So, what is this topic all about?

Just as it literelly took YEARS for our government and the VA to recognize agent orange as the threat to life and health that it poses to our troops and the Vietnamese population, so this topic is beginning to shows signs of becoming a major catastrophy in the Middle East, with significantly high birth deformities (particularly noted around Fallugia) as well as "undefined illnesses" among our returning troops. WARNING the pictures in this link are quite disturbing Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime. Here is another website that provides many news articles about what we, in this Chapter, refer to as "this modern version of Agent Orange."

In summary, Veterans For Peace is working to end the military's use of Depleted Uranium, through member petition signing, and making a general-use (".pdf" ) petition available.

- Poisonous uranium oxide dust remains in the environment for billions of years, polluting both the land and the water.
- Civilians and military personnel serving in the Middle East exposed to DU have an increased chance of birth defects in their offspring. (So, we're leaving that part of the world with a problem probably even worse than what we did in Vietnam with "Agent Orange.")
- Even our troops that handle these munitions are subject to the damaging radiation effects.
- Depleted uranium was declared an illegal weapon of war by the United Nations(1), and the United States has been using DU enhanced weapons in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Getting technical for a moment, DU is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. