Until this is jumped on by other news outlets, particularly mainstream American ones, I will view it with a skeptical eye. The Independent is reporting that evidence has emerged suggesting that the U.S. dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus, a chemical weapon, on Fallujah in November of 2004, reportedly "killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon."

Leading up to the war, Bush painted a picture of Saddam Hussein as a murderous madman so evil that he used chemical weapons on innocent civilians. Now, we begin to resemble the enemy. Of course, apologists will say, the civilians Saddam killed and our "collateral damage" died for different reasons. Ours, they tell us, is a noble cause. But in war a noble cause is often lost to heinous means. The line that separates good from evil, right from wrong, becomes thinner and thinner until it exists only in the mind.

This report may turn out to be false, considering the attack has not been mentioned until one year after the battle. But the article claims to be based on new evidence "including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack."

Regardless, this is merely a symptom of a much larger degredation of moral values in this war on terror. I read a comment on a blog recently from someone who said (paraphrased), "If you had told me in 1985 that in 20 years the U.S. government would be condoning torture and setting up CIA torture camps across Europe, I would have thought the Soviets had won."

I am not so naive as to think torture has not occurred in previous wars or that civillian casualties aren't commonplace in battle. But it is disheartening to see these things reach such a heightened level in this war and be condoned so openly by a segment of politicians, pundits, and citizens.

From George Orwell's Animal Farm:

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Hat tip: Donklephant