john9001: "thank god"??, no , thank the geneva convention*, all military must use FMJ, full metal jacket bullets that do not fragment.
by saying"thank god iraqis use" are you implying that the US/UK do not use FMJ bullets?? I beliebe it is a legend about Geneva Convention outlawing expanding/fragmenting buillets.
I believe you are referring to "Laws of War" adopted at Haague IV on October 18, 1907 that says:
Art. 23.
In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden -
To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;
and before that
Laws of War :
Declaration on the Use of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the Human Body; signed at Hague on July 29, 1899 and inspired by Declaration of St. Petersburg of the 29th November (11th December), 1868:
The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions.
I do not believe US was a signatory to either of those conventions.
I did not find information on the use of bullest in the current one but maybe my search was good.
US and NATO after US pressure did switch to 5.65x45 FMJ (.223 Remington) bullets which are Full Metal Jacket - most common M193 55grain and M855 62 grain plus specialty rounds. Being of .22 caliber those bullets would be extremely inefficient except due to the properties of the bullet construction and shape they quickly tumble in the soft tissues and fragment into pieces at velocities below 2700fps or about 250 yards from the standard barrel.
Without fragmentation, such a tiny hole generally does not cause enough shock or bleeding to incapacitate a victim quickly - and is easily treated.
You can read the most comprehencive description of those bullets/ammo at
http://www.ammo-oracle.com. There are other resources on the net that show the results of those bullets shot into ballistic gelatine. Plenty of US people are armed with AR-15 and Mini-14 type rifels and AK variants chambered for 5.56 ammo - including myself. So that infirmation is widely covered in many sources.
In Mogadishu some troopers were armed with short-barreled CAR rifles that make effective
fragmentation rage about 15 yards. They report hostiles remained active even afted being hit multiple times.
The same is reported by US troops in Afghanistan where engagements often happen at extended ranges.
Of course in the close-range jungle combat of Vietnam those bullets proved absolutely devastating.
The same principle is used in soviet 5.45x39 (AK-74) ammo - the bullet has a cavity under the jacket not filled with led in order to shift the center of gravity back and make it tumble easier. They had to do that becasue the bullet is less powerfull limited by 39mm case (like AK-47) compared to NATO 45mm case.
That allows USA to claim it is using "ball" ammo while producing bullets that are extremely hard to treat. If you remember the story of a child that survived the Beltway Sniper shot at 100-150 yards, inside of his chest cavity were "shredded" with one bullet.
Our 3rd world opponents are armed with older weapons that use 7.62 bullets that are stronger and trave slower and do not fragment - and are not built to do so, which would be easy to do by making them hollow-point or whatever.
There is plenty of cheap hollow-point 7.62x39 ammunition available for AK - currently made by russian and US manufacturers. If Hussein cared, he would have gotten some without problems.
of course we all know saddam cares not about silly rules of war Is that a suggestion we should not either?
miko
