Before the war began, they stated that they intended to use these warheads, which are manufactured from the waste of the nuclear industry � to pierce armor � and which are believed by thousands of Gulf War Syndrome sufferers, along with Iraqi doctors, to be responsible for a plague of cancers. Yesterday, the BBC told us that the US Marines had called up A-10 strike aircraft to deal with �pockets of resistance � � a bit more military-speak from the BBC � but failed to mention that the A-10 uses DU rounds. So for the first time since 1991, we � the West � are today spraying these uranium aerosols in battlefield explosions in southern Iraq; and we�re not being told. Why not?
And where, for God�s sake, does that wretched, utterly dishonest phrase �coalition forces� come from? There is no �coalition� in this Iraq war. There are the Americans and the British and a few Australians. That�s it.
The �coalition� of the 1991 Gulf War does not exist. The �coalition� of nations willing to �help� with this illegitimate conflict includes, by a vast stretch of the imagination, even Costa Rica and Micronesia and, I suppose, poor old neutral Ireland with its transit rights for US military aircraft at Shannon. But they are not �coalition forces�. Why does the BBC use this phrase? I repeat, why?
Robert Fisk BAGHDAD, 24 March 2003 Arab News
