On The Margins

Thursday October 12, 2006

[ Society ] The Lancet Report on Mortality and War

When research has claims intensely relevant to our world, it deserves a studied reception.

If I had not quite accidentally turned to Guardian last night and bumped into a story there by its health editor Sarah Boseley ("655000 Iraqis Killed Since Invasion"),  I would have never known of the Lancet Medical Journal research report on excess mortality in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation.

Scholars from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Prof. Gilbert Burnham, MD, Shannon Doocy PhD and Les Roberts PhD) and Al Mustansiriya University School of Medicine (Prof Riyadh Lafta MD) who conducted the research using well-established statistical methodologies share the summary of their findings in their report ("Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey"):

The Lancet report can be accessed through a free registration, which is well worth it because it puts a great deal of other useful medical research at one's finger tips.

Unfortunately, as I noted above, I would not have noticed the report if I had not turned to The Guardian yesterday. 

Here's Guardian's summary of other important conclusions in the research report:

The epidemiological research was carried out on the ground by teams of doctors moving from house to house, questioning families and examining death certificates. Between May and July this year, they visited 1,849 households in 47 separated clusters across the length and breadth of Iraq. The doctors asked about deaths among members of the household in a period before the invasion, from January 2002 to March 2003, and about deaths since. In 92% of cases, they were shown death certificates confirming the cause.

A total of 629 deaths were reported, of which 547 - or 87% - occurred after the invasion. The mortality rate before the war was 5.5 per 1,000, but since the invasion, it has risen to 13.3 per 1,000 per year, they say. Between June 2005 and June 2006, the mortality rate hit a high of 19.8 per 1,000.

Financial Times carries an article its page 5 on Thursday (October 12, 2006) focused on the reserach report but makes a gross rounding error in the estimate given in the article heading: "Lancet survey suggests 600,000 have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion". The errors in this article heading are glaring and should have caught the eye of any astute editor. First, the survey was conducted by John Hopkins researchers and their Iraqi research partner; second, in the report they published in the Lancet, they note that there has been 654,965 excess deaths since the invasion; finally, I could not find any valid roundings of 654,965 to 600,000. (One wonders whether the editors have forgotten their grade-school math when they write headlines.) The online version of the FT article, carries a different, slightly more accurate title.

Turning to The Wall Street Journal, I found nothing that caught the eye in the print paper on the same day. The Journal only carried a mention of the report in its online edition through an Associated Press report titled "The Army Doesn't Plan Cuts in Iraq." One would have imagined this sort of study should receive greater attention in the U.S.

According to Financial Times, President Bush has called the methodology of the study "pretty well discredited."

The Guardian also reports that "Speaking at the Foreign Office launch, the foreign secretary [Margaret Beckett] admitted that the British government did not keep a tally of fatalities, but 'that doesn't mean that one has to accept every figure someone comes up with'."

Commentary on the research by Lancet editor, Richard Horton, can be found here.

The John Hopkins news release on the research can be found here.

A critique of the report by Iraq Body Count can be found here.

Regardless of whether this study is definitive, it comes at a time when framers of public opinion continue to bellow (one might say cruel and inhuman) utilitarian calculations arguing about the exact number of excess civilian deaths and whether they were worth it or not as if the worth of lives can easily be measured against each other. (A dose of Confucian philosophy may be in order.) Utilitarian arguments which trade off engineering of so-called "social goods" against innocent people's lives tend to blunt and blind the observers' moral compass to the human toll and disaster being left behind by the invasion and the continuing occupation. Whether the one source or another give the correct number of deaths, the cold shoulder all mortality accounts have received within the media can hardly be missed if you consider the scale and the significance of their findings.

2006-10-12 23:56:59.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Saturday September 09, 2006

[ Society ] Phone Logs

Apparently, phone logs have their uses in boardroom politics.

2006-09-09 22:22:30.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Friday August 18, 2006

[ Society ] Ruled Unconstitutional, Wiretapping Continues For Now

Although a federal judge has ruled wiretapping to be unconstitutional, the Justice Department has filed an immediate appeal and succeeded in allowing the wiretapping operation to continue for the time being.

