Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Banner promoting anonymous crime reporting with a phone and contact number 1 800 TIPS (8477), featuring the Crime Stoppers logo and a QR code for submitting tips.

British Defence Uses The Vacuum Bomb In Afghanistan

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

Thanks to Adrian L for the links!

BRITISH forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world’s most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban.

Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave that sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies. The Ministry of Defence has admitted to the use of the weapons, condemned by human rights groups as “brutal”, on several occasions, including against a cave complex.

The use of the Hellfire AGM-114N weapons had been deemed so successful they would now be fired from RAF Reaper unmanned drones controlled by “pilots” at Creech air force base in Nevada, an Defence Ministry spokesman added. Thermobaric weapons, or vacuum bombs, were first combat-tested by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and their use by Russia against civilians in Chechnya in the 1990s was condemned worldwide.

Source: The Australian News

The BU family should be aware that Barbados exist in a global space. Although our influence on global foreign policy is non-existent, we are world citizens and good sense dictates that we should have more than a cursory knowledge of events in the global arena. Thanks to BU family member Carson Cadogan we felt compelled to highlight the story quoted above.

While we can all marvel at the wonders of modern invention this story has struck a nerve in the BU household. Did you read the quote above which is highlighted in blue? It has become fashionable in the current world order, specifically the USA and the UK to adopt the same cold war tactics which they previously condemned. Does the UK or USA for that matter have the moral authority to lead the world in the face of such a blatant violation of human rights?

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

30 responses to “British Defence Uses The Vacuum Bomb In Afghanistan”

  1. British Defence Uses The Vaccum Bomb In Afghanistan

    […] dummidumbwit wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt BRITISH forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world’s most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban. Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave that sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies. The Ministry of Defence has admitted to the use of the weapons, condemned by human rights groups as “brutal”, on several occasions, including against a cave complex. The use of the Hellfire AGM-114N weapons had been deemed so successful they would now be fired from RAF Reaper unmanned drones controlled by “pilots” at Creech air force base in Nevada, an Defence Ministry spokesman added. Thermobaric weapons, or vacuum bombs, were first combat-tested by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and their use by Russia against civilians in Chechnya in the 1990s was condemned worldwide. Source: The Australian News […]

  2. British Defence Uses The Vacuum Bomb In Afghanistan

    […] dummidumbwit wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt BRITISH forces in Afghanistan have used one of the world’s most deadly and controversial missiles to fight the Taliban. Apache attack helicopters have fired the thermobaric weapons against fighters in buildings and caves, to create a pressure wave that sucks the air out of victims, shreds their internal organs and crushes their bodies. The Ministry of Defence has admitted to the use of the weapons, condemned by human rights groups as “brutal”, on several occasions, including against a cave complex. The use of the Hellfire AGM-114N weapons had been deemed so successful they would now be fired from RAF Reaper unmanned drones controlled by “pilots” at Creech air force base in Nevada, an Defence Ministry spokesman added. Thermobaric weapons, or vacuum bombs, were first combat-tested by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and their use by Russia against civilians in Chechnya in the 1990s was condemned worldwide. Source: The Australian News […]

  3. Green Monkey Avatar
    Green Monkey

    And more and more people are coming to realize the whole Afghanistan/Iraq thing was all about fighting for control of oil and energy resources in the first place, as the anti-war critics were alleging all along. At the same time they were being mainly ignored in the corporately controlled mainstream media, or when given any coverage at all ridiculed as being naive and short sighted in not buying the Bush administration’s line of BS.

    These wars are about oil, not democracy

    By ERIC MARGOLIS
    Toronto Sun

    PARIS — The ugly truth behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars finally has emerged.

    Four major western oil companies, Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Total are about to sign U.S.-brokered no-bid contracts to begin exploiting Iraq’s oil fields. Saddam Hussein had kicked these firms out three decades ago when he nationalized Iraq’s oil industry. The U.S.-installed Baghdad regime is welcoming them back.

    Iraq is getting back the same oil companies that used to exploit it when it was a British colony.

    As former fed chairman Alan Greenspan recently admitted, the Iraq war was all about oil. The invasion was about SUV’s, not democracy.

    Afghanistan just signed a major deal to launch a long-planned, 1,680-km pipeline project expected to cost $8 billion. If completed, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline (TAPI) will export gas and later oil from the Caspian basin to Pakistan’s coast where tankers will transport it to the West.

    The Caspian basin located under the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakkstan, holds an estimated 300 trillion cubic feet of gas and 100-200 billion barrels of oil. Securing the world’s last remaining known energy El Dorado is a strategic priority for the western powers.

