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September 15, 2007 at 08:55:12

Making the Case to KEEP Troops in Iraq.

by Dom Jermano     Page 2 of 5 page(s)

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Since October of 2001, the United States military has used approximately 3,000 tons of depleted uranium munitions against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. This will soon cause the serious health problems to include respiratory disease, kidney problems, rashes, birth defects, and the number of cancers of those people to jump to over 500,000 people each year. How do I know this?

Because the United States military used 375 tons of depleted uranium munitions against Iraq in 1991 and the cancer rate in children measured in Iraqi hospitals rose from 32,000 per year in 1990 to 130,000 in 1997. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official reports, U.S. casualties from Gulf War 1 now exceed 180,000 and already over 30,000 are now disabled from Gulf War 2. We've now used eight times what we did in 1991 and radiation has long been known to cause cancer. This is well known by our federal government. 

The problem is only now starting to be realized, as thousands of US Vets are dying not from insurgents’bombs but from our own DU deeds in Iraq. Iraqi water is contaminated; the places where they grow food are contaminated, while everywhere and everything is contaminated. The people are suffering and more and more are dying over there. In fact it is becoming a national crisis, because who is going to help the people with the medical costs?  We can't even care for our own veterans.

DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years  

http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/gunther.htm 

According to Irving Wesley Hall at http://www.notinkansas.us/du_3.html

{How much depleted uranium has been showered on coalition troops and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq? The sketchy figures the Pentagon has released are not reliable-official figures from Iraq soon after the invasion in 2003 add up to about 300 tons, and the Pentagon claims it hasn’t used DU munitions since then despite much evidence to the contrary. Expert’s estimates vary widely, but ranges up to 1,000 tons for Afghanistan and up to more than 3,000 tons for Iraq. 

The GWV (Gulf War Vet) cohort that is more appropriate to study to determine the effects of inhaled uranium oxide are the 697,000 American military personnel deployed in 1991 to Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. According to the official Gulf War Veterans Briefing, the total causality count for the 100-hour war was 760: 294 dead and approximately 400 wounded or ill. In the decade following the war 30,000 Gulf War Veterans are dead and 221,000 are receiving medical disability benefits for war related causes (May 2002 GWV Report).

Neither the VA nor DOD has provided clear research needed to answer the basic question: what part did depleted uranium play in causing death and illness among more than 30% of Gulf War veterans? Basic epidemiological studies such as identifying cause of death as recorded on death certificates have not been reported in the literature.

Depleted uranium contamination causes virtually every known illness from acute skin rashes, severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, and general fatigue, to major birth defects, infection, depression, cardiovascular disease, brain tumors, and every other type of cancer. Uranium replaces calcium, destroying teeth and bones.} 

This war was a lie from the beginning, to becoming an occupation, and now is turning into a regional medical hospice operation in which special teams will need to go to Iraq, to decontaminate, and work to help those suffering from DU. That is if they can decontaminate.

Technical reports say chemical gear such as gas masks, do no good, nor does protective clothing. And how does anyone cleanup the radioactive rivers? Children are playing with DU casings, and expended tips. 

In fact I think the entire country will die off from DU, along with the 160,000 troops who are already over there. Take note the Politicians who have gone to Iraq to include McCain, Hillary, Bush, Cheney, and others are serious potential victims themselves of DU without them knowing it.

DU is deadly, and it will literally eat a person to death inside.  They breathe the air over there; they are able to contract DU. Even taking showers will contaminate victims, along with eating, or being outside where wind blows up dust.

We are talking about a serious crisis. Shake hands with a Sheik, you can become contaminated. It can get into your eyes, nose, mouth, head hair, your body hair, your groin, your nails, your ears, and even your armpits.  {According to

Elaine A. Hunter at http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/77250.html says:

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American against War and Violence. Writer, English Teacher, Inventor, Creator of the First Manmade Floating Farm On The Ocean.... My companies name is ACET: Algae Charcoal Ethanol Technicorp. We grow Algae for Oil.

