J A Progler
The trilateral ruling elite of America, Europe and Japan is in a quandary. Their industrial-based civilization has created tons of extremely toxic wastes. Many are by-products of cold war military industries. America and Russia currently lead the pack in nuclear waste. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island are reminders of the danger of predicating energy policy on nuclear power.
Japan still mourns the holocausts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American nuclear terror in 1945. The US concept of ‘peace and progress’ is predicated on nuclear weapons. In fact, the radioactive waste products from the Manhattan Project labs that developed the first atomic bomb, as well as all subsequent nuclear wastes, are still lying around various dump sites across the US and abroad.
One of the most deadly leftovers of the nuclear war industries is a substance known as ‘Depleted Uranium’ (DU), which consists of Uranium 238 (U-238), a by-product of nuclear weapons manufacture. It has about 60 percent of the radioactivity of Uranium 235 (U-235), which is weapons grade uranuim, and is extremely toxic and poisonous.
Officially called DU, the term ‘depleted’ is used as a euphemism since U-238 is only partially depleted and is nearly as deadly as U-235. Physicists measure the half-life of U-238 in billions of years. Needless to say, DU is extremely difficult to dispose of. While the traditional method of disposing DU is to store it in various dumps in the countries that produce it, the trilaterals are concerned about the potential dangers this poses for their populations.
In a stroke of what can only be termed satanic genius, an American general came up with a solution to America’s nuclear waste problem, while giving boost to the military-industrial complex. He suggested using DU as a component in new weaponry. The quality of DU that makes it attractive for weaponry is its extreme density. American corporate contractors quickly seized the opportunity, and forged a series of weapons tipped with U-238 nose cones that are capable of cutting through steel tanks and concrete bunkers like knife through butter. Since U-238 is the by-product of thousands of warheads produced during the 50-year cold war, it is in plentiful supply.
To most observers, the American military industries are clearly creating a new arms race based on DU weapons. The Saudis, always ready to oblige Uncle Sam with the Ummah’s oil wealth, have already ordered DU weaponry. Turkey and other States are also purchasing it. The zionist occupiers of Palestine, who still stick to their big lie denying the massive Israeli nuclear arms industry, are no doubt producing their own DU weapons for the new arms race. The battlefield of the future will double as a garbage dump, and deploying DU weapons amounts to dumping nuclear waste in other peoples water, soil, and air.
As with the nuclear holocaust in Japan, it is the Americans who are poineering this latest phase of western civilization’s lunacy. During the 1990-91 Persian Gulf Oil War, the US used 920,000 small rounds and 14,000 large rounds of ammunition made with DU. Upon impact, about 70 percent of a DU round aerosolizes, which makes it possible to ingest or breathe in.
DU weapons have repercussions far beyond those of the immediate battlefield strategies. International medical organizations working with Iraqi doctors to help the victims of Saddam’s adventures and America’s Oil War are reporting alarmingly high cancer rates in Iraq, along with a tremendous increase in birth defects. There have been so many babies born with deformities that people in villages in the south of Iraq are afraid to get married. A visitor to southern Iraq found more than 20 deformed babies born in one small village alone since the war.
Iraqi doctors report a five-fold increase in cancer countrywide, including an array of new cancers never before seen in the region. DU residue has also had a devastating effect on Iraqi agriculture. In fact, its use in 1991 amounted to the permanent sabotage of Iraq’s soil and water resources. Coupled with US-led sanctions, it is an on-going war against the Iraqi people.
In addition to the countless Iraqis who have died or are permanently injured by American DU weaponry, US veterans of the Oil War and their children are also suffering from many of the same symptoms and ailments. Despite consistent media obfuscation, most informed observers are convinced that the dreaded ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ is a direct result of US military personnel being exposed to DU on the battlefield.
Even the US government, which is notorious for denying any links between its weapons and illnesses among veterans (e.g. agent Orange in Vietnam) has undertaken a study of 30 Oil War veterans who suffered shrapnel wounds from ‘friendly fire’ with DU weapons. Several government-sponsored medical reports warn that DU is cancer-causing and toxic. At the same time, the US government has stubbornly refused to acknowledge any danger of DU weapons except when injuries occur from large shrapnel, and will not even admit the possibility of injuries resulting from powdered or aerosolized DU.
Physicians and researchers have found that, depending on particle size, DU can cause extreme kidney and lung damage. In its powdered form, DU particles if inhaled are difficult if not impossible to expel from lungs. Once in the lungs, DU can cause cancer and other lesions or can get into the bloodstream, which can lead to tumorous cancers in other parts of the body and/or to fetal deformity. According to estimates, over 100,000 veterans of the Oil War were poisoned by various toxins, including DU.
The US defence department has exhibited a stunning indifference to life, not only in using such weapons, but also in refusing to even acknowledge their real danger. Sadly, even if it can be proved that DU is responsible for their illnesses, families of American servicepersons who die of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ have no recourse because US law prohibits military personnel and their families from suing the government for any wrongful death.
Muslimedia: October 16-31, 1997
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