Really?! Now this?!

The final justification for the Iraq War, when everything else had fallen apart (or when the public's general belief in that everything else), was that Saddam Hussein was a bad man. He tortured and gassed people. When Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, renditions, secret prisons, etc. became public knowledge, "Saddam was a bad man" had to be parsed further. A certain kind of bad man. He gassed the Kurds -- back to the WMD default. But now there's this (excerpted below). How much further can the guy be parsed? We've already seen him in his underwear. If you want to believe there's evil in the world, Saddam is a good target. But evil, if such a thing exists, isn't embodied in just some random guy or government. It's embodied in some guy or government that engages in certain acts of cruelty against other human beings. Bush just defined torture committed by Americans out of existence by announcing that torture is basically the same thing as death. A wave of the wand and Americans are still good. Evil is embodied in some guy or government that uses WMDs. But... now this (L'il Willy Pete) from The Independent:

US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumours have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.

On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: "US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988."...

...now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.

In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete.

See also here, and here, as well as here for RAI video.