The top story on my Yahoo news budget tonight is: "Concerns White Phosphorus Used in Afghan Battle." It's an AP story out of Afghanistan that the country's top human rights group believes the U.S. has used white phosphorous in battling the Taliban.
[R]ights groups say
its use over populated areas can indiscriminately burn civilians and
constitutes a war crime.
Afghan
doctors told The Associated Press they have treated at least 14
patients with severe burns the doctors have never seen before.
Disgraceful, yes. And an appropriate standard for journalists to enforce. But white phosphorus was used by the Israelis in densely populated Gaza, according to human rights groups; and I remember when we first covered it on this site, when the Times of London made the allegation. I don't remember the American press ever making a to-do about it. But the Arab press did, and so did the English press. My Google news search for "Israel white phosphorus" turns up tons of headlines from global and English sources, very few from the States.
The point: The American press behaves a little like the U.S. delegation to the U.N., and cuts Israel a break on international standards that it holds Americans to.
