Hypocrisy and Legacy of Death Linger as US Claims Moral Authority in Syria

Common Dreams

Andrea Germanos
August 27, 2013.

US slams "chemical weapons" in Syria while being a serial user of weapons widely condemned by the global community.

 Smoke rises after an airstrike by US forces in Fallujah, Iraq. 

(Photo: James Gordon/cc/flickr)

"This is about the large-scale indiscriminate use of weapons that the civilized world long ago decided must never be used at all, a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else... And there is a reason why no matter what you believe about Syria, all peoples and all nations who believe in the cause of our common humanity must stand up to assure that there is accountability for the use of chemical weapons so that it never happens again."

These statements by Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday put on display the hypocrisy of the United States, a serial user of weapons widely condemned by the global community.

From cluster bombs to depleted uranium to napalm, recent history of U.S. warfare shows a trail of weapons leaving long-lasting civilian harm.

The U.S. has not joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions and instead continues to produce and sell cluster bombs, and used them as recently as seven years ago. According to the Cluster Munition Coalition, from the 1960s to 2006, the U.S. dropped cluster bombs on Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Napalm was not only widely used by the U.S. during the years of the Vietnam War but also in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, though it only admitted to having used it in Iraq after irrefutable evidence was out.

The U.S. also used white phosphorus on Iraq and Afghanistan. White phosphorus was used in 2004 during the assault on Fallujah, and the New York Times reported its use as recently as in 2011 in Afghanistan. Steve Goose and Bonnie Docherty of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch wrote:

The Associated Press reported that an 8-year-old Afghan girl, Razia, was injured when a white phosphorus shell ripped through her home in the Tagab Valley of Kapisa province in June 2009. When she reached the operating room, white powder covered her skin, the oxygen mask on her face started to melt, and flames appeared when doctors attempted to scrape away the dead tissue.

White phosphorus munitions cause particularly severe injuries, including chemical burns down to the bone. Wounds contaminated by white phosphorus can reignite days later when bandages are removed, produce poisoning that leads to organ failure and death, and lead to lifetime health problems.

 

Still from video from The Guardian on hospitals in Falluja 

dealing with chronic deformities in infants

The U.S. use of depleted uranium, what one peace activist described as America's Silent Weapon of Mass Destruction, in Iraq has left a horrific legacy of birth defects and cancers for Iraqis and soldiers.

There is also the death and destruction the U.S. launched in 1945 when it became the only country to drop nuclear bombs.

Read the rest of this article here.

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Comment: The US and its allies are in no position to fake moral outrage over Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons -  'evidence' drawn from a Youtube video and not yet corroborated by the United Nations.

But even as I write here the US and its allies are in warmongering mode.  President Obama, the Nobel Peace Price Laureate, just like the murderous Bush before him, needs no more evidence to start yet another war on his watch.

But as Dr. Martin Luther King once remarked, "the US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world."

And its use of biological weapons is as old as the republic even as it fakes outrage at Syria.  Let us not forget that it used small pox as a biological weapon to murder native peoples during various periods of conquests.

Just a couple of days ago Foreign Policy reported that the US assisted Saddam Hussein to use chemical weapons against Iran in 1988.  These revelations come via newly released CIA documents.  Foreign Policy states:

"In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.

The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq's favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration's long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn't disclose."

I find it laughable to watch Obama and his UK lapdogs fake moral outrage at Syria when they did absolutely nothing to stop Israel from raining down White Phosphorus on Gaza during 'Operation Cast Lead' in 08/09.

Israel used White Phosphorus on Gazans yet the US and UK did nothing. (Credit)

So why the moral outrage now?  Especially if you consider that it is the US and its allies that are arming rebels instead of working to call a peace truce.

The Syrian authorities have denied using chemical weapons on their civilian population and no matter what Obama and company are saying there is no indisputable proof that they are responsible for the tragic deaths of hundreds of civilians in recent days.

But here we stand again.  The US and its allies are about to strike at Syria proving that they are seeking regime change in a strategic game that is aimed at weakening Iran (Hezbollah too) and strengthening Israel in the region.

So, yet another war of aggression with many unanswered questions led by the US and its cronies.  And what will be the outcome?

If Irag, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya are any recent indication we can expect massive civilian deaths and suffering.

How sad that we live in a world dominated by a ruthless empire of mad men and women.

There can be no peace in war!

STOP FIGHTING WARS ON INNOCENTS 
IN THE NAME OF PEACE !!!