Banned weapons in Iraq -- and the election connection

A reader sent me a partial transcript of the RAI documentary. Keep in mind, as you read, that we are singatory to a treaty banning the use of such weapons on civilians.

Q. Were chemical weapons used in Fallujah?

Former US soldier Jeff Englehart in his house in Colorado: "From the US
military, yeah, absolutely. White phosphorus. Possibly napalm. It may
or may not have been used, I don't know. I do know that white phosphorus
was used, which is definitely without a shadow of a doubt a chemical
weapon."

Q. Is he sure of it?

Englehart: "Yes. It happened."

Q. How can he be certain?

Englehart: "Well it comes across the radio as a general transmission.
When it happens like that you hear it on the radio through -- we have
speakers in our trucks, the transmission goes through the speakers so
it's audible. And as they say, in 5 mics we're going to drop some Whisky
Pete, roger. Commence bombing. I mean, it just comes across the radio.
When you hear Whisky Pete, that's the military slang."

Englehart: "The gases from the warhead, the white phosphorus will
disperse in a cloud and when it makes contact with skin then it's absolutely
irreversible damage, burning flesh to the bone. It doesn't necessarily
burn clothes but it will burn the skin underneath clothes. And this is
why protective masks do not help because it will burn right through the
mask, the rubber of the mask, it will manage to get inside your face.
If you breathe it it will blister your throat and your lungs till you
suffocate. And then it will burn you from the inside. It basically reacts
to skin, oxygen and water. The only way to stop the burning is with wet
mud. But at that point it's just impossible to stop."

Q. Have you seen the affects of these weapons?

Englehart: "Yes, burned bodies. Burned children and burned women. White
phosphorus kills indiscriminately. It's a cloud that will, within most
cases, to 150 meters of impact it will disperse and will burn every
human being and animal."

Englehart: "I don't doubt that American soldiers who are frustrated
after being involved in combat for a year would have any problems with
doing any kind of vandalism. I mean it's very common. Indiscriminate
vandalism. I mean, there was carvings in the walls at Babylon, an ancient
structure. A historical monument. It was common for soldiers to carve,
you know, 'hello mom I'm from Texas' on the walls. I just think there's a
certain lack of respect in the military ranks especially when dealing
with frustrated soldiers. I personally did not witness any mosque
vandalism. (...) was good about keeping that very controlled. But I did hear
stories, places such as Samarra, Baghdad, Mazul, mosques being
attacked, mosques being vandalized, the Koran being damaged. I think it's very
common."

Q: is it true that you waited for the results of the elections,
confirmation of a victory for Bush before bombing Fallujah?

Englehart: "I'm glad you brought this question up. It's...That was
definitely the case. Even in the ranks, in the military ranks we knew what
was going on. They told us that we were going to wait after the
election, the American election, before going into Fallujah. We had already
set up the whole operation, like, it was ready to go, and we were waiting
for two or three days for this election to be over with and then when
the election was so close between Kerry and Bush it was almost pissing
off a lot of the high command because they wanted to hurry up and get in
there and get it going. And they didn't want happened in 2000 with Gore
and Bush, the long drawn-out process that lasted almost a week to find
out who won. When Kerry conceded though, it was like within a matter of
a day it was going, it was happening. That was definitely the case. We
waited till after the election. We were told directly from the Pentagon
to wait until after the election to go into Fallujah and that's exactly
what we did."