Iraqi kids- No Need to Nuke ’em, They Already Glow

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What is worse than a pointless war that bankrupts a country and sends its youth off to become psychologically damaged sociopaths when they return? How about the moral bankruptcy that arises from leaving a  legacy of cancer in a country’s children?

The US military has problems getting rid of depleted uranium (still 60% as radioactive), which given its continued toxicity and environmental hazards can be expensive to dispose of.   It is way cheaper to reuse it in the shell casings of armor-piercing bullets and give this ammo to soldiers fighting abroad. On impact about 1/3 of the uranium becomes aerosolized into dust, liberally dispersing itself over the landscape like arsenic on a powdered doughnut. In 2003,  this amounted to 1000 to 3000 tons of DU detonated in areas of Iraq that were highly populated.

Gulf War Syndrome in American soldiers has symptoms consistent with radioactive poisoning, though until recently, our government refused to acknowledge this.  Our young men are in the peak of condition when sent to fight, and when exposed to these hazards. They are eventually sent back to their own clean country, and (usually) to good medical care.

What of the people, especially the children and pregnant women, who must continue to live in an environment polluted with radiation almost 1000 times higher than normal? (Some parts of Baghdad (pop. 1.6 million) had radiation levels 1900 times greater than normal.) Ravaged by war, their country already has inadequate medical supplies and facilities. The people are not paragons of fitness like our own young men. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of heavy metal poisoning (with the added horrors of the metal being radioactive as well!) as their systems are still developing. Any new cells trying to grow will be affected, with damage most often occurring in the liver and kidneys,  also causing malignant tumor growth.  Animals living in the area exhibit similar symptoms.

Birth defects and cancer rates of children in Iraq have increased dramatically since the first Gulf War. Children now make up over half of Iraqi cancer patients (up from 13%).  In the province of Basra, the incidence of cancer of all types rose by 242 percent, while the rate of leukemia among children rose 100 percent. Children living in the area were falling ill with cancer at the rate of 10.1 per 100,000. In districts where the use of DU had been the most concentrated, the rate rose to 13.2 per 100,000. According to Dr Hassan of Basra hospital, multiple congenital birth defects have risen from 7 cases in 1990 to 256 cases in the past 3 years. The pictures of these deformities are  so sickening and disturbing, that I won’t even post them here. If you haven’t eaten yet, and don’t want to, you may look here to see these tragic birth defects.

As much as the authorities here have tried to downplay or ignore the illnesses that plague one quarter of Gulf War veterans, the increase in cancer and birth defects has not gone unnoticed by Iraqi officials.  Not surprisingly, Iraq holds the United States and Britain legally and morally responsible for the grave health and environmental impact of the use of depleted uranium.  As if living in a war-torn hellhole wasn’t bad enough, now they have generations of toxic poisoning to look forward to.  And people wonder why our country is disliked abroad.

Here is a study on the subject if you’d like to be outraged and horrified further

About Post Author

Carol Bell

Carol is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Her passion is journalism and it shows. Carol is our unpaid, but very efficient, administrative secretary.
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13 years ago

Excellent post MH!
In an ideal world, there wouldn’t be the need for war but unfortunately the world we live in requires a country to have a strong defense. Having said that, it is also the countries moral duty to use war only as a last resort, not as part of a foreign policy “Plan B”.

Mother Hen’s post is not about “Is the war right or wrong?” Her post illuminates the travesty and horrors of collateral damage caused by D.U, not only to the civilians but to the U.S. soldiers. A civilized nation must adhere to not only the Geneva convention rules and guidelines, but also it is imperative that the United States take the lead and limit as much as feasible the amount of damage caused to the innocent civilians.

If they are truly trying to win the “Hearts and Minds” of the population, this easily destroys any credibility. Depleted Uranium must be banned! Do it for the children over there who are particularly vulnerable and do it for our soldiers!

