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Op-Ed: Spreading Cancer »

Posted by: winstons-myth 2 years, 12 months ago

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The bodies keep piling up, the toxic horrors spread. Hasn't anyone in this place ever heard of depleted uranium? Is the health crisis in Iraq and, indeed, throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, not to mention Kosovo and among returning vets for the last four American wars, somehow irrelevant to "the course" we're asked to stay?

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winstons-myth

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Comments: 3

Avg rating: (+3/-0 3)
Donnaich
Nov. 9, 2006, 5 a.m.
Some additional background for those concerned:
DU is what is known as an "alpha emitter": it spits off helium nuclei as part of the decay process. These particles are easy to stop (paper will do it), but that also means they expend their energy in a short distance. That is why alpha emitters are considered an "internal hazard"... if you breathe them in, the linings of the lungs get irradiated (causing lung cancers); if you swallow them, your stomach lining gets irradiated (stomach cancers). When these weapons burn and become aerosols, you get to ingest them much easier.
Another fact about radioactive materials is that they affect rapidly multiplying cells quicker, called the Law of Bergonie and Tribondeau. This means fetuses, children and blood cell forming tissues (hence leukemia) are some of the worst affected by radiation.
So since DU is a byproduct of nuclear fuel/weapons cycles, we're making these areas radioactive dumps, and exposing our troops to it.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
alakazam
Nov. 9, 2006, 7:04 p.m.
I still hear claims made to the effect that the stuff is harmless. Amazing how powerful propaganda can be!
I tend to ask people why if it is harmless do they go to such lengths to dispose of any that isn't made into weapons.
DU is not just dangerous by direct exposure , currently there are indications that spouses of service members who have been exposed are becoming sick as well. Apparently the particles are secreted from a contaminated individual through body fluids.
I hate to say it, but the article is just scratching the surface of the issue. Serious illnesses, mutations, large areas of land being made uninhabitable for what is effectively forever in human terms.
I have mentioned this to many of my friends and they can see the dangers and are helping to spread the word.
It's something that needs to be stopped and stopped now.
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bubba2
Nov. 9, 2006, 8:54 p.m.
"We dropped at least 300 tons of it on Iraq during Gulf War I (the first time it was used in combat) and created Gulf War Syndrome. This time around, the estimated DU use on defenseless Iraq is 1,700 tons, far more of it in major population centers. Remember shock and awe? We were pounding Baghdad, in those triumphant early days, with low-grade nuclear weapons, raining down cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects and much, much more on the people we claimed to be liberating. We weren't spreading democracy, we were altering the human genome."
Great ... THIS is how the Republicans "support the troops" and "bring democracy" to the middle east!
This is disgusting! I hope the Democrats investigate this - I am sending this to my Congressman.