Thursday, November 02, 2006

Depleted uranium risk simply "ignored"


Given that our very own President has simply decided to turn his back on a missing soldier during a time of war, given that we have an Arabic speaking interrogator committing suicide rather than participating in the military use of torture, given that we have foaming at the mouth Repukes demanding the head of John Kerry on a GOP platter for making a joke, while Rep Boehner says that Rummy is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that any and all Iraq mistakes belong on the heads of the generals, and given that our Air Force says it needs emergency money to bring home the"growing numbers" of dead and wounded troops (well, the official count for the month of Oct alone is 105 dead US troops/ 700 wounded), news like this simply ceases to be shocking (via BBC): "UK and US forces have continued to use depleted uranium weapons despite warnings they pose a cancer risk, a BBC investigation has found. A report by the World Health Org (WHO) in 2001 said DU weapons posed only a small contamination risk. But a senior UN scientist said research showing how depleted uranium could cause cancer was withheld, and Dr Keith Baverstock, who worked on the WHO project, said research conducted by the US Dept of Def described a process known as genotoxicity, which begins when depleted uranium dust is inhaled. "The particles that dissolve pose a risk - part radioactive - and part from the chemical toxicity in the lung," he said. Later, he said, the material enters the body and the blood stream, potentially affecting bone marrow, the lymphatic system and the kidneys. The research was not included in the WHO report, and Dr Baverstock believes it was blocked." Should any of us be shocked by this? Of course not. The industrial war machine can't admit that the weapons our troops are using can leave them riddled w/cancer and/or leave their future children to look like mutants. If they did that, they also may have to account for the massive jump in cancer and birth defects in Iraq and Afghanistan. They knew exactly what it did to our troops and the people in Iraq during the First Gulf war. Before the US invaded in '03, Iraqi officials begged the US to NOT use DU weapons. What was the US response?: "A US defense official has said moves to ban depleted uranium ammunition are just an attempt by America's enemies (Our enemies? I thought they were our beloved friends that we were liberating from that awful guy Saddam?) to blunt its military might. Col James Naughton of US Army Command said Iraqi complaints about depleted uranium (DU) shells had no medical basis. "They want it to go away because we kicked the crap out of them," he told a Pentagon briefing. Uh, Col.... maybe they didn't want us to use DU in their nation b/c they have seen horrific birth defects like this or this. And some of our troops have been so horrified by these DU weapons, that they took pix of the aftermath so someone could see what we're doing to the population that we're incinerating... err... "liberating." And maybe some of our troops are scared to death that they will come home with unexplained health problems, a host of mysterious illnesses, and/or have children w/severe birth defects. Watch this horrifying buzz flash clip which I have put on my blog previously and say aloud: Supporting our troops my ass.
Posted by Tina :: 1:19 AM :: 7 Comments:

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