PART II

United States Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction

CHAPTER 11 : Bombings

It is a scandal in contemporary international law, dont forget, that while wanton destruction of towns, cities and villages is a war crime of long standing, the bombing of cities from airplanes goes not only unpunished but virtually unaccused. Air bombardment is state terrorism, the terrorism of the rich. It has burned up and blasted apart more innocents in the past six decades than have all the antistate terrorists who ever lived. Something has benumbed our consciousness against this reality. In the United States we would not consider for the presidency a man who had once thrown a bomb into a crowded restaurant, but we are happy to elect a man who once dropped bombs from airplanes that destroyed not only restaurants but the buildings that contained them and the neighborhoods that surrounded them. I went to Iraq after the Gulf War and saw for myself what the bombs did; wanton destruction is just the term for it.

C. Douglas Lummis, political scientist 1

The above was written in 1994, before the wanton destruction begot by the bombing of Yugoslavia, the latest in a long list of countries the United States has bombarded since the end of World War II, which is presented below.

There appears to be something about launching bombs or missiles from afar onto cities and people that appeals to American military and political leaders. In part it has to do with a conscious desire to not risk American lives in ground combat. And in part, perhaps not entirely conscious, it has to do with not wishing to look upon the gory remains of the victims, allowing American GIs and TV viewers at home to cling to their warm fuzzy feelings about themselves and their government.

Washington officials are careful to distinguish between the explosives the US drops from the sky and weapons of mass destruc-tion (WMD), which only the officially-designated enemies (ODE) are depraved enough to use. The US government speaks sternly of WMD, defining them as nuclear, chemical and biological in nature, and indiscriminate (meaning their use cant be limited to military objectives), as opposed to the likes of American precision cruise missiles. This is indeed a shaky semantic leg to stand on,

given the well-known extremely extensive damage to non-military targets, including numerous residences, schools and hospitals, in the bomb-ings of Iraq and Yugoslavia by American smart bombs.

Moreover, Washington does not apply the term weapons of mass destruction to other weapons the US has regularly used, such as landmines and cluster (anti-personnel) bombs, which are highly indiscriminate.

WMD are sometimes further defined as those whose effects linger in the environment, causing subsequent harm to people. This would certainly apply to landmines, cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons, the latter remaining dangerously radioactive after exploding. It would apply less to conventional bombs, but even with those there are unexploded bombs lying around, and the danger of damaged buildings later collapsing. But more important, it seems highly self-serving and specious, not to mention exceptionally difficult, to try to paint a human face on a Tomahawk cruise missile whose payload of a thousand pounds of TNT crashes into the center of a densely-populated city, often with depleted uranium in its warhead.

A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesnt have an air force

China 1945-46

Korea and China 1950-53 (Korean War) Guatemala 1954 Indonesia 1958 Cuba 1959-1961 Guatemala 1960

Congo 1964 Peru 1965 Laos 1964-73 Vietnam 1961-73 Cambodia 1969-70

Guatemala 1967-69 Grenada 1983

Lebanon 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)

Libya 1986

El Salvador 1980s Nicaragua 1980s

Iran 1987 Panama 1989 Iraq 1991 Kuwait 1991

Somalia 1993

Bosnia 1994, 1995 Sudan 1998 Afghanistan 1998

Yugoslavia 1999

China, 1999-its heavily bombed embassy in Belgrade is legally Chinese territory, and it appears rather certain now that the bombing was no accident (see chapter 25).

Bulgaria and Macedonia, 1999-both hit by US missiles during the bombing of Yugoslavia.

Pakistan, 1998-at least one missile fell on it during the bombing of Afghanistan.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1985-A bomb dropped by a police helicopter burned down an entire block, some 60 homes destroyed, 11 dead, including several small children. The police, the mayors office and the FBI were all involved in this effort to evict a black organization called MOVE from the house they lived in.

Them other guys are really shocking

We should expect conflicts in which adversaries, because of cultural affinities different from our own, will resort to forms and levels of violence shocking to our sensibilities.

Department of Defense, 1999 2

So is nature

What does the media call it when 10,000 persons in Central America die because of a hurricane? A great human tragedy.

What does the Pentagon call it when 10,000 persons in Iraq die because of American bombing attacks? A medium case scenario.

This was the estimate made during an internal discussion in 1998 by high-ranking Clinton administration officials on how to respond to Iraqs balking at the extent and nature of UN weapons inspections.3

The US vs. Osama bin Laden

Something fundamentally peculiar has happened when the US government fires cruise missiles at an individual, Osama bin Laden. When has a government ever declared war on an individual?

The survivors

A study by the American Medical Association: Psychiatric disorders among survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing :