Syria's Bashar al-Assad Knows: Napalm Sticks to Kids

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The title of this blog post references a little ditty that was popular with some US pilots during the Vietnam War. At the end of this piece I've included a YouTube video in which the full version is sang. It begins like this:

We shoot the sick, the young, the lame,
We do our best to maim,
Because the kills all count the same,
Napalm sticks to kids.

The writing of this post has been prompted by the news that the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is again using napalm bombs in Homs province. Napalm is jellied gasoline; a horrific weapon that was widely used by the United States on Vietnamese. It was declared a war crime to use it against civilians by the United Nations in 1980, although it took almost three decades for the US to agreed to that protocol. President Barack Obama signed it on his first full day in office, 21 January 2009. Now it is making a comeback, like poison gas, thanks to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

This is one of the most iconic photographs of the Vietnam War. It shows a group of South Vietnamese children running from a napalm attack being carried out by the South Vietnamese government in 1972. There was a time when Veterans for Peace opposed this sort of thing, but that was when the government dropping napalm on its own people was a client of the United States. Today they officially oppose any international intervention to stop Assad from dropping napalm on his people and they oppose providing the Syrians being napalmed with weapons they could use to shoot down the planes themselves, which means, as a practical matter, they support the napalming of civilians by the fascist Assad regime.They aren't alone. Democracy Now had no time for napalm today, in fact, she didn't say word one about what is being done to Syrians by Assad. Amy's focus was a two-year-old story about kids being jailed for profit in Pennsylvania.

Radio Free Syria is reporting today:

Regime uses napalm bombs again in Homs province

Qalat al Hosn, Homs province, 04-02-2014: People in Qalat al Hosn (a.k.a. Krak des Chevaliers) and the neighbouring village of Al Zahra are receiving instructions from activists on how to treat napalm burns and other injuries after regime warplanes again dropped incendiary bombs containing a napalm-like substance believed to be either napalm or white phosphorous in the area.

Napalm, a mixture of petroleum or similar fuel and a thickening/gelling agent, is highly combustible and adheres to any surfaces it comes into contact with, including human skin, with the temperature of the flames, whch reaches up to 1,000 degrees, causing horrific and often lethal burns. During combustion, it rapidly deoxygenates the available air and generates large amounts of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

Apart from severe burns, other effects of exposure to napalm include asphyxiation, hyperthermia/heat stroke, radiant heat, dehydration, suffocation, smoke exposure, and/or carbon monoxide poisoning.

Those exposed to napalm, which is used regularly by the regime, are advised to avoid inhaling any smoke from the explosions and to immediately remove any clothes which the napalm has come into contact with before immediately seeking medical aid for burns, which can go down to the bone.

In the event of fires ignited by the napalm bombs, people in the vicinity are advised to stay as far away as possible from the flames which will similarly deoxygenate the surrounding air, and to use large amounts of earth rather than water when attempting to extinguish the blaze - water is ineffective unless massive quantities are used.

Although the use of napalm, like white phosphorous, in civilian areas is a war crime according to the United Nations, the regular documented deployment of both in incendiary bomb form against civilian areas by Assad's warplanes and helicopter gunships has never been criticised by the UN, the 'Friends of Syria' (sic) or any other bodies among the so-called international community.

From: Khaled al Hosni in Qalat al Hosn

See also:

Free Halab reported:

Children Burned Alive in “Napalm” Playground Massacre
31 August 2013
The massacre took place at Oram al-Kubra in Aleppo’s countryside on Monday, at least 10 children and five adults have lost their lives while up to a hundred suffer from severe burns. The gruesome images were shot and uploaded by local activists soon after. For any sane person, the BBC report suffices. However, in a world where hundreds of massacres are imagined to be staged “and-or[!]” committed by the victims just to get on the news to advance the great conspiracy, it might not. The following is a longer, local report: More...

From BBC News:

Syria: Agony of victims of 'napalm-like' school bombing
29 September 2013
By Ian Pannell
Footage of a napalm-like attack on a school in Syria filmed by a team working for Panorama shocked the world. Now the BBC has returned to find out what happened to the children who suffered horrific burns. More...

From Business Insider:

Syria's Air War Includes Dropping 'Napalm-Like' Bombs On Playgrounds
31 August 2013
Michael Kelley
What's the big deal with Syria?

A good place to start is that civilians have been dying ever since Bashar al-Assad responded to nonviolent protests with bullets more than two years ago.

In July 2012 the regime started a bombing campaign on rebel-held towns, and a prime example of sheer brutality of this tactic happened in northern Syria this week: More...

War in Context posted this report yesterday:

Children inside the Syrian revolution
The following documentary has been shown on television in the UK and Canada. It focuses on the experiences of children who are growing up in the shattered remains of Aleppo. Watch it while you can — it may not remain on YouTube for long.

More...

Some leading members of Veterans for Peace, including Ann Wright, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, Thomas Drake, David MacMichael, and Elizabeth Murray played a prominent role in defending Bashar al-Assad in his 21 August 2013 sarin gas attack by agreeing with him that it was really a false flag attack carried out by his opposition on themselves, so any day now I expect we'll be hearing from them how it isn't the Syrian air force that is dropping the napalm, barrel bombs, and cluster bombs, but really a secret, invisible, opposition air force with planes painted to look like they belong to Assad. This is how far Veterans for Peace has fallen since it formed up out of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.



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