Color-Impoverished Phosphorus (And Other Weapons Of Mass Distraction)

Scott Burgess did a fine job of exposing last month's lies about white phosphorus (further details here and here); however, the Dec 1, 2005 comment by Rabbitvoz on Burgess' follow-up provides a clue about why the myth-making began:

I am cringing in terror from some of the most disadvantaged people on Earth,

Are we talking about truly disadvantaged people, like those being slaughtered in Sudan, or the 'poor' killers who are as likely to be well-off (Osama bin Laden was disadvantaged?) and well-educated as they are the alternative? Because the reaction to the first seems to trend toward shameful indifference, and the reaction to the second involves no cringing 'round these parts (heck, most complaints seem to argue the exact opposite--that there are too many people like Amir Taheri who lack humility in response to terrorists.)

while I unleash gargantuan forces of destruction,

It takes a fascinating mind to cringe toward terror, and to do so with superior firepower.

poisonous Depleted Uranium

Michael McNeil wrote a must-read essay on depleted uranium a couple of years ago: "Depleted uranium has two possible modes of instigating biological damage--ionizing radiation due to the fact that it's a radioactive metal, and biological toxicity due to the fact that it's a 'heavy' metal. Regarding the first of these, radioactively 'depleted uranium' is basically as little radioactive as it's possible to be and still be radioactive and not inert. This may sound like a quibble, but the half-life of uranium-238, the major radioactive component of depleted uranium (since it's been 'depleted' of other uranium isotopes) is 4.5 x 109 (i.e., billion) years (not '109' years as news pieces have erroneously reported). In other words, over the entire 4.6 billion year age of the Earth, the quantity of uranium-238 on this planet has decreased by only half. That is barely detectably radioactive at all, on the human timescale. Even when it does decay, virtually all (> 99.99%) of uranium-238 follows the mode of alpha decay (emission of a Helium-4 nucleus), which cannot penetrate beyond a couple of inches in air and is stopped cold by sheet of paper. Contrast with gamma rays (high energy electromagnetic radiation emitted by some radioactive decayers) which can penetrate through feet or meters of lead and are highly destructive to biological tissue. The possibility of heavy-metal toxicity by uranium is potentially of greater scientific import. That, though, is fundamentally no different than toxicity due to say lead, which has traditionally been used (without environmentalists' extraordinary complaints) as bullets on battlefields for centuries."

Or are we really writing about Depleted Uranium?

and Torture, Murder and Rape against their citizens.

Rabbitvoz should be more like the United States. Murder, rape, and torture are illegal, and those who are caught are punished (not always as they probably should be, but then justice is not always linear). Correcting problems like torture among military ranks is difficult and others are quick to see malice where there are mistakes, but necessary reform is always possible.

Ia sit at home and watch it all on Television

Careful. Press coverage can be misleading.

and pontificate about the righteous nature of the great crusade for Freedom,

"What would you do, if you were asked to give up your dreams for freedom?
What would you do, if asked to make the ultimate sacrifice?
Would ya think about all them people who gave up everything they had?
Would ya think about all them war vets, and would ya start to feel bad?
Freedom isn't free. It costs folks like you and me,
and if we don't all chip in we'll never pay that bet.
Freedom isn't free. No, there's a hefty fuckin' fee,
and if you don't throw in your buck o'five, who will?
Oooo, buck o'five. Freedom costs a buck o'five."

which for me means the Patriot Act.

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm? In the words of Eugene Volokh: "Remember, 'Patriot Act,' like 'fascism' and 'unconstitutional,' is not Latin for 'government action I don't like.'"

I am America

Did anyone not see that coming?

I am a complete nimcompoop, a hubristic arrogant, ninny

That comes through in the writing. No need to spell it out.

and such a trigger happy prick that I kill my Allies like its duck hunting season everytime any of them are stupid enough to get mixed up in the wars I make.

Some folks need to be more straightforward with arguments like this. For example, an American opponent of the Iraq intervention could find all the British or Australian armed servicemen he can, and then personally inform the soldiers of their stupidity one-on-one rather than boasting of superiority from behind a screen-name or protest sign.

I would rather bomb TV stations and shoot Journalists in the back than allow news of my atrocities to reach the world.

Intimidation of the press-at-large requires that they uniformly recognize that they are targets, but accidents are so frequent in combat zones that illegitimate kills on the battlefield are rarely convincing as deliberate acts. One can get around that challenge by shooting journalists in the public square rather than in the back, but that creates another set of problems in that murders are bad for public relations. Saddam Hussein's old method of bribing with access and information appears shrewder, and when that does not work, killing journalists' obscure friends and family does. That is the proven way to directly corrupt or threaten journalists, have them believe the threats, but not create any serious repercussions for the dictator and his stooges. Or one could try being good, support press freedoms, and also push his own stories, while the likes of Joe Katzman, Michael Yon, and StrategyPage share the lesser-known side of his atrocities.

I am just deluded enough to think this will stop the truth getting out, and also believe if my eyes are shut it is dark for everyone.

Oh, go boil your head.

I am America

Not the one I know.

My point in citing Rabbitvoz's comment is not to be snarky (that is a bonus), but to point to its needless hysteria. Intelligent criticism, not fashionable cynicism, is essential. Let's not confuse the two.