13 years ago

“I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A Peoples dream died there. It was a beautiful dream… the Nations hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.” BLACK ELK

This time around (because for me the truth is that I’ve been many times around) I pray to whatever higher authority guides me that I might stand in Peace… to have the courage to stand with Peace this time. And it’s so fucking hard to do~! But, I hear you Oso.

osori
Reply to  Gwedolyn H. Barry
13 years ago

Thanks Gwen.
Black Elk expressed his feelings with wisdom, rather than rage. What a mind and a soul, to be able to do that huh?

13 years ago

Believe me I am not condoning anything about war. But I did want to point out that no matter what the reasoning for the conflict (I disagree with all of the wars since WW2) innocents- even our innocents (children of soldiers) are being damaged in the worst possible way. Even to be killed outright is, I think, a greater mercy than what some of these kids must endure.

Until a country has the balls to actually attack us on our own soil (like Japan did) I have serious issues with the claim that we are “defending our freedom” unless one really means: “defending our freedom to drive huge gas guzzling cars and run the A/C night and day, so we need to protect our interests by invading a country sitting on “our” oil”

My son is old enough to join the military, but despite his interest, he has refused because he does not agree with the war. I see a lot of poor kids from our town with few other options signing up to get out of poverty. I doubt they would if they could imagine their young wife crying because their newborn has horrific birth defects. No matter what the short term payoff is, the radioactive legacy is not worth any amount of oil.

osori
Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

Mother Hen,
It’s so scary with kids. When my youngest was considering joining, the recruiter kept assuring her she wouldn’t go to Iraq because women don’t go into combat. Fortunately she changed her mind. One of my nephews joined to get away from his mothers drug habit. Can you imagine? To get away from your mother? He was there three years, not even a sand flea bite. Came home and a week later got shot in his shoulder at Safeway by some gang banger. He recovered and is a fireman now.

I remember looking at statistics from the VA regarding Gulf War casualties. You know how people, or at least some people are skeptical? There are hundreds of thousands disabled now. A scandalously, shockingly huge number.

And the military willingly did this to them, as willingly as they directed them to use the weapons. What a bunch of soulless beasts, the military brass.

Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

Saying “I don’t agree with the war” is the ultimate cop-out. That is the rationale used for not wanting to join the military because they are afraid of change. The babies want to stay home with mommy and daddy. Only the brave and strong join the military. The weak and the whining do not.

War is hell; beyond all imagination. It has nothing to do with the “bunch of soul­less beasts, the mil­i­tary brass.” The brass were once the soldiers, the grunts, and the Boonie rats. To think they were all of a sudden blessed with high rank and placed in the Pentagon is just silly. These men and women made their bones. They risked their lives to make us safe.

Our soldiers fight and die to protect our country. How could anyone take that away from them? If we didn’t have these brave young men and women stepping forward we would have to draft them.

Were it up to me I would be drafting them. Keeps them off the streets, teaches discipline, and a new appreciation for their country and their family.

Peace…

osori
Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

Mike,
But they’re not protecting us.Iraq was no threat, nor was Afghanistan. I’m not saying they wouldn’t protect us if there was a threat, I am saying invading a nation which did not threaten us, to control its resources is wrong. The soldiers chose that role, to be part of an aggressive war.

In my business the people who rise to the top management positions generally do it thru being adept politically rather than skilled or wise.I don’t see how the military would be different. None of them came out against an unjust war. To have done so would have been political suicide.So either they chose to keep silent to protect their careers or they did not have the moral rectitude to stand against injustice. Their duty was to the constitution, not to the neocons.
My opinion.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

Oso soldiers don’t choose to be part of an war. They don’t make those decisions. In their mind’s eye they are doing a job. In many cases they just needed a good steady job. It potentially gives them an education, teaches them skills, and also teaches them responsibility. Were it not for the opportunities given them by their country some of them would have ended up in jail or dead in the streets.

