A LONG-TERM PROBLEM
The impact of tons of radioactive waste polluting major urban centers may
seem a distant problem to Iraqis now trying to survive in the chaos of
military occupation. They must cope with power outages during the intense
heat of summer, door-to-door searches, arbitrary arrests, civilians
routinely shot at roadblocks, outbreaks of cholera and dysentery from
untreated water, untreated sewage and uncollected garbage, more than half
the work force unemployed, and a lack of food-- which before the war was
distributed by the Baathist regime.
But along with these current threats are long-range problems. Around the
world a growing number of scientific organizations and studies have
linked Gulf War Syndrome and the high rate of assorted and mysterious
sicknesses to radiation poisoning from weapons made with depleted
uranium.
Scott Peterson, a staff writer for the Christian Science Moni tor,
reported on May 15 about taking Geiger counter readings at several sites
in Baghdad. Near the Republican Palace where U.S. troops stood guard and
over 1,000 employees walked in and out of the building, his radiation
readings were the "hottest" in Iraq, at nearly 1,900 times background
radiation levels. Spent shell casings still littered the ground.
At a roadside vegetable stand selling fresh bunches of parsley, mint and
onions outside Baghdad, children played on a burnt-out Iraqi tank. The
reporter's Geiger counter registered nearly 1,000 times normal background
radiation. The U.S. uses armor-piercing shells coated with DU to destroy
tanks.
The Aug. 4 Seattle Post Intelligencer reported elevated radiation levels
at six sites from Basra to Baghdad. One destroyed tank near Baghdad had
1,500 times the normal background radiation. "The Pentagon and the United
Nations estimate that the U.S. and Britain used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of
armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium during attacks on Iraq in
March and April--far more than the 375 tons used in the 1991 Gulf War,"
wrote the Post Intelligencer.
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle analyzed swabs from
bullet holes in Iraqi tanks and confirmed elevated radiation levels.
RADIOACTIVE AND TOXIC
The extremely dense DU shells easily penetrate steel armor and burn on
impact. The fire releases microscopic, radioactive and toxic dust
particles of uranium oxide that travel with the wind and can be inhaled
or ingested. They also spread contamination by seeping into the land and
water.
In the human body, DU may cause harm to the internal organs due both to
its chemical toxicity as a heavy metal and its release of radiation.
An otherwise useless by-product of the uranium-enrichment process, DU is
attractive to military contractors because it is so cheap, often offered
for free by the government.
According to the Uranium Medical Research Center, the toxic and
radiological effects of uranium contamination may weaken the immune
system. They may cause acute respiratory conditions like pneumonia, flu-
like symptoms and severe coughs, renal or gastrointestinal illnesses.
Dr. Asaf Durakovic of UMRC explains that the initial symptoms will be
mostly neurological, showing up as headaches, weakness, dizziness and
muscle fatigue. The long-term effects are cancers and other radiation-
related illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, joint and muscle
pain, rashes, neurological and/or nerve damage, mood disturbances,
infections, lung and kidney damage, vision problems, auto-immune
deficiencies and severe skin conditions. It also causes increases in
miscarriages, maternal mortality and genetic birth defects.
For years the government described Gulf War Syndrome as a post-traumatic
stress disorder. It was labeled a psychological problem or simply
dismissed as mysterious unrelated ailments. In this same way the Pentagon
and the Veterans Administration treated the health problems of Vietnam
vets suffering from Agent Orange poisoning.
THE COVERUP
The U.S. government denies that DU weapons can cause sickness. But before
the first Gulf War, where DU weapons were used extensively, the
Pentagon's own internal reports warned that the radiation and heavy metal
of DU weapons could cause kidney, lung and liver damage and increased
rates of cancer.
Ignoring these dangers, the Pentagon went on to use these weapons, which
gave it a big advantage in tank battles. But it denied publicly that DU
use was related to the enormously high rate of sicknesses among GIs
following the war.
Today the Pentagon plays an even more duplicitous role. It continues to
assert that there are no "known" health problems associated with DU. But
Army training manuals require anyone who comes within 75 feet of any DU-
contaminated equipment or terrain to wear respiratory and skin
protection.
The manuals say that "contamination will make food and water unsafe for
consumption." According to the Army Environmental Policy Institute,
holding a spent DU round exposes a person to about 200 rems per hour, or
twice the annual radiation exposure limit.
This March and April U.S. and British forces fired hundreds of thousands
of DU rounds in dense urban areas. Superfine uranium oxide particles were
blown about in dust storms. Yet the Pentagon refuses to track, report or
mark off where DU was fired. There is no way Iraqis or the occupying
soldiers can keep 75 feet away or use respiratory and skin protection in
120-degree heat.
The American Gulf War Veterans Association (AGWVA) reports that suffering
veterans are receiving little, if any, medical treatment for their
illnesses. "Whenever veterans become ill, the term 'mystery illness'
seems to be the first and often the only diagnosis that is ever made.
Veterans are then left to fend for themselves, sick and unable to work,
with little hope of a normal life again."
Iraq's National Ministry of Health organized two international
conferences to present data on the relationship between the high
incidence of cancer and the use of DU weapons. It produced detailed
epidemiological reports and statistical studies. This data showed a six-
fold increase in breast cancer, a five-fold increase in lung cancer and a
16-fold increase in ovarian cancer.
Because of the U.S.-imposed sanctions, Iraqi doctors and scientists were
barred from presenting their research papers in most of the world.