Adam Liptak and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times write:

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor

In a sweeping decision that drew on history, the constitutional separation of powers and the Bill of Rights, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, a Carter administration appointee who sits on the U.S. District Court in Detroit, rejected almost every argument put forth by the administration.   Taylor ruled that the program violated both the Fourth Amendment and a 1978 law that requires warrants from a secret court for intelligence wiretaps involving people in the United States.   The Fourth Amendment protects Americans against "unreasonable searches and seizures."

The Wall Street Journal challenges the opinion of Taylor's court in an editorial, criticizing her for falling into the "temptations to be hailed as Civil Libertarian of the Year." (We live in an age where universities teach them and people are paid for such rhetorical arts!)

Today, August 18, 2006, I searched the WSJ for articles on the ruling and found only few references to it, and only in the online edition. Perhaps, the Saturday edition will have more.  Yesterday, there was a small on-line paragraph, in the "Washington Wire" section of the paper, noting that "A new Harris Interactive poll released late Wednesday shows a majority of Americans favor increasing surveillance of suspected terrorists through cameras, banking records and cellphones. But many say such actions should require authorization by Congress." Supposedly the polsters did not see it fit to ask whether the public believed the courts had anything to say about the constitutionality of such matters involving the exeuctive power of the government. In the meantime, it can be relatively easy to guess how the highest court will rule in a case like this. (There are also links to the ruling itself and a short analysis.)

The Washington Post has more as is expected. They also have also posted the text of the ruling (a free, relatively low-impact registration gives you access).  The cover article by Dan Eggen and Dafna Linzer has a picture of Judge Taylor, who looks like no push over. The Washington Post also reports President Bush's response to the ruling. Reuters has a video report as well as a written report on the President's response.

How that determination is made is left unclear with the argument that revealing it would be a security risk by itself, and I think that is the real core of the problem. (Of course, if you are a believer in artificial intelligence, matters can be different but then you're living on the boundaries of imaginary worlds like the one depicted in the movie Brazil.)

American Civil Liberties Union was one of the plaintiffs in the case. ACLU has a page that shows some of the Americans who have been targets of spying. ACLU has streaming audio responses to the federal court ruling, including one by Christopher Hitchens who was no opposer to the "war on terror" by any measure. Others providing audio responses are Anthony Romero, executive director of ACLU, and Melissa Goodman, ACLU staff attorney. Goodman gives a very good summary of the decision by Judge Taylor's court. (It is worth noting that in another case, Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, in which the Supreme Court strikes down military tribunals of the Guantánamo Bay detainees in June of 2006, the ACLU had filed a friend-of-the-court briefing.)

Personally, I have nothing to hide but I think the power to wiretap is one of the darkest powers on our modern earth that's granted to governments. It is very easy for governments to abuse it and it throws a dark suspicion onto all conversations that may be out of the mold. It works in subtle ways to send a very strong signal against all activities that may only be deemed as in opposition.

People are put in their place at the level of their subconscious. This is a quiet but true leveling into "the public" at a massive scale. (I suppose Kierkegaard who have found reason to write about it.)

There's an undertone, as some polls seem to indicate, that most believe this taking away of rights from them will only apply to those who are not from their own communities. Somehow they feel themselves secure. Since they believe they are not in danger and that the policy is for their safety, they willingly give in to the massive-scale leveling that occurs because it levels everything around them, they believe. However, they're already leveled into their own, and they rarely know it.

It is amazing how fear can be used to disarm people of the most elementary aspects of their existence--i.e. the ability to feel secure in their relationships with others, including those who are different.

We have come very far from the time of those who wrote the Fourth Amendment to the US constitution.

2006-08-18 10:07:40.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Monday August 07, 2006

[ Society ] Why Bosses Are Good

When you're down and wonder why there are so many bosses around, turn to Seth Godin, who gives some real reasons why we should aspire to have and maintain bosses. If your boss doesn't do one of these things Seth enumerates, you may want to remind him which it is and request for some course adjustments.

Thanks to Rich for pointing to Seth.

