Do you think that it is OK that Depleted Uranium has been used in Iraq during Desert Storm and now?

Question

These weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such abundance that there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate - including Britain. Yet, officially, no crime has been committed. For this story is a dirty story in which the facts have been concealed from those who needed them most. It is also a story we need to know if the people of Iraq are to get the medical care they desperately need, and if our troops, returning from Iraq, are not to suffer as terribly as the veterans of other conflicts in which depleted uranium was used.

A Dirty Tyson

'Depleted' uranium is in many ways a misnomer. 'Depleted' sounds weak. The only weak thing about depleted uranium is its price. It is dirt cheap, toxic, waste from nuclear power plants and bomb production. However, uranium is one of earth's heaviest elements and DU packs a Tyson's punch, smashing through tanks, buildings and bunkers with equal ease,

"I'm horrified. The people out there - the Iraqis, the media and the troops - risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It's going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car."

The speaker is not some alarmist doomsayer. He is Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best-kept secret of this war: the fact that by illegally using hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq, Britain and America have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world.

So there are only two things we can do to mitigate this crime against humanity. The first is to provide the best possible medical care for the people of Iraq, for our returning troops and for those who served in the last Gulf war and, through that, minimize their suffering. The second is to relegate war, and the production and sale of weapons, to the scrap heap of history-along with slavery and genocide. Then, and only then, will this crime against humanity be expunged, and the tragic deaths from this war truly bring freedom to the people of Iraq, and of the world.

References

1. The Lancet volume 351, issue 9103, 28 February 1998.

2. Rosalie Bertell's book Planet Earth the Latest Weapon of War was reviewed in Caduceus issue 51, page 28.

3. http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabl1
. htm#TAB L_Research Report Summaries

4. www.wagingpeace.org/articles/02.01/020117moret.htm
The secret official memorandum to Brigadier General L.R.Groves from Drs Conant, Compton

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20050429121615724

I'll take the word of Doctors and Scientists over bushlickers, thanks, though.

Mike: You should read more.

Answer 1

No, it does not sit well with me that our government are purposely maiming and causing cancer to these people and our service men and women. In fact it point blank pisses me off.

There is no difference between what THAT kind of bomb and a nuclear bomb does long term. There have been studies after studies and people continue to die from being exposed to these things.

EDIT: And to those who think it doesn't do anything? Then why are there so many babies being born to military service members who are very deformed...missing fingers or having MAJOR birth defects, as well as babies being born to Iraqis with the same kind of ailments? Coincidence, I think not.

I have known TWO different women whose husbands were in the service over in Iraq. They get pregnant after their husbands come back and one's son had 3 fingers missing when born and the other ended up having to have it aborted at 21 weeks because there was not anyway that the baby would have survived because the skull had a huge whole missing where the nose was as well as half the brain not developed. This is from a person who only knew at the time about 10 mothers from the base close by. 20% is an alarming rate for it not being reported.

Answer 2

I have no doubt that Agent Orange will be considered a mild ailment when this group of veterans come home, to say nothing of the people in Iraq. Constant explosions...George Bush and his Divine weapons....God only knows what those Iraqi children will go through in the future.

If nuclear waste is so damned safe, why are they storing underground in a mountain, with cement pipes so thick a Category 5 earthquake hopefully will not disturb them. Get real. Read up on it. It is one of the most dangerous substances on earth and, left laying around, it can be reused by nutcases who want to fashion bombs. This is the worry with France and its recycling of nuclear waste.

On top of the chemicals in the air and on the ground, there are the traumatic head injuries suffered in Iraq. And our Veteran's Administration services, if you can believe many of the men trying to get them, are not the best.

Answer 3

I see you've bought into the hysterical propaganda against DU. You shouldn't have, but that's gamma rays past the lead screen.

DU munitions and armor are not very radioactive. As a heavy metal, yes, the element does possess the typical carcinogenic and toxic characteristics of all heavy metals, but no moreso than others.

As for the laugable "hundreds of tons" of DU used, that is so absurd that you should be embarrassed. DU is only used on armor piercing rounds, and I doubt "hundreds of tons" of DU munitions even existed in the entire world, let alone having been used in Iraq.

Answer 4

Blueridge, come off the hysteria. Your suppositions are outlandish. And anyone who believes he or anyone else working in concert are going to "relegate war to the scrap heap of history" have a problem living in the real world. As long as humans exist on earth, there will be war. It was around long before the US existed, and it will be around long after we are gone. Quit wasting your life doing so much worrying and start producing something useful with your time. In other words, stop thinking so much like a typical liberal. It'll do you good!

Answer 5

Leftover materials from war are never good. Mines unexploded bombs and even the guns and ammo. We have to stop all of these things. Because of it's overall limited use DU is probably one of the lowest risks of all of these, but mix this with the media and it sounds the the worst.

Answer 6

What a load of crap! Natural granite - a type of rock that makes up a lot of the earth's surface - including most of Scotland - is WAY more radioactive than DU.
Why don't you campaign for banning granite kitchen counters, tombstones, driveway gravel, etc. - even the soil many millions of people live and grow a lot of their food on.

Uranium is only toxic if it is in the form of superfine dust that can enter the body by breathing. Not in the form of solid bullets.

Answer 7

DU is a heavy metal, not really any different than lead, other then being significantly more dense. There is a reason it is called DEPLETED, that being that there is negligible radioactivity in it.

It is no more toxic than lead, silver, gold, tin, or any other heavy metal.