Home > The United States use of Depleted Uranium, installment number one

The United States use of Depleted Uranium, installment number one

by Open-Publishing - Monday 20 November 2006
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Women - Feminism Nuclear Wars and conflicts Health USA Mary MacElveen

The United States use of Depleted Uranium, installment number one
By Mary MacElveen
November 20, 2006

With the newly elected Democratic controlled congress set to take power in January, one Congressman, Charles Rangel has called for the reimplementation of the draft. I really do not know how I feel at this at any given moment. I am just so sick and tired of these wars that we have been fighting and want us all just to sit down and breathe. Please remember that word breathe.

But, my guess is that his reason is that all will be called to fight in these wars and not just some. I do not agree with many of these wars now being fought. We are constantly told that we are doing so to fight and win the war on terrorism. I just do not know how many times one has to say that there is no winning any war on terrorism since there will always be those that hate us. How many times must we say this to the hawks and warlords in Washington, D.C.? It is like screaming into the wind.

Senator John McCain wants to send an extra 20,000 soldiers into Iraq and Congressman, Charles Rangel wishes to reinstate the draft and many will demand that they be protected with adequate body armor. Well whoever these troops are, before they even set foot in Iraq or any other country in which choose to invade and if we do use DU (depleted uranium), they are already damaged. No body armor will protect these men and women from its deadly affects. Please think of that as some of these elected officials state that within appropriations bills for these wars that our service personnel must be protected with body armor.

With those that are lucky enough to make it home alive the damage to their bodies has already been done as one reads these statements coming from Dr. Yuko Fujita (assistant professor at Keio University, Japan) in which she said, “As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some 5-10 years.” As I have written in previous articles, depleted uranium is the gift that keeps on giving. What affects to our returning soldiers will be felt by them down the line? I have already seen pictures of how it affects any offspring of theirs and the birth defects are repulsive. At this point there are many innocent children born to these soldiers whose lives will be affected for the rest of their lives and I really wish that those that plan these wars would think of that. Some of these warlords in Washington, D.C. are from the pro-life movement and only wish to protect the unborn. Well thanks to their selfish acts, some of our soldier’s offspring walk around today with birth defects and many more will come.

Please think about this. You are the wife of a veteran, you find out you are pregnant and are totally unaware that your husband has been affected by the use of depleted uranium. Either you find out that you are pregnant through an over the counter pregnancy test or from a doctor, you are delighted. You plan on going through what most women do and that is to go into nesting mode for the next nine months. But, throughout those nine months, sonograms are done to see how your unborn baby is doing. Those with health insurance normally go through these tests to see how their baby is doing inutero. When you do have this medical test done and what should be a happy occasion, it is met with a slap in the face when you see your doctor’s stoic face. He or she then tells you that your baby is deformed. As some women will have baby showers planned for them, you are left wondering if you should carry this baby to term. Would the pro-life movement condemn your actions should you and your husband decide not to? If you decide not to carry this baby to term and go to a clinic, you are met with hateful protesters. I want all of you reading this just to think of that scenario.

The present rate of those without health insurance in this country presently stands at 47 million, and one has to ask; how many will be added to that astounding number. Both our soldiers and their offspring will surely need extensive medical care and how much will it cost the tax payers in this country? That is something not being discussed at this point and it should.

As President Bush has used the military as a back drop in many of his speeches, one is left wondering who amongst them will suffer the affects of this deadly agent. The next time any of you see him speak to these soldiers, please zero in on their faces and wonder if they will be exposed to DU and how many of their unborn will suffer the most horrid birth defects. After doing so, I want you to pray for them. They will be affected in ways that are so unconscionable and incomprehensible not only to you, but to me.

In an email last night, someone said to me as far as Iraq goes and how we leave that country at some point, he stated that they are “toast”. Iraqis will continue to suffer from our use of this agent for years to come.

