US Still Using White Phosphorus as Chemical Weapon in Iraq

After the Pope condemned the US military for using the white phosphorus incendiary as a chemical weapon, and after the Pentagon first denied then acknowledged then rationalized its use, you'd think the generals would stop using the weapon against civilians.

But a recent, first-hand report from Rammani by unembedded reporter Sabah Ali suggests that not only are US troops back to their "shake and bake" activities, but they have also created "collateral damage" that turns to ash in an Iraqi suit ...

According to his story at Iraq Dispatch, Ali quotes an Iraqi who lost his family after his home was bombed by US warplanes:

AM, another employee from Rummana said, “We saw 14 airplanes bombing, we heard that there is a major attack on Huseiba. 5 days later we heard that the attack was on Karabla and Ebeidy which was hit by 50 missiles from dawn to sunrise at 6 am. A man said that they used white phosphorus.

“How did he know that?”

“He said that when the dead were buried, their clothes were intact, but the bodies were like ashes when they were held. In Rummana they collected all the men, and the Iraqis who accompanied them would point to some who are then taken away. The troops are still occupying the schools and the medical center. They tell the families to leave then they blast the house. They did that with 15 houses in Rummana. In one month, at least 150 were killed in Rummana. On Nov 15, they forced the families to spend the night outside in Ebeidy. Two newly born babies died in the cold.”

I do not understand this. I imagine that the general disregard paid to the story by the press in the US about white phosphorus simply did not make an impression on the higher pay grades, so they told the grunts that the hullabaloo was just by a bunch of bleeding hearts. Relying on war's greatest imperative--expediency--the troops used good old Yankee ingenuity to clean up the town of insurgent scum.