WARNING: THERE ARE PHOTOS ON THE SITE WHICH
YOU WILL BE SHOCKED TO SEE THEM
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BUL20060122&articleId=1777
Iraqi
and visiting doctors, and a number of news reports, have reported that birth
defects and cancers in Iraqi children have increased five- to 10-fold since the
1991 Gulf War and continue to increase sharply, to over 30-fold in some areas
in southern Iraq.
Currently, more than 50 percent of Iraqi cancer patients are children under the
age of 5, up from 13 percent. Children are especially vulnerable because they
tend to play in areas that are heavily polluted by depleted uranium.
The Pentagon has been using radiooactive weapons for at least a decade and a
half with full complicity of at least three White House administrations and
Republican and Democratic congressional legislators. Conservatively, at least
300 tons and 1,700 tons of depleted uranium were used in the Gulf War and the
current Iraq
War, resectively. This is about 70 grams of depleted uranium per Iraqi citizen,
and if inhaled or ingested, it is enough to kill them all.
Is this not radioactive genocide, especially when our troops used and continue
to use most of the depleted uranium munitions in densely populated areas such
as Baghdad and
Fallujah? Depleted uranium has a half-life of billions of years. Consequently, Iraq will be a
wasteland forever and essentially uninhabitable for anyone.
After the 1991 Gulf War, about 1 in 4, or 150,000, U.S. veterans came down with what
is referred to as "Gulf War Syndrome." Most of the ailments
characteristic of Gulf War Syndrome are consistent with radiation or
heavy-metal poisoning. Veterans' children are now also born with higher
proportions of birth defects and other genetic disorders, according to sporadic
accuonts. The Pentagon continues to deny the harmful effects of depleted
uranium or its role in Gulf War Syndrome.
As described by a report of the World Health Organization Depleted Uranium Mission to Kosovo,
uranium can be found in rocks and soil and contributes to natural background
levels of radioactivity. Depleted uranium is a waste product of uranium
enrichment for nuclear reactors and is about 60 percent as radioactive as
naturally occurring uranium. Depleted uranium is considered weakly radioactive.
Nevertheless, depleted uranium is considered nuclear waste and has to be
disposed of accordingly, which is expensive and a potential environmental
hazard. The nuclear industry must be very pleased the U.S. military
has found a way to get this stuff off their hands cheaply.
Depleted uranium is really a misnomer, because the potentially harmful effects
are by no means depleted. Research reports have found that when depleted
uranium is ingested or inhaled, it can cause cancers and birth defects. It has
considerable heavy-metal toxicity.
As stated in the WHO report, because of its high density, depleted uranium is
used in armor-piercing ammunition and as reinforcement against conventional
weapons. Upon impact, the depleted uranium fragments burn at intense heat, and
10 to 35 percent of it becomes aerosolized. This aerosolized uranium
"dust" is the most harmful component because it can easily be
ingested or inhaled.
Wind and people walking through it also easily disperse the depleted uranium
dust. This dust is a predominant byproduct of military use of depleted uranium,
in contrast to, for example, exposures in uranium mines or nuclear reactors.
Our troops in Iraq
will be severely affected by this radioactive war, not only because a lot more
depleted uranium has been used and continues to be used, but also because they
have been there a lot longer than during the Gulf War. Hundreds of thousands of
our troops will come down with Gulf War Syndrome as a result of depleted
uranium poisoning, and thousands will die from it. Thousands of their children
will be born with genetic diseases, cancers and birth defects.
The continued use of depleted uranium harms our own troops and innocent
civilians exposed to our war machine, is un-American, and a crime against
humanity. We need a worldwide ban on depleted uranium use.
You have probably noticed Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
staff writer's reports as an "embedded journalist" with the 172nd
Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Mosul,
Iraq. Her
"feel-good" stories do not tell you the reality of what is happening
in Iraq.
Will she report on depleted uranium poisoning as a result of heavy U.S. bombing of Mosul?
Sadly, she and those of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, if they survive
the war, will have a high chance of coming down with Gulf War Syndrome. How
much support do you think they will then get from our government or their
employers?
Abel Bult-Ito is an associate professor of
biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is a member of the Fairbanks Coalition for
Peace and Justice.
Photos of Babies Deformed at Birth as a Result of
Depleted Uranium (DU) 2003
photos: Dr. Jenan Hassan
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
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