    But there are only two practical ways to get gas and oil out of land-locked Central Asia to the sea: Through Iran, or through Afghanistan to Pakistan. Iran is taboo for Washington. That leaves Pakistan, but to get there, the planned pipeline must cross western Afghanistan, including the cities of Herat and Kandahar.

    SNIP

    Washington disguised its energy geopolitics by claiming the Afghan occupation was to fight “Islamic terrorism,” liberate women, build schools and promote democracy. Ironically, the Soviets made exactly the same claims when they occupied Afghanistan from 1979-1989. The Iraq cover story was weapons of mass destruction and democracy.

    http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2008/06/22/5953041-sun.php

    No Blood for… er… um…
    The Oil Majors Take a Little Sip of the Ol’ Patrimony
    By Tom Engelhardt

    More than five years after the invasion of Iraq — just in case you were still waiting — the oil giants finally hit the front page…

    Last Thursday, the New York Times led with this headline: “Deals with Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back.” (Subhead: “Rare No-bid Contracts, A Foothold for Western Companies Seeking Future Rewards.”) And who were these four giants? ExxonMobil, Shell, the French company Total and BP (formerly British Petroleum). What these firms got were mere “service contracts” — as in servicing Iraq’s oil fields — not the sort of “production sharing agreements” that President Bush’s representatives in Baghdad once dreamed of, and that would have left them in charge of those fields. Still, it was clearly a start. The Times reporter, Andrew E. Kramer, added this little detail: “[The contracts] include a provision that could allow the companies to reap large profits at today’s prices: the [Iraqi oil] ministry and companies are negotiating payment in oil rather than cash.” And here’s the curious thing, exactly these four giants “lost their concessions in Iraq” back in 1972 when that country’s oil was nationalized. Hmmm.

    You’d think the Times might have slapped some kind of “we wuz wrong” label on the piece. I mean, remember when the mainstream media, the Times included, seconded the idea that Bush’s invasion, whatever it was about — weapons of mass destruction or terrorism or liberation or democracy or bad dictators or… well, no matter — you could be sure of one thing: it wasn’t about oil. “Oil” wasn’t a word worth including in serious reporting on the invasion and its aftermath, not even after it turned out that American troops entering Baghdad guarded only the Oil and Interior Ministries, while the rest of the city was looted. Even then — and ever after — the idea that the Bush administration might have the slightest urge to control Iraqi oil (or the flow of Middle Eastern oil via a well-garrisoned Iraq) wasn’t worth spending a few paragraphs of valuable newsprint on.

    SNIP

    After all, the only people who thought that oil might have something to do with the invasion of Iraq weren’t on the Times staff. They weren’t, in fact, in the mainstream at all. And, to put things into context, depending on your estimates, there were only somewhere between 11 million and 30 million of them marching around in the streets of cities and towns all over the planet before the invasion, carrying signs that said ludicrous, easily dismissible things like: “No Blood for Oil,” “How did USA’s oil get under Iraq’s sand?” and “Don’t trade lives for oil!”

    Let’s face it: Among those who counted, they — with their simpleminded slogans on hand-lettered placards — just didn’t count at all. Not when everyone who was anyone knew that the world was a much, much, much subtler and much, much more complicated place. No blood for oil? Sure, it was short and snappy and easy enough to get on a sign, but also about as absurdly reductionist, as unsubtle, as uncomplicated as possible.

    I mean, really! And, worse yet, that thoughtless crew of demonstrators had the nerve to suspect — prospectively, not retrospectively — the worst of the Bush administration, even when their betters, men (and a few women) with so many years of experience in the ways of Washington and the world, were ready to give its top officials the benefit of the doubt. Waving those silly signs, they actually expected bad things to happen. It didn’t seem to matter to them that the President, Vice President, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of Defense assured them no such thing was possible; assured them, in fact, that not to invade would lead to mushroom clouds over American cities and Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicles spraying bio- or chemical weaponry along the east coast of the United States.

    No wonder those masses of naïve demonstrators have been erased from the blackboard of history. No wonder, since the invasion, the Times hasn’t bothered to attend to them seriously again. No wonder, on the fifth anniversary of the Bush administration’s “cakewalk” to victory in Baghdad, the newspaper’s op-ed page turned to L. Paul Bremer III, Richard Perle, and others from the crew that got us into Iraq, or cheered the administration on, to comment on what had gone wrong, while skipping the crew in the streets that got it right in the first place.