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The author is a former Member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and the author of several Internet-published works on cross-cultural spirituality.
Steve BeckowThe author is a former Member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and the author of several Internet-published works on cross-cultural spirituality.

No to Mistreatment

 

Speaking as one who has written on DU, while I don't question your allegations, I can hardly get behind your recommendations.

I don't support the war in Iraq, American hegemonic aims, or DU.  But I also don't support victimizing men and women, the great majority of whom were sincerely serving their country and unaware of the existence of DU, let alone its properties.

Yes, the families should be warned. Yes, we need to explore how to live with people who can pass on DU contamination. As you say, it is much more dangerous than AIDS. But no to stigmatizing or mistreating them. 

Your approach lacks compassion in the same way that making war on Iraq, grasping another country's oil resources, and using DU itself all so fundamentally reveal a lack of compassion.

By the way, DU is blanketting the globe. DU is certainly present in the United States, where numerous government agencies have been testing DU and DU weaponry.  I wouldn't be so glib about not having it.  

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, speaking on CNN recently, said DU is harmful "even in the amount of one atom." How can you be so sure of your own health?  Other articles on today's OpEdNews say that cancers and leukemia are on the rise in San Francisco. What about elsewhere in the U.S.A.?

If you inhale DU, what quarantine camp would you like your mail sent to?  

Steve Beckow 

www.freewebs.com/truthseeker22/

 

by Steve Beckow (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 36 comments) on Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 11:13:05 PM
 


American against War and Violence. Writer, English Teacher, Inventor, Creator of the First Manmade Floating Farm On The Ocean.... My companies name is ACET: Algae Charcoal Ethanol Technicorp. We grow Algae for Oil.
Dom JermanoAmerican against War and Violence. Writer, English Teacher, Inventor, Creator of the First Manmade Floating Farm On The Ocean.... My companies name is ACET: Algae Charcoal Ethanol Technicorp. We grow Algae for Oil.

Keep the troops in Iraq.

I don't know why you suggest quarantine is a victimizing word? I have all the empathy in the world for the victims, but how about the responsibilty in making sure we all don't become victims? Having empathy by your caring remarks makes me feel I need to have DU in order to not discriminate against anyone.

You know somethings are because they are. Maybe you should send my mail to any of the Reservations in the USA...they are quarantine centers aren't they? Bush sure has the White House all quarantined up doesn't he. Everywhere where DU isn't he has quarantined. So how about Iraq?

I am very aware of the environmental damage being done to the planet, and who is stopping it? It keeps getting worse and worse. When do we say enough is enough, without fear we are victimizing someone? I oppose nuclear development, and I don't own a car.

There is a a huge problem in Iraq with DU contamination. People are dying, including our troops, so why risk people who have not been exposed?  Intentionally using DU in civilian populations is in my book an International Crime. What is really amazing is the lack of empathy on a lot of people who will shout insults at me, for speaking up about this, for laying the truth at the table, and I am a bad guy for making the statement about the troops.

Well I didn't send them to Iraq, I didn't ask them to use DU, I didn't ask them to protect me. I am telling them what they should consider as they risk our communities. I personally don't want DU Troops in my neighborhood, or any DU or nuclear activity around me.

The war on terror is really a war on the environment. Pretty soon there is a breaking point. You try to poison me with your acts, and I will become upset and angry. Maybe to the point of carrying out terrorist acts to stop you? And if it is not me acting, it is the planet with its storms and floods, and earthquakes, and rising seawater. Somehow this whole War on Terror has become nothing but terror. The only winner is the Terrorist?

Someone has to stand up for what is right. Allowing DU troops to come home in my opinion is a huge mistake, and don't say I didn't tell you so. You will witness the increases of deformed babies, there will be more strain on our health care system, the increase of abortions, and the dying away of military families. That in my view is terror on the grandest, and most sophisticated Bush scale.

by Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 934 comments) on Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 11:56:39 PM
 

 

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