing about Fallujah the chemical weapon White Phosphorus that explodes and continues to burn until it is deprived of oxygen? A chemical weapon like Napalm that our own Army has said should never be used against an enemy. Once in contact with a human, this chemical will burn long beyond the time that it takes for shock to set in, long beyond the time the human has died. The Pentagon admitted to using it against insurgents in Fallujah, only after it was brought to the our attention in an official Army publication that it was extremely effective in Fallujah. The troops even have an affectionate nickname for it. It's called Shake and Bake.
And I helped! (note to readers, you won't understand that last line unless you grew up in the late sixties and can still remember the Shake and Bake commercials).
I don't like to post long pieces, there are plenty of other publications out there that are informative and much better written that anything I can post on this site. But the siege of Fallujah can best be summed up by this piece in The Guardian by George Monbiot, that Fallujah was a war crime within a war crime.
But we shouldn't forget that the use of chemical weapons was a war crime within a war crime within a war crime. Both the invasion of Iraq and the assault on Falluja were illegal acts of aggression. Before attacking the city, the marines stopped men "of fighting age" from leaving. Many women and children stayed: the Guardian's correspondent estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 civilians were left. The marines treated Falluja as if its only inhabitants were fighters. They levelled thousands of buildings, illegally denied access to the Iraqi Red Crescent and, according to the UN's special rapporteur, used "hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population".
I have been reading accounts of the assault published in the Marine Corps Gazette. The soldiers appear to have believed everything the US government told them. One article claims that "the absence of civilians meant the marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes". Another said that "there were less than 500 civilians remaining in the city". It continued: "The heroics [of the marines] will be the subject of many articles and books ... The real key to this tactical victory rested in the spirit of the warriors who courageously fought the battle. They deserve all of the credit for liberating Falluja."
But buried in this hogwash is a grave revelation. An assault weapon the marines were using had been armed with warheads containing "about 35% thermobaric novel explosive (NE) and 65% standard high explosive". They deployed it "to cause the roof to collapse and crush the insurgents fortified inside interior rooms". It was used repeatedly: "The expenditure of explosives clearing houses was enormous."
What we don't know about Fallujah may be a godsend, not knowing enables us to go on with our daily lives, enables us to sleep at night, and spares us the shame of having given our President the mandate immediately after his election victory to commit atrocities in the names of all Americans. But when the truth comes out, there will be a judgment, and the world will ask us what we did to try to stop this from happening.
And at last, being a liberal will have some value.