    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174947/finally_the_oil_

    Of course it is much easier to get naive and gullible, patriotic 18 and 19 year olds to go halfway around the world to kill people they don’t know if you can convince them that they will be killing “evil-doers” and bringing freedom and democracy to the oppressed rather than if you square with them and acknowledge that they are going to fight mainly to make sure the oil keeps flowing and the SUVs keep rolling.

    If they breathe in a bit too much of the poisonous and carcinogenic depleted uranium dust from the US weaponry used on the battlefield, I am sure it must be a comfort to know it is all for a noble cause.

    See:
    http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=382855&rel_no=1&back_url=
    and
    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4124449
    and
    http://www.grassrootspeace.org/keith_baverstock_23june05.htm

  4. peltdownman Avatar
    peltdownman

    So you’re at war. Your enemy is waging a guerrilla campaign against you, and is blowing your troops to pieces with roadside bombs. But that’s okay, because roadside bombs are “approved” human rights weapons, right? Whether a combatant is blown to pieces by a roadside bomb, or has their insides sucked out by a vacuum bomb, he is still dead. Instantly. The condemnation of these “horror” weapons comes when their indiscriminate properties are used against civilians. In the case of Taliban hiding in caves in the mountains, this hardly applies. Perhaps we should be kinder to them and forget the vacuum bombs. Just let them run out of the cave and kill them one at a time. Honestly, what is the difference?

  5. Been There, Survived Avatar
    Been There, Survived

    When at war the worst crime is to use less than maximum force to effect your purpose as soon as possible and with the lowest combatant and civilian casualties on both sides.

    A la Vietnam. A la Iraq. A la Somalia.

    Peace is achieved not through a protracted low level campaign against an enemy that is not designed to win.

    Peace is achieved through overwhelming firepower that leads to victory.

  6. BGR Avatar
    BGR

    Peltdownwoman, Been There Survived

    The point is missed entirely. It has nothing to do with which weapons are using in what war against whom. Before human rights became an issue every war was fought on the battle field without anyone dictating to the other ‘don’t use so and so weapons.’
    Even in dueling both parties agree on the choice of weapons it was the skill that won the day.
    Today’s war from the West perpective is based on hypocristy and cowardice.
    ————————————————————
    Peace is achieved not through a protracted low level campaign against an enemy that is not designed to win.

    Peace is achieved through overwhelming firepower that leads to victory.

    Victory for blacks during the civil rights years was achieved not on firepower but resistance to the status quo which ultimately lead to black and whites coexisting in a peaceful atmosphere.

    Bajan Global Report
    http://www.bimchat.wordpress.com

  7. iWatchya Avatar
    iWatchya

    War is War. People are going to get killed.

    Who is telling the Islamist extremists what weapons to use? What are the civillian casualties that they are exacting?

    I would say a good deal more than that of the Allied Forces. Maybe 10 to 1?

    The weapons that the islamists use are more to maim than to kill. What about all those people that have lost eyes, limbs and have had shrapnel lodged in their bodies?? Many of their lives have been ruined and will suffer until the mercy of death comes.

    To the comment about the the hypocrasy of the US and UK:

    Who would you prefer? China or Russia?
    I am sure that their policies are MUCH better!

    We humans are hypocrittical beings and we are lucky to have the lesser of all evils to keep the “peace”.

    No model of government will be perfect and no war will be fought with human rights in mind.

    -iWatchya@gmail.com

  8. peltdownman Avatar
    peltdownman

    BGR
    YOU have missed the point. Read the lead article again and then write about the taste of bubble gum. It’s just as relevant as your argument.

  9. iWatchya Avatar
    iWatchya

    “Does the UK or USA for that matter have the moral authority to lead the world in the face of such a blatant violation of human rights?”

    So, what is your point then?

    Also, who do you think should be leading the world?

  10. David Avatar
    David

    Green Monkey you have hit the bullseye and it is the not too subtle point which we wanted to make. Entry into Afghanistan was immoral because the cause was not just. A superpower and others decided that Iraq and Afghanistan were jewels to had and they stole them. Two thousand Taliban soldiers which was responsible for the terror in a country which number millions? Now we justify the dropping of vacuum bombs on innocent people in the process?

  11. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    The problem with “Peltdownman, Been there, Survived, iwatchya”, they are living in Luxury.

    There wives, children, grand parents and other family members are safe and sound somewhere in Barbados, USA, England etc. As a result they do not care what happens to poor desperate people who live in such corners of the world as Afghanistan.