Society, Business

2006-08-07 12:19:21.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Sunday August 06, 2006

[ Society ] 61 Years Ago

On August 6, Hiroshima marks 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing.

Mainichi Daily News gives an account of the anniversary ceremonies.

Nagasaki does the same on August 9. For some photos of Nagasaki from August 9, 1945 can be found here.

Mainichi Daily News has reproduced its August 9th, 1945 issue.

2006-08-06 18:27:13.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Monday July 31, 2006

[ Society ] Birth Pangs

This morning, having woken up to Financial Times, which is regularly dropped before my door, and in spite of the operating taboo against professionals in our world to pay any attention to such things, I wrote about the tendency of "birth pangs" to recur.

2006-07-31 07:04:45.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Friday July 28, 2006

[ Society ] Human Scale in Urban Life

I have a brother who is an urban planner and lives in Kalkan, Turkey.

According to him, we should all live in urban areas that are built on a human scale.

In such an urban area, children can walk about, mostly on their own, and adults can get to places of their need, mostly by foot. In such an urban area, work, worship and relaxation occur in proximity of each other, and people know their neighbors and have no difficulty running into their friends on a daily and regular basis, often several times a day. Ideally, such an urban area merges and harmonizes with its natural surroundings to uplift and reconnect the human dwellers to the source of their being.

Such an urban area, built on a human scale, can be part of a large city (this is how traditional cities were built) or part of a small city (this is how small cities were).  In either case, the urban area, built on a human scale, regularly connects to other urban areas to ensure flow of goods and services.

2006-07-28 03:55:16.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Thursday May 04, 2006

[ Society ] A Tragic Death by Drowning

Last night, I spent hours listening to the father of a boisterous girl of Persian heritage who died on Monday, May 1, 2006, drawning in the pool of the apartment complex where she lived.

She attended my oldest daughter's elementary school for one year before moving on to a different elementary school, and then middle school. I only saw her once, about 3 years ago, as she rushed to greet my daughter. I found her vivacious—full of zest and excitement that is life. The fleeting image of her greeting us will forever linger in my mind.

Her parents were very intelligent and hard working, her sisters loved her, and I know that her father will miss her dearly. "I did everything with her. She was my best friend," said one of her sisters to me. "God put her in our charge and god took her away," said the father. "I will hold on to the chain that connects me to the Most High."

Despite what the news reports might imply to some viewers, the girl did not die of parental negligence but complex causes, unfathomable and beyond description, related to a father's struggles to survive with great honor but little resources to speak of and the general lack of proper community resources. (Here is an NBC11 report.)

We're all wishing the family strength and continued wisdom as they go through this hardship.

If you have any way to help them with money or other means, please let me know.

2006-05-04 16:33:38.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Monday April 17, 2006

[ Society ] Three Female Voices

Perhaps, I should have titled this so: With facts and faint voices, three female scholars face a philosophy of imposed fear and falsehood.

On Monday, April 17, 2006, Financial Times published a letter from three female professors of Iranian origin—Prof Haleh Afshar (University of York), Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini (London Middle East Institute) and Dr Elaheh Rostami-Povey (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London).

We would like to clear a number of misunderstandings about Iran. As a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty (NPT), Iran asserts its right under Article IV of the NPT to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The announcement last week of a nuclear breakthrough is part of this right and is intended for peaceful purposes.

Iran has complied with Articles I and II of the NPT not to acquire nuclear weapons, and Article III, where it accepts full safeguards. It has signed the NPT additional protocol and has allowed intrusive inspections beyond what is required by compliance with the NPT. Numerous inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency have failed to provide any shred of evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons programme.

Iran has repeatedly announced that it is committed to replace the course of confrontation with good-faith interaction and negotiations, as equal partner, for a peaceful solution to its nuclear issue. It has stated its commitment to non-proliferation and to the elimination of nuclear weapons, and considers nuclear weapons detrimental to its security.

It has declared its readiness to abide by its obligations under the NPT and to work for the establishment of a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. It has invited the west and the world for cultural and technological collaboration.

