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| Iraq |
| Slow burn |
| 2003-04-22 |
| * "Death By Slow Burn - How America Nukes Its Own Troops", by Amy Worthington The Idaho Observer, 4-16-3. Ok, this article may be a war apologists' rant, but if there's a hint of truth it's sensationally concerning. "America's mega-billion dollar war in Iraq has been indeed a NUCLEAR WAR. Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a 'liberation' gift that will keep on giving. Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually stored at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear. Over a decade ago, war-makers decided to incorporate this lethal waste into much of the Pentagon's weaponry. Navy ships carrying Phalanx rapid fire guns are capable of firing thousands of DU rounds per minute. Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. ships and subs are DU-tipped. The M1 Abrams tanks are armored with DU. These and British Challenger II tanks are tightly packed with DU shells, which continually irradiate troops in or near them. The A-10 'tank buster' aircraft fires DU shells at machines and people on the battlefield. "DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal weapons of mass destruction. Their use breaches all international laws, treaties and conventions forbidding poisoned weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering ... When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact. Uranium, plus traces of plutonium and americium, vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles of radioactive dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the body and emit radiation indefinitely. A single particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can devastate the entire immune system according to British radiation expert Roger Coghill ... battlefield soldiers who inhale or swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney failure within days. Any soldier now in Iraq who has not inhaled potentially lethal radioactive dust is not breathing. In the first two weeks of combat, 700 Tomahawks, at a cost of $1.3 million each, blasted Iraqi real estate into radioactive mushroom clouds. Millions of DU tank rounds liter the terrain. Cleanup is impossible because there is no place on the planet to put so much contaminated debris. "Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a professor of nuclear medicine at Georgetown University, is a former army medical expert ... He found that 62 percent of sick vets (from Gulf War I) tested have uranium isotopes in their organs, bones, brains and urine. Laboratories in Switzerland and Finland corroborated his findings ... Nothing compares to the astronomical cancer rates and birth defects suffered by the Iraqi people ... As an Army health physicist, Dr. Doug Rokke was dispatched to the Middle East to salvage DU-contaminated tanks after Gulf War I. His Geiger counters revealed that the war zones of Iraq and Kuwait were contaminated with up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and gamma radiation plus thousands to millions of counts per minute in alpha radiation. Rokke recently told the media: "The whole area is still trashed. It is hotter than heck over there still. This stuff doesn't go away." |
| Posted by:glen |
| #11 There is a reason this stuff is called "depleted" uranium? Maybe all the fissionable material is gone? Sitting in my basement watching the war on CNN might get me more exposure to Radon than being embedded. DU dust ingested would present a toxic hazard, similar to other heavy metals such as lead, mercury. And all those supposed "hot spots" in Iraq may be worth investigating for what Saddam was playing with. |
| Posted by: john 2003-04-22 20:24:42 |
| #10 Took a look at The Idaho Observer link - hooboy! Nice "newspaper". Tinfoil hats optional - on the "here's why we publish" page they even have a graphic of the UN flag with black helicopters flying across....can't make that shit up |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-22 16:11:33 |
| #9 ...and the link would be here. |
| Posted by: Mark IV 2003-04-22 13:01:13 |
| #8 Always check FAS (Federation of American Scientists) when your bullshit detector starts quivering. DU is right up their alley: |
| Posted by: Mark IV 2003-04-22 12:59:23 |
| #7 Here's the scoop on a study of Gulf War I vets who were subjected to "friendly fire" with DU weapons: http://deploymentlink.osd.mil/du_library/health.shtml |
| Posted by: Tom 2003-04-22 10:04:20 |
| #6 "DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal weapons of mass destruction." I dare say that "resolution", if it ever existed, never passed. |
| Posted by: Tom 2003-04-22 09:41:23 |
| #5 Has anyone ever noticed that these ass-clowns never have any specific examples of people effected by D.U.? "The Iraqis" "How else to you explain the cancer rate?" is all we get. What I want to know is, How the hell was it possible to reliably CONFIRM the Iraqi cancer rate? And, they never mention the people walking around with D.U. stuck IN them that don't seem to drop off the earth every week. If I'm not mistaken, the box of lead fishing weights I have in my tackle box is more radioactive than D.U. That's it. I'm calling Doctor Assphister, and see what he say's about changing my lead weights to D.U. weights. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-04-22 07:47:56 |
| #4 Problem with depleted uranium is the toxic dust pulverized at the impact, not the dreaded "radiations hazard" (IIRC). Anyway, I thought US DoD started remplacing its DU ammos by stungtene back in 1997, due to environnementalists pressure (plus, less concern for afterward cleaning-up). I mean, there was enough opportunities, ie Kosovo, to get rid of the old ordnances, no? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-22 05:53:32 |
| #3 DU as a chem hazard: maybe. DU as a radiation hazard: NO WAY I have just finished trouncing a DU conspiracy theorist on the FSO website, it is total BULLSH*T. DU remains a very weak ALPHA particle emitter (alpha radiation is stopped by a sheet of paper and does not penetrate the skin, hence is not a big cancer-causer) for 500,000 years. It is not a chernobyl and will not be causing radiation problems. In fact, DU is used as SHIELDING as it ABSORBS more harmful gamma radiation in medical X-Ray machine shielding and tank armour. DU does not cause cancer with radiation. And I am the most anti-nuclear person on the planet, I actually went to prison protesting a nuclear mine in Australia once. So I am in no way pro-nuke. |
| Posted by: anon1 2003-04-22 02:58:57 |
| #2 The myth of DU health hazards is continually trumpeted by ass-hats everywhere. They inevitably FAIL to consider the occupational exposure and epidemiological data that has been acquired over 70+ years of observation of uranium minors... who are occupationally exposed to uranium oxide dust (such as would be produced by the combustion of a DU penetrator during an armor strike.) Bottom line is that DU isn't any more "toxic" than an equivilent amount of lead. Here is a link to a detailed study by the Royal Society on DU exposures: http://www.nrpb.org/publications/misc_publications/royal_society_report_on_du.htm#part1 Most likely (and to my mind probable) association with cancer in Basra (or anywhere in Iraq) is to look at how hazardous chemical wastes are disposed. If they are dumping them on the ground... the chemicals are probably migrating to their drinking water. Drinking diluted hazardous waste is a pretty sure way to end up with cancer; so it's no surprise that countries with poor "industrial hygienne" such as Iraq have high cancer rates. It's going to take a heck of a long time to clean up their wells and reduce cancer rates. Eastern Europe learned the same cancer lesson: improper disposal of hazardous waste = sick kids and cancer. |
| Posted by: Leigh 2003-04-22 02:48:28 |
| #1 Oh hell, Murat again? |
| Posted by: someone 2003-04-22 02:18:41 |