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Nov. 5th, 2020 04:38 pm
Me speculating
With all things going on in the world this might be a weird detale to focus on and with a phrase I like to use, it’s likely I have getten lost in my own logic. But when I learned that general Jim Mattis, in 2017, was named secretary of defence by Trump, and that Mattis, back in 2004, had been involved in the fighting in Fallujah, I thought something like this. “In Fallujah they infamously used white phosphor against humans, and - although international law is vague on white phosphorus - that’s strictly speaking not legal. The one supporting Trump are the same people that think law and order is important and, what I have seen online, some of them think blacks are violent”. The point being of course that whose people have no problem with breaking international law, nor any problem with violence committed by the military.
As said this might not be the most important, or even important at all. Then the twist is that Jim Mattis isn’t secretary of defence anymore and that he is critical of Trump. I read that on wikipedia. And, more important, I do not know how involved Jim Mattis was the specific decision to use white phosphor. However, the internet being what it is, FWIW, of course you will get hits if you make a search on “Jim Mattis war crime”, and whose articles aren't just about white phosphor.
You might know the story that phosphor was discovered in Hamburg in 17-century, by a chap named Hennig Brand, who tried to make gold. And Fallujah was of course not the first use in war. A noteworthy use was 1943 when the british attacked previously mentioned Hamburg, and with the help of, among other weapons, white phosphor, killed 40 000 people during the so called Operation Gomorrah. My dad has actually worked with a doctor who was from Hamburg and who was 5 years old when her city was bombed. Here some likes to point out that the working class in Hamburg were like the least nazi friendly demography in Germany, but it was the working class neighbourhood that was target. Also, the children, like dads college, were innocent. (I'm not saying where isn't other factors one should look at if you want to discuss if it was right or not to bomb Hamburg, but this entry isn't really about that.) The thing with white phosphor is it kills with a combination of chemical burns and poisoning. That makes it today illegal to target humans with it. And, yeah, maybe I'm not making a strong point, about "law and order" vs. internationall law, or maybe I am ...
As said this might not be the most important, or even important at all. Then the twist is that Jim Mattis isn’t secretary of defence anymore and that he is critical of Trump. I read that on wikipedia. And, more important, I do not know how involved Jim Mattis was the specific decision to use white phosphor. However, the internet being what it is, FWIW, of course you will get hits if you make a search on “Jim Mattis war crime”, and whose articles aren't just about white phosphor.
You might know the story that phosphor was discovered in Hamburg in 17-century, by a chap named Hennig Brand, who tried to make gold. And Fallujah was of course not the first use in war. A noteworthy use was 1943 when the british attacked previously mentioned Hamburg, and with the help of, among other weapons, white phosphor, killed 40 000 people during the so called Operation Gomorrah. My dad has actually worked with a doctor who was from Hamburg and who was 5 years old when her city was bombed. Here some likes to point out that the working class in Hamburg were like the least nazi friendly demography in Germany, but it was the working class neighbourhood that was target. Also, the children, like dads college, were innocent. (I'm not saying where isn't other factors one should look at if you want to discuss if it was right or not to bomb Hamburg, but this entry isn't really about that.) The thing with white phosphor is it kills with a combination of chemical burns and poisoning. That makes it today illegal to target humans with it. And, yeah, maybe I'm not making a strong point, about "law and order" vs. internationall law, or maybe I am ...