The letter points to the disturbing rise in the rhetoric of war against Iran and demonstrates the illogic of that rhetoric. Of course, the lack of any real understanding of Iran among the general population in the U.S. can only make things worse. The U.S. media and political elite have done little to alleviate this problem. The biases against Iran have been kept fresh by the oft-repeated mantra. In the meantime, at the highest levels, silence and other techniques have been used to keep the level of uncertainty high with a full knowledge that a good amount of uncertainty can often impose greater cost than any amount of certainty. Personally, I do not believe any of these strategic or imperial techniques are working. They will ultimately prove to be of little effect compared to the simple notion of attempting a dialogue on an equal footing.

I reproduced the three professors' letter in full elsewhere.

In the meantime, with no apologies, Richard Cohen explains away the spreading of dangerous illogics by praising so-called "judicious" double standards. (Labeling a glaring double-standard in international law as a "judicious" one does not make it so.) I have written about this briefly elsewhere, too.

2006-04-17 23:13:49.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Society ] Pew Research on Social Trends

Pew Research provides a wealth of research on current social trends in the U.S.

Here are some examples:

Cell Phone Society
Mixed Trends in Religious Tolerance
A Barometer of Modern Morals
Pinched Pocketbooks: Do Average Americans Spot Something that Most Economists Miss?
God is Alive and Well in America
50 Million Americans Get News Online Every Day
Prospects for Inter-Religious Understanding
People and the Press
Americans See Weight Problems Everywhere But In the Mirror
America's Living Oceans: Charting a Course for Sea Change
In Search of Ideologues in America: It's Harder than You May Think

Does it take a private foundation to conduct broad and timely research into current social trends in the U.S.? What questions are being asked and answered? Which, more, should be looked into? What value do the answers have? How do "public" trends affect anything in our personal lives and commitments?

Kierkegaard brought the attention of the philosophers to the yoke of the "public".

2006-04-17 09:53:36.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Friday April 14, 2006

[ Society ] Breaking the Taboo at Lunchtime

Rarely do we break the common taboos but, today at lunch, a few colleagues and I broke some ground, touching a few political topics. Some of the topics are covered in this Counterpunch story by Kevin Zeese: "Attacking Iran: Hersh vs. Bush: Who Would You Believe?.

2006-04-14 17:55:36.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Sunday March 26, 2006

[ Society ] Echoes Across the Atlantic

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt's publication, across the Atlantic, of the edited and reworked version of their John F. Kennedy School of Government working paper (March 13) in the London Review of Books (March 23), has elicited an immediate response in various opinion columns across the ocean, including some in the WSJ by Ruth Wisse (March 22) and Bret Stephens (March 25).

The working paper (also to be found in pdf format through Mearsheimer's publications page) claims, among other things, that the current U.S. policy in the Middle East has been detrimental to the U.S. national interests.

That policy has certainly produced vastly many more enemies than won friends. It has deepened conflicts and created new ones instead of diminishing or resolving them justly. It has badly damaged the U.S. national interests in a very real way and for many years to come. An examination and redirection of that policy seems to be long overdue.

Addenda:

[1] Tony Judt's column for Haaretz, published (in abridged form?) on Tuesday May 23, 2006 in Financial Times, also mentions the essay by Walt and Mearsheimer.

2006-03-26 13:45:24.0 -- Comments [4] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Tuesday March 07, 2006

[ Society ] The Il-Logic of the Strategist

Robin Wilton, a colleague from Europe, writes again about the glaring illogic behind Guantanamo.

In the manifesto of the strategist, particularly the one who believes to be in a dominant position, one finds the need to behave as if no rules or laws apply to him.

This is thoroughly explained in Thomas C. Schelling's Strategy of Conflict. (Schelling, I believe, was at one point a "National Security" consultant.)

Of course, this strategic choice to project wanton behavior can turn into a very dangerous game with regrettable results. (Besides the fact that justice, ultimately, does make a difference. It is only a matter of time and patience, as we read in the History of the Peloponnesian Wars by Thucydides, not to mention other events such as Ashura, where its prince says that if one cannot keep one's way of life and one's religion, one must stive, at least, to be free of worldly bondage.)