Doug Rokke of AGWVA, former head of the U.S. Army DU Project, who is
seriously ill with respiratory problems, has been campaigning against the
use of DU. Rokke reports that U.S. troops presently in Iraq are already
falling sick with a series of Gulf War Syndrome symptoms.
The AGWVA says the Department of Defense has information regarding
"mystery" deaths of soldiers in this latest war and the emergence of a
mysterious pneumonia that has sickened at least 100 men and women.
U.S. POSITION: NO CLEAN-UP
While the U.K. has admitted that British Challenger tanks expended some
1.9 tons of DU ammunition during major combat operations in Iraq this
year, the U.S. has refused to disclose specific information about whether
and where it used DU during this yearcampaign. It also is refusing to let
a team from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) study the
environmental impact of DU contamination in Iraq.
Despite this refusal, it is public knowledge that the U.S. made extensive
use of weapons that can fire DU shells. These include the A-10 Warthog
tank-buster aircraft with 30-mm cannons that can fire up to 4,200 DU
rounds per minute; the AC-130 gunship; the "Apache" helicopter, and
Bradley fighting vehicles that fire anti-armor 105-mm to 120-mm tank
rounds containing DU.
The U.S. followed the same tactics in the wars in the Balkans. While
claiming full cooperation with UNEP's Balkans studies, the Pentagon
delayed releasing target locations for 16 months. It gave misleading map
information. Then bomb, missile and cluster-bomb targets were excluded.
NATO allowed 10 other teams to visit or clean up sites before UNEP
inspections started.
Washington refuses to acknowledge DU use anywhere or that it poses any
danger. To acknowledge radiation poisoning would immediately raise
demands for a cleanup.
According to Alex Kirby, BBC News Online environment correspondent: "The
U.S. says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted
uranium weapons it is using in Iraq. It says no cleanup is needed,
because research shows DU has no long-term effects."
EVIDENCE OF DU USE
But in the information age, the Pentagon can't suppress all the evidence.
The Dutch example shows this. Though the U.S. government specifically
denied any firing of DU weapons near the city of Al- Samawah, where Dutch
troops were to be stationed, a simple Internet search by journalists
undid this lie.
The Dutch government, to get a resolution through the parliament to
authorize sending troops to Iraq, depicted the Al-Samawah region as a
remote, barely inhabited desert where no noteworthy events had occurred.
In actual fact, Al-Samawah is strategically located on the road from
Basra to Baghdad, providing access to a bridge over the Euphrates River.
On its march to Baghdad, the U.S. Army encountered fierce resistance from
Iraqi forces there, according to American officers. This was well covered
by their embedded media.
It was more than a week before the town and the road were cleared of all
pockets of resistance. Some 112 civilians, most of them inhabitants of
Al-Samawah, were killed in battle.
DU ammunition was widely used during this operation. In a widely
distributed field message, Sergeant First Class Cooper reported that the
weapons systems used by the 3rd Infantry, 7th Cavalry, en route to Al-
Samawah and on to Najaf, were performing well, especially the 25-mm DU
and 7.62.
Of greater interest to Internet researchers was a letter a young soldier
sent home to his parents, which they posted in their church bulletin on
the Internet. In the letter E. Pennell, a crew member on a Bradley
Fighting Vehicle of the 1st Infantry Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment,
described how his crew fired a 25-mm DU round as they encountered seven
Iraqi troops in the town of Al-Samawah.
Pennell's letter has raised concern among groups like the United
Federation of Military Personnel, a kind of labor union for Dutch troops.
It fears that its members might be at risk of contracting cancer or other
diseases because of exposure to DU ammunition.
RESISTENCE: THE ONLY SOLUTION
Officers and politicians in imperialist countries have always treated
rank-and-file soldiers as cannon fodder. These young lives are totally
expendable. The occupied or colonized people are not counted at all.
As a global movement against imperialist wars grew over the past century,
military planners made great efforts to hide the true costs of war,
especially the human cost. The nearly 60,000 U.S. casualties in the
Vietnam War provoked a mighty mass anti-war movement. This time, long
before U.S. casualties reached 100 soldiers, the movement to "Bring the
Troops Home" had gained momentum.
This new movement must demand a true accounting of the enormous human
costs of the war. The impact on the health and future of not only U.S.
troops but the millions of people in Iraq must be part of the demand.
A growing international movement must demand full reparations for the
Iraqi people. A cleanup of the toxic, radioactive waste is in the
interests of all the people of the region. The cost of the war must be
calculated in terms of bankrupt social programs here in the U.S. and the
health of all the people who were in the region during the war and will
be in the years to come.
Sara Flounders is co-director of the International Action Center and
coordinator of the DU Education Project. She is an editor and a
contributing author of the book "Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium,"
and helped produce a video by the same name. The IAC helped organize an
international effort to bring the issue of DU to the UN Human Rights
Commission in Geneva and helped measure radiation levels in Iraq before
the 2003 war.
--
NeoCon
"Knee-oh-con"
The term "NeoConservative" dates back to the early 60s to mean a branch
of radical Conservatives who goes beyond the traditional reactionary
stance.
Today the term means radical rightwing supporters who supports the
supression of freedom of speech although they support racism; who
supports nation building abroad although they hate making the US a better
place; who supports the "liberation" of Iraqis although they support
racist profiling as well lock ups of Arab immigrants in the US; who
supports Corporate welfare although they hate the welfare system; who
support the rich in general, although most of them are in the
middle/lower class; who support the war, knowing how much it will cost,
although they are against taxes.
see hypocrisy
see cognitive dissonance
see ignorance
NeoCons are making America look bad.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neocon 
It's getting it into your body, especially lungs, that
