ECHO 16/11/05

White phosphorous – on the radio and in the papers – US Army killed civilians in Iraq city of Faluja (Nov 2004) with this stuff in some of their mortar rounds – given the nickname ‘bake and shake’ missions - these types of rounds were apparently being used to flush out insurgents through ‘indirect fire’ from upon locations where insurgents were thought to be directing attacks from. Journalists embedded with the military at the time found dead civilians with distended and ulcerated mouths, the phosphorous reacting to the presence of water – Change geographical location: An Israeli soldier is cleared of murdering a 13 year old Palestinian girl by shooting his entire automatic magazine into her because she got too close to his observation position while she was crossing the road and he deemed her a threat – an entire magazine! Overwhelming force. Situations. Bullies in their destructive playgrounds. ‘Moral arbiters’ giving the go ahead for the use of hardware. Yesterday I wrote the phrase ‘purposely messing things up’, I should repeat it here for its other meaning.

Meanwhile, Chaplin’s cane goes up for auction.