It would literally be more profitable to build relationships of respect, exchange and commerce of the type that leads to long-term, mutually beneficial circumstances than to create so-called "strategic" confrontations with those who seek to be free. This was supposed to be a lesson learned long ago in the U.S. history, and Schelling's students, some of whom are reputed to have helped select targets during the Vietnam War, changed nothing real and created no lasting relationship of control.

Trust through credible commitments of the sort Oliver Williamson talks about requires a different procedure. Williamson speaks of exchange of hostages as a primordial means for building "trust". In today's world, we see this through international cross-investments and joint ventures. In fact, in my opinion, what binds Europe to the U.S. is more this than any cultural similarity.

2006-03-07 22:35:22.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Saturday February 25, 2006

[ Society ] An Orchestra With No Conductors

An orchestra best exemplifies a "flat" organization. Often, a single conductor leads and coordinates the tempo and interpretation of a piece performed by a large group of musicians.

In a recent Business 2.0 piece ("Why Employees Should Lead Themselves"), Stanford Business School professor Jeffrey Pfeffer writes about Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which is not only "known principally for the musical accomplishments of its 28 members [and the fact that its...] Grammy Award-winning ensemble performs Mozart and Stravinsky to rave reviews around the world" but also "for a novel approach to management: Unlike most orchestras its size, Orpheus has no conductor."

Because people pay attention to one another instead of to one leader, they become more involved. Taking on broader responsibilities, they develop real leadership skills. (Some Orpheus members double as conductors and professors in other organizations.) The result is a sense of ownership that delivers the biggest benefit of all: a collective mind and spirit that comes through in the music. As the Boston Globe's Richard Dyer has written, there is a "liberating intensity with which these musicians listen to one another."

...the best way to foster leadership is to treat people like leaders.

(Note: In classical Persian musical ensembles, often formed by less than a dozen musicians but sometimes with up to 20 or more performers, one finds no conductors. Mutual interpretations become key to a performance.)

By the way, professor Pfeffer has written some very good books on power, politics and organizations. I was first introduced to his work while a student at Haas, Berkeley.

2006-02-25 22:06:04.0 -- Comments [3] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Friday February 03, 2006

[ Society ] The Other Cartoonist

Cartoons have been used to demonize, torment, abuse and even provoke large groups of common, good folks with real beliefs and practices which harm no one — and they have also been used for political enlightenment, for challenging our biases (instead of fueling them) and for taking to task living public officials who claim responsibilities over the world and whose record of actions speak more plainly than their words.

Of the instances of former variety, we have heard recently and loudly.

Khalil Bendib's cartoons belong to the latter variety.

Although I do not totally agree with every point Khalil makes in his cartoons, I think he has got many things dead right. Khalil did have a very interesting interview with the BBC this week. You can also view this PBS video about Khalil working in his studio.

Addendum: By the way, after some provocative paragraphs recounting some unusual responses and several inches deep in an strangely titled New York Times article re-published by International Herald Tribune, we read —

[Mushir al-]Masri [a recently elected Hamas legislator] like many other leaders here, condemned any violent retaliation for the cartoons. On Thursday, two armed groups swarmed the office of the European Union here in Gaza, while another group threatened citizens of countries where the cartoons were published.

"Those who threaten, this is not the real Islam," an imam, Walid El Amudi, told worshipers at the Western Mosque in a refugee camp here. "We should show mercy and beauty."

A pamphlet released by gunmen at the EU office threatened harm to churches - and Hamas leaders [...] quickly and publicly reacted to calm fears of Gaza's small Christian minority of 3,000 people. On Thursday, a top Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, visited the only Catholic church in Gaza to condemn any threats against Christians.

"He said he is protecting us not because he is Hamas," said the Reverend Manuel Musallam of the Holy Family Church, who said he has had long and friendly relations with Hamas. "He is protecting Christians and our institutions as the state of Palestine and as a government."

Of course, the more unusual and dubious views and responses usually receive attention in the first paragraphs and titles chosen for the journalistic reports, even in major publications.

