I'll bet you didn't know that America is waging nuclear war in the Middle East. No, we haven't bombed Iran back to the Stone Age...not yet anyway. And I FERVENTLY hope some semblance of sanity prevails before we ever try. I'm referring to the atomic war in Iraq that's been going on since Schlock and Awww on March 19th of 2003. (It might not be a bad idea to recall the recent anniversary of that bizarre "mission accopmplished" photo op, either, just three years ago on the first day of last month.) No mushroom clouds over Baghdad, you say? No radiation and death? Well, it's true that there haven't been any zillion megaton thermonuclear detonations...but you're DEAD WRONG if you believe the US hasn't introduced into the region high levels of radioactivity, debilitating birth defects and lingering death...
"Military men are just dumb, stupid aminals to be used as pawns in foreign policy..."
---Henry Kissinger, war criminal
Depleted Uranium is the culprit...and I want to be crystal clear about something right up front. This deadly stuff has 40% as much radioactivity as natural uranium and there's nothing the least bit 'depleted' about it. Nothing. Without even considering the radiological aspect, it's a heavy metal that is highly toxic when introduced into ALL higher life forms. Personally, I consider it a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
For the uninitiated, Depleted Uranium (DU) is one of the by-products of the enrichment of uranium--atomic weight 238--usually found ocurring naturally in pitchblende ore. In the concentrations mined underground, it is minimally radioactive and not dangerous. However, when enriched to reactor grade--not to mention weapons grade!--it becomes extremely hazardous...and DU is what's left behind when the fissionable material is extracted. This horror has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, which only means that it takes that long to decay into harmless isotopes. It is, literally, the gift that keeps on giving. Because it is 1.7 times heavier than lead, it is used in armor-piercing projectiles against the enemy and armor plate for protection of our vehicles.
Unfortunately, the use of this unholy material has 'externalities,'
which is a nice way of saying catastrophic side effects for which our arrogant Department of Defense refuses to be liable. C'mon, I told you what kind of slimesucker Rummy is...what'd you expect? First of all is the radiation which has a strong affinity for phosphate structures concentrated in DNA: It attacks living organisms at the sub-cellular level. The result is mutations in the double-helix strand, chromosomal damage and a significant increase in the probability of defects to babies born of irradiated parents. This website contains some truly sobering photographs of children in Iraq after 350 tons of DU were employed in just the 100 days of Gulf War I, the first time such awful weapons were ever utilized by the United States of America. (Graphic photos. You have been warned.) Sixty-seven percent of post-war babies--both to soldiers and Iraqis--have been brought into this world with severe, debilitating birth defects. Middle Eastern mothers no longer ask the doctor if their baby is a boy or a girl; they inquire first if it is normal...
The second of these 'externalities' is the toxicity of DU since it is a heavy metal. It took us a long time to move away from the use of lead in paint, for example, because of its poisonous characteristics. Well, DU is WORSE, okay? Its chemical properties are unalterably destructive to human beings; it is the primary cause of Gulf War Syndrome which has disabled hundreds of thousands of OUR OWN soldiers. DU works its radioactive and chemical ruination because, when employed against a target, kinetic energy from the moving projectile is transferred into heat energy and burns at over 5000º in fractions of a second. This causes particles of ceramic uranium oxide to be released into the atmosphere, particles that are five microns or less in diameter, smaller than the ash particles in cigarette smoke. These malignant nano-invaders pass right through clothing and lodge themselves in the epidermis and pores. They can also penetrate gas masks, imbedding themselves in the porous lining of the lungs, distributing their poisons and irradiating surrounding areas. Inhalation can also physically damage kidneys, the immune system and the nervous system...while igniting lymphatic cancer. Consequently, it can cause a myriad of different symptoms, making diagnosis inordinately difficult.
Lovely, eh?
It was first conceived as a weapon back in 1943 in a document from the Manhattan Project that has since been declassified. Physicist James B. Conant suggested developing poison gas weapons from the radioactive trash left from the making of atom bombs as both an anti-personnel weapon and a permanent terrain contaminant to poison water supplies and agricultural land. Oh, Conant was a real peach of a fella. The first DU weapon system was actually developed for the Navy some 25 years later and an early version was given to Israel to use in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 against Egypt and Syria. The Phalanx system, incorporating DU, was tested on the USS Bigelow in 1977 and, since that time, we have sold these evil contraptions to 29 countries.
As I mentioned here, Beelzebub Cheney, as Secretary of Defense under Daddybush, was the first to authorize the use of these ghastly horrors by the American military. Make no mistake: This sadistic maggot knew EXACTLY what he was doing, too. He now has the blood of OUR soldiers on his hands...for DU does not discriminate. It is an equal opportunity murderer, bestowing death upon both sides in balanced measure. Douglas Rokke, who headed up a US Army contracted project for DU clean-up after that conflict, had 30 members of his staff die following their assignment...and most others, including Rokke himself have developed health problems. He has called DU "...a crime against God and humanity."
Bill Clinton cannot be considered exempt here, either; he condoned the use of DU in Yogoslavia. There are, at this writing, over half a million Gulf-era veterans currently on medical disability. As a matter of fact, it is no exaggeration to say that now Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are technically uninhabitable.
In 1997, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University, was asked by the Veteran's Administartion to flat-out lie about the risks of DU to the human body. He refused. They warned him to stop his work, then he was fired from the University. His house was ransacked and he has reported receiving death threats. Since those frightening events, he left the country and founded the Uranium Medical Research Center, headquartered in Canada.
Last year, Veterans' Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi resigned his post because of the growing scandal there surrounding the use of DU in our ongoing Iraq quagmire. You see, information about this terrible weapon has been suppressed and propagandized ever since its development...but now the truth is beginning to spread. Our current blighted administration, far from seeking to resolve the questions raised by its irresponsibility, is scrambling to limit its own liability. Surprised?
Boys and girls, this is an issue that's NOT going to go away. It has implications and ramifications for the entire human race...because once those poisonous particles of DU are released into the atmosphere, they can go anywhere.
And kill anybody...
FURTHER RESOURCES:
Beyond Treason, a film by William Lewis
(One hour, 28 minutes)
Metal of Dishonor, a book of essays and lectures
Compiled and edited by the Depleted Uranium Education Project
Originally posted at Conceptual Guerilla's Strategy & Tactics Please stop by and say hello...
Action Guide, Depleted Uranium/Gulf War Syndrome