    When the vacuum bombs are raining down on all Afghans, men, women, children, old peole “peltdownman” does not give a damn. After all these people can be considered as sub-humans and western people don’t care too much about them. They are not “white” or “Cultured” and anyway the best way to pacify Afghanistan is to kill everyone.

    I wonder what peltdownman would say if such a bomb was dropped on London for instance.

  12. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    When did the Almighty die and leave this gang of  greasy, blood-letting,demonic, satanic, greedy criminals in charge.  This is what the phony  “brotherhood engineered 9/11” has brought humanity… terror, terror and more terror.   Those people who have been invaded have every God-given right to defend themselves against the invaders.  Yet when these men defend their sovereign lands against the war-mongering invaders they are called terrorist, enemy-combatants and insurgents.  Who is the real terrorist here?  They can use all the Vacuum bombs they want.  However, to get that oil from the Caspian Sea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Caracas and elsewhere they have to get on the ground and that’s where real combat occurs. This demonic force that’s engulfing the earth has no regard for human life and they have to be stopped by “any means necessary.” The British invaded Afghanistan and were repelled, the former USSR invaded and were also repelled, now the “mighty US” let’s just watch this play itself out. You would think that with such overwhelming fire-power that Exxon and all the other bloodsuckers would have moved in already. These Men aka Taliban, Insurgents, Patriots aren’t your run-of-the mill beer-guzzling, bread ‘n’ two, Tommy Hilfiger wearing joker. There’s a lot that can be learned from them. Right has a way of kicking the hell out of Might just like the David and Goliath.

  13. BGR Avatar
    BGR

    Russia, China, US,UK who cares? The name of the superpower doesn’t matter. Can’t tell a country not to use thermobratic weapons and then turn around and suck the living daylights out of your enemies using the said weapons.
    Down right hypocritical. If you going to fight, fight fair and square.
    America economy is depressed yet she is gunning for a war with Iran. All because Iran is refused to sell oil in US dollars but prefer Euros.
    The only thing keeping America alive is the Middle East. It is a bankrupt country. 3trillion dollars in debt and GROWING. Imports more than exports. Its called Trade deficit.
    The day Middle East stop buying US dollars is the day America economy collapse and it looks like it happenning sooner than later.
    Anytime the dollar crash, the economy collapse, the banks would be the first to lock down and not a soul can’t drawn a cent. Talk about chaos.
    Then we would see if America still have the moral authority to thump its noses at a bunch of rag clad men.

    Bajan Global Reort
    http://www.bimchat.wordpress.com

  14. freewilly Avatar
    freewilly

    America practices double standards,we all know this,”do as i tell you,not as i do”,unfortunately America is a branch off of that wicked place called Great Britain,who along with the 300 ruling families or 300 Committee,plan to start the next world war between Zionist Israel and Iran whether we like it or not.
    You see the ultimate goal is to depopulate the earth of any person of “Colour”,form a One World Government and deliver unto us a one world leader who by the way is the anti-christ who just happens to be the queen’s grandson…don’t believe it? wait and see..if you live long enough,i just hope people come to their senses and run these insane people out of the earth before it is too late.

  15. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    Freewilly…….

    White folk no longer get a free ride, they are in this de-population mix as well. Its only those from a particular bloodline i.e “reptilian” that will rule under this satanic system and that system is already in place . Some call it the anti-christ and others call it the New World Order. But it is here. Welcome to a brave New World.

    PELT,BTS & iW……
    In the US today, innocent people are being tasered to death. In their death camps like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib innocents are being tortured to death. Its only a matter of time before they turn these vacuum bombs on their population. Don’t think for one minute that you can hide under your rock because the tentacles of this system are spread out all over the globe.

  16. iWatchya Avatar
    iWatchya

    I say again… human beings are hypocritical. That makes ALL systems inherently corrupt.

    ALL governance, religion, communities, etc.

    Just sit down and think about it.

    Do you really think that the fighters that they are bombing are from Afganistan or Iraq?

    The last I read the majority were coming from Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, etc.

    The main reason that there are civillian casualties is that they usually make their bases in amongst the local villages… hence the use of the term “human shields”.

    I am not making a case for the war… I detest war.

    But what do you expect of war?? When Germany was bombing Brittain, who were they bombing?

  17. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    iWatchya……

    Yes, the fighters that they are bombing are fr Afghanistan and Iraq and if they are getting help from Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, etc, I say more power to them. They are defending their sovereign state from marauding invaders. Won’t you do the same or would you roll over and die? Isn’t the US assisted by the “coalition of the willing?” If you buy that crap that civilian casualities are a result of being used as human shields, I have a planet I’d like to sell you. Civilian casualities are a direct result of a “well-thought out” strategy. Just bomb the hell out of them. Simple.

