US defends using napalm-like firebombs

[thedrifter]

US defends using napalm-like firebombs
August 8, 2003


US forces used napalm-like MK-77 firebombs against Iraqi forces in their drive toward Baghdad last spring, a Pentagon official confirmed today, defending their use as legal and necessary.

US Marine Corps jets dropped the firebombs at least once in March to take out Iraqi positions at the town of Safwan just across the Kuwait border from the US-led invasion force, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It is like this: you've got (an) enemy that's hard to get at. And it will save your own lives to use it, and there is no international contraventions against it," the official said.

"I don't know that there is any humane way to kill your enemy."

Marines used the napalm-like bombs on at least two other occasions during the drive to Baghdad -- against Iraqis defending a bridge across the Saddam Canal and near a Tigris river bridge north of the town of Numaniyah in south central Iraq, the San Diego Tribune reported this week.

"We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," Colonel Randolph Alles, the commander of Marine Air Group 11, was quoted as telling the newspaper.

"Unfortunately, there were people there because you could see them in the (cockpit) video.

"They were Iraqi soldiers there. It's no great way to die."

The MK-77 are filled with a different mix of incendiary chemicals than napalm but have the same terrifying effect, a penetrating fire that seeps into dug-in infantry positions.

"The generals love napalm," Alles was quoted as saying.

"It has a big psychological effect."

The US military destroyed its stock of napalm bombs in 2001 because they were deemed an environmental hazard.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...145827920.html

Sempers,

Roger

[thedrifter]

DOD seeks $3.6 million for firebombs

By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

August 7, 2003

The Pentagon wants to buy 1,000 firebombs during the next two years to rebuild its supply of the napalm-like weapons.

The proposal was submitted to Congress in February, six weeks before the war against Iraq when Marine Corps jets dropped dozens of firebombs on Iraqi positions as Marine ground troops advanced on Baghdad.

In recent interviews, Marines at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station acknowledged dropping the firebombs during an air campaign that destroyed several Iraqi army units before they could counterattack.

Several human rights groups have questioned the use of the incendiary devices, and though the firebombs are considered inhumane by some organizations, they are not outlawed by international treaties if used against military forces.

"We're concerned about the potential use of these weapons near concentrations of civilians," said Reuben Brigety, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York.

The request for the bombs occupy a single line in the president's $399 billion military budget for fiscal year 2004.

The Pentagon seeks more than $3.6 million for the weapons to "sustain training requirements" and "to avoid further impact of an already degraded war-reserve stockpile." The budget lists the weapons as Mark 77 bombs.

The Navy wants to buy 1,000 firebombs over the next two years for the Marine Corps, which is the only service that currently uses them.

The first purchase would include 500 bombs, costing about $3,588 apiece. In the second purchase, each bomb would have a price tag of $3,678. The contract is expected to be awarded next April.

Defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said firebombs are a niche weapon useful against a well-entrenched enemy or forces hidden in dense forests or jungles, but not in most military situations.

"Having a thousand on hand is a prudent measure," said Thompson, director of the think tank in Arlington, Va.

The Pentagon was unable to say how many firebombs remain in the inventory or how many were used in Iraq.

In 2001, the Pentagon announced it had destroyed its napalm weapons, which had been stored at the Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station near Camp Pendleton since the Vietnam War.

During the Iraq war, Pentagon spokesmen said napalm wasn't used, but they did not disclose that similar firebombs were dropped.

They said this week that firebombs are not the same as napalm because firebombs contain a mixture of jet fuel and a gelling compound, instead of a toxic mix of gasoline, benzene and polystyrene.

However, most Marines and military experts still use the term napalm when referring to the new munitions.

Spokesmen said this week that if reporters had asked about "firebombs," instead of napalm, they would have revealed their use.

The Pentagon's semantics have raised some concerns.

"It's not just napalm, which is a horrible weapon. This smacks of deception," said Robert Musil, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a group in Washington, D.C., that opposes nuclear weapons.

"The Congress has to look into this and demand that the Pentagon be straightforward and forthcoming," he said.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James W. Crawley:
(619) 542-4559; jim.crawley@uniontrib.com


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m..._1n7bombs.html

Sempers,

Roger