Fighting wars is just part of the mix. Politics and ideology don’t enter that mix and we are fortunate that they do not. I agree with you that Iraq was not the “right” war, but it was war nonetheless and there were some serious dirtbags who were shooting at American men and women. They were the enemy and would have been our enemy whether it was there or Afghanistan. Again, soldiers follow orders. Orders come from the top of the chain and shit flows downhill. Don’t blame the troopers or their commanders, blame the politicians.

Reply to  Professor Mike
13 years ago

I think you have to be ready, once you sign on (whether it is for poverty, to escape a bad situation- whatever) to got to war when asked. It is why we have a military. There is a very real possibility you could be asked to fight for a cause you disagree with. That doesn’t mean you won’t be willing to shoot back if someone is trying to kill you. But if the seeds of discontent are there, when you come back you will question forever your involvement in it.

It would be great if all our military had to do was go on peacekeeping/humanitarian missions that only require handing out rations to victims of natural disasters and keeping riots from erupting.

I think everyone could benefit from SOME of the training that goes on at boot camp. The physical training, the self-reliance, the camaraderie, learning to handle and care for a weapon properly. Maybe after college everyone should have to do a little “military school”. But it takes something different to prepare a person for war. The tearing down of the self into a being willing and able to take orders, to jump when commanded to jump, fire when told to fire. Not everyone has a personality that can come back from this indoctrination. Better not to join at all if you fear what you will become as a result.

Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

I’m really kind of stunned here… politics and ideology… gee, Mike, you left out money. “don’t enter the mix”? And further, ‘everyone should have some kind of military schooling’ but ‘not everyone has the personality to come back from this indoctrination” ???

It’s opinion, I get it.
Guess you know
I don’t agree.
I base my opinions on my experiences and my understanding of right and wrong, just like everyone else.
War is wrong and I’m just one of those ‘hippies’ that think we can over come war if we focus on healing the planet. 🙂

Reply to  Gwedolyn H. Barry
13 years ago

I never said that all people need the indoctrination, as that is exactly the thing not everyone can “recover” from. But that is what you get when you sign up in the military. A heavy dose- not everyone is mentally and physically able to shoot to kill, even an enemy.

Personally I considered joining for the reasons listed in my reply above- I figured I would get into condition, learn to use a weapon and a skill, get money for school, become self-disciplined. No way could I kill someone unless they were standing over my kid with malicious intent. I can barely kill a cockroach. I secretly wished there was a way to go in the Army and be guaranteed that there would be no chance of having to kill. Obviously the military is no place for me, but could I use the skills? You bet? Is there another way to get them without joining? I don’t think so.

A kid might be convinced by his recruiter that he’ll only be changing spark plugs in the hummers, but in reality he will be trained like everyone else, first and foremost, for combat. Just as you have people who can go off to war and come back, relatively normal and functioning, you have others who go off and come back wanting to kill themselves. In fact in my post I link to another article that demonstrates that the suicide rates of returned veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is something like 25%.

As much of a peaceful person as I am, I still see the need for a military, and for the discipline it can give to some. There are actually people who are better humans after serving active duty, in or out of war, just as there are people who become basket cases afterward. If you are afraid for your psyche or are not prepared to surrender your person to be used as an instrument by the military machine, there is no shame in refusing to go. Isn’t that what a “conscientious objection” is?

My overall point of the post was that no matter why you join, it is reasonable to expect to be shot at, injured, killed- it is not the Peace Corps. But nobody would go at all if they thought that even when they’d served their time, and even if they seem healthy when discharged, that there was a chance they’d have mutant, sickly offspring because of their OWN government. Iraqi children do not deserve it either.

Admin
13 years ago

In some sense I am with Oso on this one and that may well surprise both of us. I also have family engaged in the war adventures. They are young. They follow orders and are prey to the overwhelming peer pressure that makes the machine move forward. We cannot blame the overwhelming majority of decent individuals who are serving, but we can cast a jaundiced eye on the machine. In reality I hadn’t even considered this issue. Thanks to Mother Hen I now do. It makes me sad. War and all of its consequences, both past, present and future, just makes me freaking sad.

osori
13 years ago

I hope everyone will understand this is not meant to be argumentative, but to explain my view. I would say it’s not easy at all to be disgusted with our troops, most Americans support them and go out of their way to excuse their conduct.To be disgusted with them, it isn’t easy at all. Right sites would crucify me, and liberal sites for the most part will not agree and some will be very angry.

