According to this article, the United States dropped napalm on Safwan Hill in Iraq. Conveniently, the US was not a signatory to the 1980 weapons convention which prohibits such actions. When Bush said he wanted to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, I'm not sure anyone realized he meant our weapons of mass destruction and that he meant he wanted to destroy them by using them. Live and learn. Thanks to Nathan Newman for the link.
Update 3/22: CNN has an article that confirms the use of napalm by the U.S. Read to the bottom to find these paragraphs:
There is a lookout there, a hill referred to as Safwan Hill, on the Iraqi side of the border. It was filled with Iraqi intelligence gathering. From that vantage point, they could look out over all of northern Kuwait.
It is now estimated the hill was hit so badly by missiles, artillery and by the Air Force, that they shaved a couple of feet off it. And anything that was up there that was left after all the explosions was then hit with napalm. And that pretty much put an end to any Iraqi operations up on that hill.
Update 3/23: The Pentagon now denies that the U.S. used napalm in Iraq on Safwan hill, although the Age reporter who filed the report got the information from two marines on the scene and confirmed it with the marines again on Friday. Somehow the Pentagon knows more about what the military is doing than the marines who are there. Doubtful.
Posted by Brian at March 22, 2003 01:16 AM | TrackBacki am shocked and grossed out by this gov action to use napalm, despite being saddened and grossed out by the war...please make this napalm news avail to the public...it was a quick note i saw on the scroll,...no one believes me i had to dig hard for this info shouldnt be that dificult to get reliable news
Posted by: cathy miller at March 27, 2003 08:23 AMSo our government is using napalm again, eh? Thought we'd got rid of it after it attracted a sort of a negative reputation in Vietnam. Oh well. Still, you can see why the Pentagon would deny that. They don't want us to realize that people are being subjected to death in such ways. They want it to be a video game. or a reality TV show.
Posted by: David Vogt at March 27, 2003 10:53 AMNapalm isn't used anymore because it is a very ineffective weapon. It is very difficult to put it where it is needed and must physically touch the intended victim in large quantities to be of any use. Additionally, maintaining and handling is much more difficult than ordinary bombs. Most likely what was seen was the after effects of vehicles and tanks on fire from their own gasoline tanks.
Posted by: Brett at March 27, 2003 10:39 PM"It is very difficult to put it where it is needed and must physically touch the intended victim in large quantities to be of any use."
Not true. Napalm kills primarily by sucking the oxygen out of the air. It IS very difficult to put where it is needed and for that reason is referred to as an indiscriminate killer -- like carpet bombing, nuclear bombing, chemical weapons bombing, etc.
Posted by: Gordon at March 29, 2003 05:57 AMNapalm isn't a very effective weapon in the conventional sense, but it can be a very effective psychological weapon - a weapon of terror.
The Pentagon has issued a statement saying that they don't use napalm any more. Our military has abandoned all semblence or appearance of honor, and those responsible are traitors to the nation, war criminals, and pscyhotic mass-murderers. They degrade us, and they degrade the rule of law. The correct and simple solution is to make examples of them and find them guilty in a court of law, then see justice done.
Posted by: Robert Harriman at August 6, 2003 07:40 AMUS Military admits to napalm - have a look at these stories on The Sydney Morning Herald today:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/08/1060145827920.html
and
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/08/1060145828249.html
Posted by: mike at August 7, 2003 11:22 PM