Wednesday, September 11, 2013

And Speaking Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction ...

Laurence O'Donnell offers a vital history lesson on the United States' use of napalm:

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H/t The Raw Story

2 comments:

  1. Reminds me of a brief conversation I had at a U.S. air base in Germany. I was at the bar in the officers' mess when an American colonel, with a badge proclaiming his hundred missions over North Vietnam on his jacket, engaged me with the riddle, "why is napalm like Ban deodorant?" The punchline: "because it takes all the worry about being close." At the time, of course, that was a Ban advertising campaign slogan.

    Thanks for posting O'Donnell's commentary. I don't fault him for not knowing that the first use by a Western power of chemical weapons against civilians occurred in Iraq in 1920 when then Colonial secretary, Winston Churchill, directed Royal Artillery units to fire mustard gas shells into Kurdish villages whose elders were tardy in remitting their taxes. Good think old Winnie didn't have Sarin.

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    1. Thanks for the historical correction, Mound. Yes, I think there is more than enough shame to be apportioned before any of us gets self-righteous about the Syrian situation. Too bad the politicians treat everyone like blithering idiots with a recall capacity of about 10 minutes - it's patently untrue - the average is 30 minutes! ;)

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