Marines Quiet About Brutal New Weapon

November 16th, 2005 at 18:59 Björn Hallberg

Well, the U.S. continues to deploy questionable weapons under questionable circumstances. Essentially making Iraq a scene for the arms industry to test their latest products and for depraved people to have good jingoistic laugh about it. Not to mention falling over themselves to justify the slaughter. The comments to the Defense Tech story is a stark reminder of how dangerous, extreme, and I dare to say, barely human, some Americans have become.

Defense Tech - War is hell. But it’s worse when the Marines bring out their new urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why they’re not talking about it, much.

This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - “Novel Explosive”- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings.

Even aside from the usual gripe about the U.S. having no business doing what they are doing and the “insurgents” having every right to resist occupation, this remains a bothersome trend. And obviously the U.S. has taken the use of this new center piece in its urban warfare campaign pretty lightly. The suggestion to convert “thousands of obsolete M-72 LAWs” shows that contrary to pulling back its worldwide cold war perimeter, the U.S. in fact plans more urban warfare for the future to come. A decision that would only make sense for a normal country were they expecting an invasion of their homeland. As this is not the case, it must be the military-industrial complex eyeing Damascus, Teheran, Pyongyang or wherever the jackboot of fascism decides to move next. Indeed, this is the plan for the entire U.S. military. One has to go no further than the idea that a Future Combat System first and foremost must be light enough to transport, as if war is now normality.

Looking at the following quote (”Marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes”) it is perfectly clear that we are now to consider every house in Iraq a “pillbox” and a target for destruction. Compare this to the official story that the Israeli “Defence” Force uses for blowing up or bulldozing buildings. It shows a cover-up and an utter contempt for the people living there that is quite frankly racism.

Clearly, the U.S. is abusing these weapons, using them haphazardly and gleefully in what has now been turned into a war for survival by the public relations corps, and not for the targets of this outrageous and blunt brutality, the Iraqis, but for the imperial oppressors and occupiers.
I recall hearing the same things being said about partisans fighting Nazi occupation during WWII, or patriots fighting U.S. forces in Vietnam. The common denominator being that the cause of the righteous is twisted to denote “terrorism” or indeed “insurgency.” There is plenty of more direct historical precedence. The aggression against the Philippines being perhaps the best, as many have already observed, especially since the U.S. used the same term, “insurgency,” to connote something that wasn’t then, and isn’t today, anything of the sort. But as long as the stakes seem high, any means are justifyable and the slaughter can continue.

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