  18. Technician Avatar
    Technician

    Hopi…for a while I have been reading your posts and I wish you good luck trying to convince anyone here about the things you believe. I know the road you are going down and I too believe it is true but…… others just cant see the forest for the trees.

  19. It Has Always Been About Oil « Bajan Global Report

    […] those still brainwashed by the usual rhetoric out of Washington, the below article was taken from Barbados Underground posted by Green Monkey from Toronto Sun a previous online edition we had use in the past and forgot […]

  20. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    “Afghan civilians deaths up by 60% so far for 2008”.

    That news must really make “Peltdownman” and his family happy.

    Wonderful is it not “Been There, Survived, iWatchya”?

  21. reluctant nonbeliever Avatar
    reluctant nonbeliever

    Cadogan, that’s a despicable comment.

    Like the poster Hopi, you don’t sound as if you care one shite about Afhan civilians: you both just loathe all things American/British ie (in your book) white…

    You’re both pitiful, hysterical, impotent losers – in my book.

  22. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    reluct…non….

    Your name alone tells me that you are so confused and unsure that you are reluctant to even believe yourself, hence you resort to the ad hominem. I’ve posted by convictions which are against the invading marauders and I think you need to understand C.C.C. “style” of writing.

  23. reluctant nonbeliever Avatar
    reluctant nonbeliever

    Hopi

    My handle tells you nothing of relevance here, you clown (it actually refers to another thread altogether about faith/atheism).

    I’m very sure what I think about you and your pitiful knee-jerk anti-Western rants.

    As for ad hominem…you’re not above that yourself, are you?

    “greasy, blood-letting,demonic, satanic, greedy criminals” ring any bells?

    You’re just a petit-bourgeois Fanon-reading armchair revolutionary throwback living at home in the heights with Mama, not true?

    Pitiful. And laughable.

  24. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    Relu… Non….

    Contraire mon frere/ma soeur, not true, not true. I neither live with mama nor papa, neither do I live in the “heights,” I live among the “heathens of the night.” Let me dissect the character of the enemy for you and tell me if that is ad hominem. Oil = grease, Blood-letting =vacuum bomb & all other weapons, demonic & satanic = no regards for sanctity of human life, greedy = covetous & wanting what is not yours & more, criminal = violation of human rights & all the above and more.
    Doesn’t that describe the cabal that’s causing havoc on planet earth today? Do you dispute such?

    Peace & love

  25. David Avatar
    David

    Part of the immorality we mentioned in the blog is highlighted in this link which shows up the USA has dealing with N.Korea but at the same time keeping the embargo on Cuba in place.

  26. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    Raoul Castro = Glasnost and Perestroika while “king george” = vacuum bombs, prison camps, homelessness and demoralisation of the great usa. Shame, shame, shame. Oh how the mighty has fallen. As far as N.Korea is concerned the US pretended to have them on the same list as the other enemies of israel,(Iran, Iraq, Libya, Palestine) so as to give the impression that its not the zionists who is behind this “axis of evil.” Now N.Korea blew up some old run-down out-house in front of the cameras and its off that “evil” list. This is so funny my sides are popping. Now they have a “clear cut” case to take to the stinking UN “look now ya see what good girl N.Korea is, no more sanctions, but that terrorist Iran won’t do as we say so bombombombomb.” Do you really think that the “mighty usa” is gonna mess with N.Korea while the Dragon sit idly by? Hell no.

  27. reluctant nonbeliever Avatar
    reluctant nonbeliever

    Ok Hopi

    Let me hear your views on what’s happening in Zimbabwe so I can decide whether you’re impartial/even-handed in your condemnation of oppression wherever it takes place, or merely an anti-semitic bigot…

    As for peace and love…please, spare me the cliche: I don’t get that vibe in your comments at all. I hear a lot of rage and intolerance…

  28. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    Reluc.. Non….

    I take my peace and love back (can’t say I don’t like to share) you can have your chaos and hate. I’d like to go to Zimbabwe and look in on the Chitauri but I’ll need some teak wood for protection, then when they’re through changing my DNA I’ll come see you. Anti-zionist (guilty) Anti-semitic bigot (not guilty). Let the lynching begin. Bet you’re reluctant to believe that too.

  29. french Avatar
    french

    I aint gonna live in caves no more.

  30. Say no to extinction. Now! Avatar
    Say no to extinction. Now!

    Start the groove.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading