War Is Bad

Here’s the latest news flash:
People sometimes get injured and, gasp, even killed during war.
I know, a startling revelation that has some do-gooders absolutely apoplectic.
The word comes from a report on last year’s battle in Falluja, that nice Iraqi resort where things were oh-so-rosy before those nasty Americans with their white phosphorus weapons showed up.
The report accuses Americans of having the temerity to actually kill people who were shooting at them with rocket-propelled grenades.
According to the report, which was prepared by someone in the U.S. Army, soldiers used white phosphorus incendiary devices during last year’s battle to close the terrorist convention center that the city had become.
But a number of international groups are claiming foul, insisting that it was somehow improper for Americans to use the devices to clear out spidey-holes and tunnels.
Apparently, the politically-correct method of clearing such places is to march a parade of soldiers into the cave until those hiding inside run out of bullets, or the cave entrance becomes so clogged with dead American bodies that the insurgents become trapped in the cave.
In a touch of irony, those yapping the loudest claim that it violates international law to use such weapons in civilian areas, although there doesn’t seem to be any rule against combatants dressing like civilians, hiding in civilian homes, using civilian vehicles to blow up targets, and using civilian neighborhoods as their base of operations.
So again, the Americans are wrong, and the kindly folks who blow up buses and restaurants filled with women and children are the good guys.
Even though, as one American general pointed out (he’s an American, so how can he be trusted?), white phosphorus weapons have been used in battle by legitimate armies for nearly 100 years.
Part of the outrage comes as the devices are being erroneously touted as “chemical weapons” because phosphorus is a chemical.
If we’re going to use that benchmark for hanging the dreaded “chemical weapons” tag on a munition, then I guess all items of war must be classified as such.
Bullets are propelled by gunpowder, which is a chemical.
Rocket-propelled grenades are powered by chemicals, and use chemicals in the explosion process.
For that matter, it means that the chemical H2O and sodium chloride must be also be banned (water and table salt).
Nobody disputes that getting burned by white phosphorus is not a pleasant experience.
But exactly what part of war can be deemed palatable?
American body parts strewn all over the boulevard after a car packed with cheap explosives goes off in a downtown area?
Bullet holes in boys from Birmingham?
Civilians getting dragged from their vehicles, beaten, shot, burned, and hung from a bridge?
(If I remember correctly, the bodies hanging from the bridge is what spurred the American assault on Falluja).
Personally, I wasn’t in favor of invading Iraq.
But while we’re there, I don’t recommend conducting a “war by the numbers,” particularly using the playbook from countries which regularly wind up on the losing side of such conflicts.
War sucks, from top to bottom.
And as soon as the bastards with the RPGs and roadside bombs stop waging it, we should give it up, too.