I have three nephews who served over there, my youngest daughter was seeing a recruiter to get out of some legal problems at the start of the war and might have gone. A local kid died in Afghanistan last year, sgt gabriel guzman, a friend of both my daughters who had his own daughter who was disabled. So i’m not speaking in the abstract here.

As much as we love people we know or are related to who are over there, morally we are wrong to be there. I imagine our troops using DU rounds against people in Fallujah, or kicking down doors and shooting the inhabitants and in my mind this is the same US army who was killing people at Wounded Knee or Sand Creek. And it is. They were volunteers too, who may have thought they were protecting their country, but they weren’t. They were killing people for their land. Our troops may feel they are protecting our freedom, but they aren’t. they are killing innocent people for their resources. and it’s disgusting to hold human life in such little value.

13 years ago

As easy as it is to be disgusted with our troops, the Gulf War veterans have twice the rate (if male- 3x rate if female) of children with birth defects at as other veterans. I am pretty sure no one signed up for that.

“For the sins of your fathers you, though guiltless, must suffer.” – Horace, “Odes,” III, 6, l. 1.

“The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.” – Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice,” act III, sc. V, l. 1

War is horrible, and civilian casualties are an awful byproduct, but poisoning the generations that follow? Unconscionable.

13 years ago

I cry a little almost everyday as I keep up with it all Oso…
I’m an empath.
Most folks really are, they just push it away. But I do feel it out a great deal. It’s how I am able to create and write with my business.
How can you not be moved emotionally with the sadness? Shame on any who are not.
Lots of folks cry on the inside or they just shut it off so they can channel it elsewhere…I know.

Reply to  Gwendolyn H. Barry
13 years ago

I’m an empath Gwen. I completely get it…

13 years ago

This is only part of the problem. I’m sure the drinking water in that area isn’t very good either. Remember our troops drinking and bathing in water from the Euphrates that wasn’t well filtered. Thanks KBR! So you know people living in the poor areas are drinking water straight from that river with god knows what in it.

osori
13 years ago

Robert Fisk devotes most of a chapter in his most recent book to this phenomenon, mostly in Fallujah. Reading of a little girl, leukemia victim due to the radiation weakening her immune system.She was so excited that Mr Fisk was going to take her picture, the nurse put a ribbon in her remaining hair (i’m starting to cry already, a little)and put her in a dress.

Fisk returned to the hospital some time later to visit the girl, but she had passed away several weeks previous.

It moves me to tears just thinking of it. Or rage, as I think of our leaders and our troops, yes our troops cause they’re the ones dropping the stuff.

It’s a war crime and there should be Hangings. Robert Jackson I believe, referred to waging aggressive war as the ultimate crime and that’s what we did. And haven’t even fought honorably.

13 years ago

I echo Holte… an important post, MH. Last night’s Maddow reviewed our new policy to pick up the worlds’ weapons’ grade uranium … to keep it out of the hands of terror groups. This would have been a powerful sister piece to it…
Thanks for the education. I value it.

13 years ago

That’s a shocking state of affairs, thanks for bringing it to my attention. One of my neighbors suffers from exposure to Agent Orange in 1960s Vietnam, every time I speak to him he has, just been in, or is about to reenter the Veteran’s Hospital in Augusta. Going back over 40 years an old friend of my family, an old widow lady had nursed her husband for 40 years after he suffered the effects a Mustard Gas attack in World War I. Gas masks were issued to every citizen of Great Britain who wanted one at the outbreak of World War II. Mutually assured gas attacks prevented that type of carnage. Coalition forces went into Iraq looking for WMDs, they should have looked in the mirror.

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