Shoot and kill Iraqis with bullets=OK; Use tear gas and you Break Int'l Law

[Dooby]

US eyes plan for tear gas use in Iraq

By Paul Elias, Associated Press, 3/3/2003

SAN FRANCISCO - Army Major General David Grange is proud to have ordered his troops to use tear gas on hostile Serb crowds in Bosnia six years ago.

''We didn't kill anyone,'' said Grange, who is retired. ''It saved lives.'' His only complaint was that red tape prevented him from using tear gas more often.

The Pentagon is drafting guidelines under which US solders may use riot-control agents such as tear gas and pepper spray in Iraq to control prisoners and separate enemy soldiers from civilians, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last month.

However, soldiers who use ''nonlethal agents'' in combat outside their own countries are violating the very chemical weapons treaties the United States accuses Saddam Hussein of flouting. ''We are doing our best to live within the straitjacket that has been imposed on us on this subject,'' Rumsfeld said. ''We are trying to find ways that nonlethal agents could be used within the law.''

While countries may use nonlethal chemicals domestically for law enforcement and crowd control, the Chemical Weapons Convention that took force in 1997 and was ratified by 149 countries including The United States, specifies: ''Each state party undertakes not to use riot-control agents as a method of warfare.''

That provision was contested during the 15 years it took to craft the treaty. It arose as an objection to the United States' reliance on tear gas to flush out Viet Cong fighters and kill them during the Vietnam War. But the convention does allow riot-control agents to be used for ''law enforcement.'' Whether ''law enforcement'' extends beyond a nation's borders is a matter of debate. The issue will be discussed in April when the treaty comes up for international review in The Hague.

Weapons-control activists cite several reasons for banning nonlethal chemical weapons in war. They argue that the agents can kill when used in war environments. They could also put militaries on a slippery slope to using deadlier chemicals. Irritants such as tear gas and pepper spray are tame in comparison to other agents under development. The US military also has explored using mind-altering drugs such as opiates, along with genetically engineered microorganisms that can destroy objects such as runways, vehicles, and buildings

[LRB]

Amazing what the stupid French like people of the world will come up with.

[Drbio]

sheesh