2006-02-03 20:21:25.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Monday January 16, 2006

[ Society ] Lost In Translation

It would be a far less complicated world if all errors of judgement and misunderstanding were due to (apparently) innocent slips in translation — however consequential and dangerous those slips might be, like this one.

More fundamentally, there are those with great power who not only make little effort to understand the other side — it does take some amount of skill and experience to do so — but also purposefully twist, turn and trash what is said and done in order to accomplish and justify what (for those willing to observe) would seem most evil and base — and at the core of it, the idea of utilitarianism when deployed for blind purposes of the powerful, can lead to frequent deeds with consequences most vile, for which, without its crude cover, none can offer any real justification.

2006-01-16 20:36:04.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Sunday January 01, 2006

[ Society ] It Takes an Artist

Some times, it takes a courageous artist to recall basic facts — to remind us how important truth can be where lies have found great currency.

As an example, see Arash Norouzi's piece on the how media has demonized Iran. Norouzi's Mossadegh project might also be worth a look. He also points to a Mossadegh rock opera by Michael Minn, which premiered in New York in the summer of 2004. (For the audio clips of the opera, try here.)

Courage should not be that hard to muster but it apparantly has become a very rare commodity only accessible to the few.

2006-01-01 07:19:06.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Sunday December 18, 2005

[ Society ] Paranoid?

I had always been surprised how paranoid the Europeans were about genetically modified foods.

In America, we certainly didn't seem to have the problem.

Was it really their paranoia or was it my ignorance caused by the fact that here the U.S., genetically modified foods were not being labeled as such?

I'll be damned — according to a radio program I just heard, I was simply being ignorant! There is currently no regulation to be enforced by the FDA or any other regulatory body for such labeling!

Some seem to have started a campaign to change this. See for example "The Campaign."

It is amazing that throughout this time, I thought we had the regulation but that in their wisdom, the food retailers were staying away from genetically modified foods—hence the absence of any labeled ones.

So next time you pick up those huge holiday grapes (just like what I did tonight at the local store), you may become as paranoid as I and ask youself whether it might need to have been labeled!

Here's a quote from "The Campaign":

There were only five countries that grew about 98 percent of the $44 billion of commercial genetically engineered crops in 2003-2004. Those five countries were: the United States ($27.5 billion), Argentina ($8.9 billion), China ($3.9 billion), Canada ($2.0 billion) and Brazil ($1.6 billion).

. . . [All] of the European Union nations, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries require the mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients.

. . . [C]itizens in the United States and Canada are engaged in the largest feeding experiment in human history and most people are not even aware of the fact.

Wonderful!

Of course, other perspectives exist but I still would like to avoid eating new, fancy proteins of which my ancestors did not habitually partake, and did so over multiple generations, provably without any harm to themselves — but perhaps that is just a luxury and we should worry about other more important luxuries such as the size of our in-house video display system.

Of course, I know my science and to a certain extent it depends on how genetic modification occurs. If it occurs through insertion of DNA from species belonging to organisms other than the target organism, I would be very cautious. If the practice involves mixing of the same species that is a different matter and perhaps (under certain circumstances) less worrisome.

2005-12-18 23:48:00.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Tuesday November 29, 2005

[ Society ] Fox Series on Iran

Of note for my readers who have often asked me about English-language material on Iran might be Amy Kellogg's series of eight reports for Fox News. I just ran into the last in the series and found it to be representative, interesting and accessible for an English-speaking audience. I've not reviewed the other items in the series but the videos may be worth viewing. The last in the Fox series is about the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops and civilians during the Iran-Iraq war. (Dana Priest, chief national security reporter for The Washington Post, has written about this. A reprint of Priest's article is available here. You may also want to see my earlier post on a more recent use of such weapons.)

2005-11-29 22:11:23.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Tuesday November 08, 2005

[ Society ] Chemistry 101

An annonymous friend has just sent me this Reuters' report on the use of "incendiary white phosphorus against civilians and a firebomb similar to napalm against military targets" in Iraq. It's based on a documentary by Italian state-run broadcaster RAI. (On other recent uses of chemical weapons, see also here and here.)

2005-11-08 10:56:15.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.