It's the dead civilians, stupid!

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Thursday November 10, 2005 · 7:50 AM PST

2005/11/10 · 07:50

People here are getting bogged down in both minutia and inflammatory terms (pun unintentional) regarding the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah.

We've seen the horrible pictures posted in other diaries.

However, we actually know very damn little.

What do we know and what don't we know?

We DON'T know what killed the people in the photos. They could have been killed by smoke inhalation or concussive trauma.

We DO know that they are dead civilians.

We DON'T know what caused the disfiguration of the people in the photos. This isn't a web board for forensic pathologists and chemists. Even then, we're not Dr. Frist.

We DO know that they are dead civilians.

We DON'T know what level of WP was actually in the air in Fallujah. The pictures from RAI show WP combusting, not lingering.

We DO know that there were many dead civilians in Fallujah.

We DON'T know how much WP would need to be dropped on Fallujah to create such a flesh-eating cloud as has been suggested.

We DO know that many innocent civilians died.

Forget this "chemical weapons" and other political jockeying.

The bodies in those pictures aren't talking points against Bush. They are what's left of human beings who laughed, cried, and had names, families that loved them, hopes, dreams, and fears.

The real tragedy is war. The real outrage is extraordinary levels of violence inside of civilian areas.

The big picture is that small children are dead.

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