I don’t say this as a disagreement, but rather just a factchecking exercise: “white phosphorus” isn’t synonymous with “war crime” in the way that weapons like cluster bombs are. This is to say that it’s possible to use in ways that are compliant with the international rules of war, unlike a many chemical weapons and the aforementioned cluster bombs.
Again, to be crystal clear: I am not on team human immolation. We all know that it is strategically impossible to deploy phosphorus in one of the most densely populated regions on Earth without deliberately choosing to immolate civilians. My hangup here is that the gravity of the situation will not be conveyed to a skeptic if you don’t spell out the facts in exacting detail: on October 11th, Israel deployed an airburst of white phosphorus over Gaza city. White phosphorus deployed on a city with a population density of 21,000/sq. mile. Big time classic warcrime.
I don’t say this as a disagreement, but rather just a factchecking exercise: “white phosphorus” isn’t synonymous with “war crime” in the way that weapons like cluster bombs are. This is to say that it’s possible to use in ways that are compliant with the international rules of war, unlike a many chemical weapons and the aforementioned cluster bombs.
Again, to be crystal clear: I am not on team human immolation. We all know that it is strategically impossible to deploy phosphorus in one of the most densely populated regions on Earth without deliberately choosing to immolate civilians. My hangup here is that the gravity of the situation will not be conveyed to a skeptic if you don’t spell out the facts in exacting detail: on October 11th, Israel deployed an airburst of white phosphorus over Gaza city. White phosphorus deployed on a city with a population density of 21,000/sq. mile. Big time classic warcrime.