Reminder that the use of white phosphorous, by itself, is NOT a war crime.

It is only when white phosphorous is used as the primary or sole incendiary ingredient in an incendiary bomb that its use is possibly outside of the various statutes on its use.

“Well, what else would those evil [insert slur here] use the horrible compound for?”

Smoke, you clot. It’s the main chemical used to produce smoke. It’s also used as the triggering explosive in larger warheads, since its such a lively explosive.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The rounds, which eject felt wedges saturated with white phosphorous that burns at high temperatures, produce billowing smoke to obscure troop movements as it falls haphazardly over a wide area.

Lot production codes found on the shells match the nomenclature used by the U.S. military to categorize domestically produced munitions, which show they were made by ammunition depots in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992.

Tensions along Lebanon’s southern border between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, have boiled over from a simmer to near-daily exchanges of fire in the weeks since Oct. 7.

Photos and videos verified by Amnesty International and reviewed by The Post show the characteristic ribbons of white phosphorus smoke falling over Dheira on Oct. 16.

“The fact that U.S.-produced white phosphorus is being used by Israel in south Lebanon should be of great concern to U.S. officials,” Tirana Hassan, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in an email.

Israel has used the munition more than 60 times in Lebanon’s border areas in the past two months, according to data collected by ACLED, a group that monitors war zones.

The original article contains 1,284 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

We have laws against supplying weapons to people who use them for this. We are no longer a democracy of laws.