You will be shocked as you read this article titled "Depleted Uranium another gift from the imperialists" in reading these findings of Dr. Rosalie Bertell who is an award winning scientist “found that DU damages DNA and causes cell mutations which lead to cancer. Moreover, these particles are absorbed by body fluids and travel through the body damaging more than one organ. Also, she found that this particular type of radiation can cause the body’s communication systems to break down, leading to malfunctions in many vital organs of the body.” This is what we are leaving the Iraqi people and any other nation that we choose to go in and invade in which we will use this deadly agent.

One does have to wonder this when there is still talk that we may go to war with Iran, while some do see Iran playing a pivotal role in helping us end the war in Iraq. Will the Iranians suffer just as the Iraqis have? Most likely some Iranians are already suffering from exposure to this agent since its use is not contained only in the borders of Iraq, but these nuclear particles go far beyond the borders of Iraq. Yet, we worry if they have the capacity to build a nuclear armament when we have already used nuclear munitions on them.

Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted a study on the malignancies of children in Basra that was bombed in the first Gulf War that “found from 1990-1999, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion. Because conditions now are so chaotic in Iraq, only a small fraction of both cancer and birth defects due to DU are being reported. There are, however, many photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, with terribly shortened limbs, with huge bulging tumours where their eyes should be, or with a single eye, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Such birth defects are now commonplace.” I truly want all of you that read this piece to think of why there is a hatred towards America if we can do this to the most innocent amongst us living on this planet. What right did we have to do this? Do those who promulgate these immoral wars even care as babies are being born “without heads”?

As you will see in writing this piece, I do use the shocking details of man’s inhumanity to man in order to reach out to my readers. I have also done so in writing on what has happened to the children of the Congo. I feel it important in order to raise this awareness.

In this first installment of articles that I plan to write of this deadly agent, as I stated in the beginning of it ‘Please remember that word breathe.’ You will be angered beyond words as you read “Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington said: “The US Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.” Does one think that body armor can protect when “He said preliminary tests showed that the air, soil and water samples contained “hundreds to thousands of times” the normal levels of radiation. Durakovic told The Japan Times: “They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between DU and the illness.” He has since been fired from his position. I would like to know why an organization charged in helping our veterans would want anyone to lie of its deadly affects. This is perhaps a conversation we should all be having with our elected officials.

As I said this is the first installment of articles that I plan to write on this topic since I feel that I have only scratched the surface of how depleted uranium affects not only our soldiers, but those we use this agent on. But, I do plan on learning. When we think of the present casualty rate in Iraq which stands at over 2,800, how many more will be added to that number at a later date as this munitions makes its way through the bodies of those coming home in which they will at one point succumb to the affects of it. I cannot even fathom that number. If one thinks of an unfathomable number, The Lancet reported that 655,000 Iraqis have been killed and one has to wonder just how many more will be added to that count. Can you even wrap your brain around those numbers? I surely cannot.

In this past election, some stated that the neo-conservatives are gone who have planned these wars and our use of this deadly agent, but left behind are still those in favor of war and it is up to all of us to reach them. It is up to you to become an informed reader so that you can have these discussions with our elected officials.

http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2006/11/20/2513596.html

Forum posts

  • Depleted uranium is not just used for military applications in munitions and armor. It is also used in many commercial applications that require a very dense material. These applications include ballast and counterweights, balancing control devices on aircraft, balancing and vibration damping on aircraft, machinery ballast and counterweights, gyrorotors and other electromechanical counterweights, shielding for medicine and industry, shipping container shielding for radiopharmaceuticals, chemical catalyst, pigments, and x-ray tubes. What people won’t do to make a buck! And, maybe that’s the problem in a nutshell.

  • I have yet to see any additional installments on this highly under-reported story from Mary MacElveen. It’s almost Christmas and I’m beginning to wonder whether Pelosi, whom I believe to be Ms. MacElveen’s ’handler’, told her to stop.