Death for Chemical Ali, what about the Uranium Yank?
There can be no acceptable defense for deploying weapons that indiscriminately kill civilians.
Military necessity? Rubbish. One hardly needs to gas an entire population to crush an insurgency (despite what the yanks might be feeling right now). People you’re gassing aren’t loyal? No excuse. Following orders? hah.
Although on principle I deplore any death sentence, the likes of Chemical Ali need to be found guilty, they must never fail to be brought to account in some form of judicial process. Those who would resort to means like this must know that it is criminal, it is a crime against the whole of humanity, and the whole of humanity wont rest until they are brought to account.
Which brings me to the issue of Uranium Yank.
Any condemnation of Chemical Ali, and any defense he might make claim to, can also be applied to the United States’ use of depleted uranium munitions.
Yeah, they work better than lead or tungsten, and yeah, it’s cheap. It’s also indiscriminate, places that have been bombed by the US experience record high levels of cancer and leukemia. No matter how smart the bomb, everyone in the society is affected for decades after woulds by the medical problems.
As we contemplate the sentencing of war criminal Chemical Ali, I hope that anyone who is in anyway connected with the United States’ military effort is contemplating the parallels. Military necessity or no, depleted uranium tipped warheads indiscriminately target civilians in just the same way chemical weapons kill armed rebels and unarmed civilians in a town.
Stories the server thinks are related:
Posted: by Kieran June 26th, 2007 under Human Rights, Law, Iraq, United States.
Comments: 3
Comments
Comment from MorningDude
Time: June 26, 2007, 3:26 pm
The interesting thing about the sentencing of Chemical Ali is that originally the charge against the gassing of the Kurds in Halabja was not going to be raised because of the US complicity in originally covering it up.
When the gassings first made the Western press and because the US was fully supporting and arming Saddam (Rumsfeld made several visits to Saddam) the US could not openly condemn Saddam for this this act, so instead the CIA blamed it on Iran. It is easy to check up as US newspaper headlines at the time quite plainly state “CIA reports Iran gasses Iraqi Kurds”.
It has since been inferred that because of the US’s tacit approval by cover up of Saddam’s atrocities (the gassings were just one of several the US covered up at the time), that Saddam took this as an OK to do what he wanted no matter how bad, so he did.
The telling factor is that if you look at all Saddam’s atrocities (dating the mass graves for one thing), the vast majority took place when the US were supporting him.
So not having punished the Iraqi people enough through first supporting Saddam, then imposing the harshest sanctions ever perpetrated on a country and finally invading and really destroying their lives, they US is making sure even more misery is left behind in the time bombs of depleted uranium.
Comment from The Happy Revolutionary
Time: June 27, 2007, 6:14 am
Excellent post and comment.
However, you should know by now that ‘victims’ are only victims when ‘they’ do it.
Pingback from Club Troppo » Missing Link - 27 June 2007
Time: June 27, 2007, 9:14 pm
[…] begins his march to the gallows, Kieran wonders when justice will catch up with the people who used depleted uranium munitions on the residents of the same […]
Write a comment