Let’s start with Afghanistan: the Forgotten Front, the war that, everyone pretty much  agreed, was the correct response to nine.one.one. Well, Osama’s bin forgotten, and anarchy still rules over there, but opium production is up. It also remains, much like the time of the Soviet misadventure there, a great testing ground for weapons systems.

The Brits, weary of their role in Iraq, and wary of the increasing casualties they’re suffering in the Afghanistan, have been given a new super-weapon for their arsenal, presumably by their BFF, BushCo™. It’s a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon, but with a novel new warhead. Described as an NE – “Novel Explosive“, it utilizes a thermobaric/explosive mixture which ignites the air, producing a shock-wave of “unparalleled destructive power”…and a nasty piece of work it is.

Having previously been field tested by the U.S. in Iraq, and despite having received glowing reviews from the Marine Corps during the assault on Fallujah, its deployment had been kept quiet. In fact, the British parliament was unaware of its use until the story broke. This clandestine deployment may be due in large part to the ethics surrounding the use of such weapons, especially when civilian populations are present. In situations such as urban warfare, this weapon could be considered to constitute disproportionate force, and disclosure of its use could very well precipitate some serious blowback, much like the accusations surrounding the use of WP: white phosphorous munitions in Fallujah did.

According to Human Rights Watch, thermobaric weapons “kill and injure in a particularly brutal manner over a wide area. In urban settings it is very difficult to limit the effect of this weapon to combatants, and the nature of FAE [fuel air explosives] explosions makes it virtually impossible for civilians to take shelter from their destructive effect.”

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These so called, Thermobaric weapons, or FAEs, were first developed, and used during Vietnam, by the United States military.

According to the US Defense Intelligence Agency, which released a study on thermobaric weapons in 1993, “The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique–and unpleasant…. What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs…. If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents.”

A second DIA study said, “shock and pressure waves cause minimal damage to brain tissue… it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate.”

“The effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense,” said a CIA study of the weapons. “Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness.”

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The above study, clearly puts lie to the British Defense officials claim that their new “super-weapon” is different.

The danger inherent in the escalation of force that these weapons represent also includes other munitions that remain in the armories of the forces in play. Most notably, the so called, Tactical Nukes that have, as yet, not been employed. The increasing bellicosity towards Iran, and the neocon ideology driven propaganda behind it, should give one pause. As the crisis’ continue to mount up and threaten the survival of the administration, trusting this cabal to keep these weapons from use, is frankly, not a proposition l would place much faith in.

The reality is that our government, with the acquiescence of congress continues to escalate the use of force across all fronts in these conflicts. They are inflicting immeasurable harm to millions of people, and creating an atmosphere of hatred throughout the world for us, and everything we have done for the past 1622 days in Iraq, and 2151 days in Afghanistan. Untold deaths, dismemberments and displacements, totaling millions, billions in treasure that have left economies and infrastructures shattered and/or in massive disarray; massive debt, financial, moral and ethical, that will take generations to set right; with no end in sight.

Epilogue

As long as we continue to dwell in the abstract mathematics of debt, death and displacement; as long as we continue to view these conflict(s) through the blinders of denial that provide a disconnect from the reality of not just the magnitude of the suffering, but the horrific ways in which it is accomplished, there will be no end.

Endless war, and all of its consequences.

RubDMC’s ongoing diaries Iraq War Grief Daily Witness attempted to illustrate and bring to the fore the physical costs to the innocents and combatants in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Until the impact and destruction wrought by these weapons becomes a part of the perception of the public, and are included in the daily dialog surrounding these wars, we’re never going to resolve the problems.

The title is a quote from the writings of the late poet, Ed Dorn: There are no degrees of reality. One can choose to look away from it, deny it, and try to ignore it, but those acts change neither its nature, nor its impact.