DOD seeks $3.6 million for firebombs
By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 7, 2003
The Pentagon wants to buy 1,000 firebombs during the next two years to rebuild its supply of the napalm-like weapons.
The proposal was submitted to Congress in February, six weeks before the war against Iraq when Marine Corps jets dropped dozens of firebombs on Iraqi positions as Marine ground troops advanced on Baghdad.
In recent interviews, Marines at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station acknowledged dropping the firebombs during an air campaign that destroyed several Iraqi army units before they could counterattack.
Several human rights groups have questioned the use of the incendiary devices, and though the firebombs are considered inhumane by some organizations, they are not outlawed by international treaties if used against military forces.
"We're concerned about the potential use of these weapons near concentrations of civilians," said Reuben Brigety, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York.
The request for the bombs occupy a single line in the president's $399 billion military budget for fiscal year 2004.
The Pentagon seeks more than $3.6 million for the weapons to "sustain training requirements" and "to avoid further impact of an already degraded war-reserve stockpile." The budget lists the weapons as Mark 77 bombs.
The Navy wants to buy 1,000 firebombs over the next two years for the Marine Corps, which is the only service that currently uses them.
The first purchase would include 500 bombs, costing about $3,588 apiece. In the second purchase, each bomb would have a price tag of $3,678. The contract is expected to be awarded next April.
Defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said firebombs are a niche weapon useful against a well-entrenched enemy or forces hidden in dense forests or jungles, but not in most military situations.
"Having a thousand on hand is a prudent measure," said Thompson, director of the think tank in Arlington, Va.
The Pentagon was unable to say how many firebombs remain in the inventory or how many were used in Iraq.
In 2001, the Pentagon announced it had destroyed its napalm weapons, which had been stored at the Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station near Camp Pendleton since the Vietnam War.
During the Iraq war, Pentagon spokesmen said napalm wasn't used, but they did not disclose that similar firebombs were dropped.
They said this week that firebombs are not the same as napalm because firebombs contain a mixture of jet fuel and a gelling compound, instead of a toxic mix of gasoline, benzene and polystyrene.
However, most Marines and military experts still use the term napalm when referring to the new munitions.
Spokesmen said this week that if reporters had asked about "firebombs," instead of napalm, they would have revealed their use.
The Pentagon's semantics have raised some concerns.
"It's not just napalm, which is a horrible weapon. This smacks of deception," said Robert Musil, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a group in Washington, D.C., that opposes nuclear weapons.
"The Congress has to look into this and demand that the Pentagon be straightforward and forthcoming," he said.
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James W. Crawley:
(619) 542-4559;
jim.crawley@uniontrib.com
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m..._1n7bombs.html
Sempers,
Roger