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Is anyone else annoyed by the media's limpet-like tendancy to hold onto a topic and throw a dangerously mis-informed light on it? I have done a quick search through the forums but couldnt find a thread already on this matter, so I thought I would start one.
I have just taken a post I made in reply to the subject off of another forum I frequent, bad grammar, bad language and all. I'm sure the blocker will censor most of it.


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this absolutely frigging pisses me off, its an amazing example of why they shouldnt say ANYTHING on the open media without checking their godamned facts first.

white phosphorous is NOT a chemical weapon. it is a CONVENTIONAL weapon. and why is it "banned" for use? because it hurts people, oh, boo hoo. apparantly it stings a bit to be burnt alive by incendiary devices. which is the more humane way of killing someone, burning them to death with willie petes or beating them to death with a stick with a nail through the end of it? its a f@#k farse that reporters and pundits should ever even BEGIN to question the deployment of various weapons in a military campaign.

lets pretend for a minute that we are going to be nitpicking and pedantic. yes, phosphorous is a chemical, yes, it is a weapon. high explosives are a random mixture of chemicals. does that make them a chemical weapon too? the 2000lb bombs dropped from your F15s, are they chemical weapons? no, they are conventional weapons. chemical weapons are things like your mustard gas, your sarin gas, your various nerve agents. they might be bastards, but the US would never even dream of bringing these dispicable weapons into play on a modern battlefield. willie petes have more in common with your 13th century halbard than they do with chemical weapons. its the f@#k media, all of those misinformed and presumptuous reporters leaping around the place with their feet in their mouths that spew the kind of horse shit that the gawping public are dumb enough to believe.

it is EXACTLY the same as me walking onto the set of match of the day and spouting off a load of bullcrap about football. i dont follow the game, i havnt got a clue about the merits of different players. the same is true of all of these numpties with a pen and a contract with the daily f@#k mail. they think that because they can reach people through the media, they have the right to whinge about things they dont have a f@#k clue about.

willie petes (white phosphorous, WP) are an amazingly effective way of getting the job that they were designed to do DONE. why else would they have been designed.
shoot the f@#k reporters who havnt got a clue what they are talking about, not the guys who are using this stuff.

f@#k off, the lot of them.

I can't understand why it is suddenly an issue. WPs have been around for bloody years!

There is even a picture of one going off in Bravo Two Zero!

It's been out a lot longer than Bravo 2 Zero.
Instant smoke.

Peds,
blow into the bag mate... deep breaths!

Good point but will be lost on the media

Since when has white phos been "willie petes" inthe UK? That's Yank phoenetic, not Brit (shudder).

Warm Persons

It's just 'white phos'. That's all we ever called it (ammo colour code is 'Eau de Nile'). It's not banned from use but its use is restricted (or was to us) as a smoke round. It is not to be used against humans.

That was the gen anyway.

GD wrote:It's just 'white phos'. That's all we ever called it (ammo colour code is 'Eau de Nile').

GD, by jove he's got it! All we have to do is REBRAND. After all, we don't fight wars any more, we 'engage in the broad construct of concurrent strike and stabilise missions, in support of the Defence Mission and strategic direction and guidance'

All we need to do is pass the Eau de Nile and leave that nasty White Phos at home .....

Eau de NILE
Since when has sea green been called eau de nile? ffs
Are you in denial? I thought the Nile was a river in Egypt

harry hackedoff wrote:Eau de NILE
Since when has sea green been called eau de nile?

Since the Red Sea was reporting sick.

As you know all ordnance has a colour code and there is an army supplied chart of what those colours are and what they mean.

"Eau de Nile" is smoke. If my memory is correct there was also a yellow band on the nose of the round indicating that it had a high explosive charge to disseminate the white phos.

For those of us using the 120mm L11 Vickers, the round was exactly the same shape as HESH so it was stored seperately (we only carried three rounds of white phos) at the back of the ammo racks to avoid mistakes at night.

Oooh, is that the time
Just didn`t think it`s spelled "Nile", ffs
"Smoke" comes in the Corps colours, blue, green red and yellow.
White Phos only comes in white, I`m afraid

And in deference to the norn iron contingent, it allso comes in Orange, big man yourself

My mistake, it's actually spelt, "Eau de Nil". The translation is the same - "Water of the Nile".

We're talking smoke rounds here H - not your poxy wee grenades or dischargers. The HE charge chucks the WP 75 meters in all directions and it has a tendancy to burn human flash most severely.

You can put one of your wee smoke grenades up your arse and all that will happen is that smoke will come out of your ears and your eyes will water.



You'll find the orange one very good for just that - shoving up yer jacksey - and that don't make me no republican pal

WP smoke is good stuff, produces a thicker smoke screen than non WP stuff. But I thikn WP smoke rounds could be used 'creatively'.