Another U.S. war crime?
Iraqi cities 'hot' with depleted uranium
By Sara Flounders
Has U.S. use of depleted-uranium weapons
turned Iraq into a radioactive danger area for both Iraqis and
occupation troops?
This question has already had serious consequences. In hot
spots in downtown Baghdad, reporters have measured radiation
levels that are 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal
background radiation levels.
It has also opened a debate in the Netherlands parliament
and media as 1,100 Dutch troops in Kuwait prepare to enter Iraq
as part of the U.S./British-led occupation forces. The Dutch
are concerned about the danger of radioactive poisoning and
radiation sickness in Iraq.
Washington has assured the Dutch government that it used no
DU weapons near Al-Samawah, the town where Dutch troops will be
stationed. But Dutch journalists and anti-war forces have
already found holes in the U.S. stories, according to an
article on the Radio Free Europe website.
DU-caused radiation had already raised alarms in Europe
after studies showed increased rates of cancers, respiratory
ailments and other disabilities of occupation troops from NATO
countries stationed in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
In general, the health and environmental dangers of weapons
made with DU radioactive waste have received far more attention
in Europe than in the U.S.
In this year's war on Iraq, the Pentagon used its
radioactive arsenal mainly in the urban centers, rather than in
desert battlefields as in 1991. Many hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi people and U.S. soldiers, along with British, Polish,
Japanese and Dutch soldiers sent to join the occupation, will
suffer the consequences. The real extent of injuries, chronic
illness, long-term disabilities and genetic birth defects won't
be apparent for five to 10 years.
By now, half of all the 697,000 U.S. soldiers involved in
the 1991 war have reported serious illnesses. According to the
American Gulf War Veterans Association, more than 30 percent of
these soldiers are chronically ill and are receiving disability
benefits from the Veterans Administration. Such a high
occurrence of various symptoms has led to the illnesses being
named Gulf War Syndrome.
This number of disabled veterans is shockingly high. Most
are in their mid-thirties and should be in the prime of health.
Before sending troops to the Gulf region, the military had
already sifted out those with disabilities or chronic health
problems from asthma, diabetes, heart conditions, cancers and
birth defects.
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.
Reprinted from the Aug. 21, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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