Untitled Document
“You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world
smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time
we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't
find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline
smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory.”
-- Robert Duvall, “Apocalypse Now” (1979)
Two weeks ago the UK Independent ran an article that confirmed the US had “lied
to Britain over the use of napalm in Iraq.” (6-17-05) Since then, not one
American newspaper or TV station has picked up the story even though the Pentagon
has verified the claims. This is the extent to which the American “free
press” is yoked to the center of power in Washington. As we’ve seen
with the treatment of the Downing Street Memo, (which was reluctantly reported
five weeks after it appeared in the British press) the air-tight American media
ignores any story that doesn’t embrace their collective support for the
war. The prospect that the US military is using “universally reviled”
weapons runs counter to the media-generated narrative that the war was motivated
by humanitarian concerns (to topple a brutal dictator) as well as to eliminate
the elusive WMDs. We can now say with certainty that the only WMDs in Iraq were
those that were introduced by foreign invaders from the US who used them to incinerate
the indigenous people who dared to resist.
“Despite persistent rumors of injuries among Iraqis consistent with the
use of incendiary weapons such as napalm,” the Pentagon insisted that
“US forces had not used a new generation of incendiary weapons, codenamed
MK77, in Iraq.” (UK Independent)
The Pentagon lied.
Defense Minister, Adam Ingram, admitted that the US had misled the British
high command about the use of napalm, but he would not comment on the extent
of the cover up. The use of firebombs puts the US in breach of the 1980 Convention
on Certain Chemical Weapons (CCW) and is a violation the Geneva Protocol against
the use of white phosphorous, “since its use causes indiscriminate and
extreme injuries especially when deployed in an urban area.”
Regrettably, “indiscriminate and extreme injuries” are a vital
part of the American terror-campaign in Iraq; a well-coordinated strategy designed
to spawn panic through random acts of violence.
It’s clear that the military never needed to use napalm in Iraq. Their
conventional weaponry and laser-guided technology were already enough to run
roughshod over the Iraqi army and seize Baghdad almost unobstructed. Napalm
was introduced simply to terrorize the Iraqi people, to pacify through intimidation.
Cheney, Rumsfeld and Negroponte are old hands at terrorism, dating back to their
counterinsurgency projects in Nicaragua and El Salvador under Ronald Reagan.
They know that the threat of immolation serves as a powerful deterrent and fits
seamlessly into their overarching scheme of rule through fear. Terror and deception
are the rotating parts of the same Axis, the two imperatives of the Bush-Cheney
foreign policy strategy.
Napalm in Falluja
The US also used napalm in the siege of Falluja as was reported in the UK Mirror
(“Falluja Napalmed”, 11-28-04) The Mirror said, “President
George Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene
and jet-fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun the world….
Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn
victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh…Since the
American assault on Falluja there have been reports of ‘melted’
corpse, which appeared to have napalm injuries.”
“Human fireballs” and “melted corpses,” these are the
real expressions of Operation Iraqi Freedom not the bland platitudes issuing
from the presidential podium.
Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, who was the head of the Iraqi Ministry of Health in
Falluja, reported to Al Jazeera (and the Washington Post, although it was never
reported) that “research, prepared by his medical team, prove that the
US forces used internationally prohibited substances, including mustard gas,
nerve gas, and other burning chemicals in their attacks on the war-torn city.”
Dr Shaykhli’s claims have been corroborated by numerous eyewitness accounts
as well as reports that “all forms of nature were wiped out in Falluja”…as
well as “hundreds, of stray dogs, cats, and birds that had perished as
a result of those gasses.” An unidentified chemical was used in the bombing
raids that killed every living creature in certain areas of the city.
As journalist Dahr Jamail reported later in his article “What is the
US trying to Hide?” “At least two kilometers of soil were removed……exactly
as they did at Baghdad Airport after the heavy battles there during the invasion
and the Americans used their special weapons.”
A Cover-Up?
So far, none of this has appeared in any American media, nor have they reported
that the United Nations has been rebuffed twice by the Defense Dept. in its
call for an independent investigation into what really took place in Falluja.
The US simply waves away the international body as insignificant while the media
conveniently omits it from their coverage.
We can assume that the order to use napalm (as well as the other unidentified
substances) came straight from the office of Donald Rumsfeld. No one else could
have issued that order, nor would they have risked their career by unilaterally
using banned weapons when their use was entirely gratuitous. Rumsfeld’s
directive is consistent with other decisions attributed to the Defense Secretary:
like the authorizing of torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib; the targeting
of members of the press; and the rehiring of members of Saddam’s Secret
Police (the Mukhabarat) to carry out their brutal activities under new leadership.
Rumsfeld’s office has been the headwaters for most of the administration’s
treachery. Napalm simply adds depth to an already prodigious list of war crimes
on Rumsfeld’s résumé.
Co-opting the Media
On June 10, 2005 numerous sources reported that the “U.S. Special Operations
Command hired three firms to produce newspaper stories, television broadcasts
and Internet web sites to spread American propaganda overseas. The Tampa-based
military headquarters, which oversees commandos and psychological warfare, may
spend up to $100 million for the media campaign over the next five years.”
(James Crawley, Media General News Service) It’s clear that there’s
no need for the Defense Dept. to shore up its operations in the US where reliable
apparatchiks can be counted on to obfuscate, omit or exaggerate the coverage
of the war according to the requirements of the Pentagon. The American press
has been as skillful at embellishing the imaginary heroics of Jessica Lynch
and Pat Tillman as they have been in concealing the damning details of the Downing
Street Memo or the lack of evidence concerning the alleged WMDs. Should we be
surprised that the media has remained silent about the immolation of Iraqis
by American firebombs?
The US “free press” is a completely integrated part of the state-information
system. Their meticulously managed message has been the only part of the entire
Iraqi debacle that hasn’t suffered the ill effects of the bunglers in
Washington. From Dana Milbank to Judith Miller, from FOX News to CNN, from Tom
Friedman to Tom Brokaw, they have been a steadfast ally to the powerbrokers
they serve; providing the diversions, omissions and cheerleading that are required
to keep the public acquiescent during a savage colonial war. Given the scope
of their culpability for the violence in Iraq, it’s unlikely that the
use of napalm will cause any great crisis of conscience. Their deft coverage
has already facilitated the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people.
A few more charred Iraqis shouldn’t matter.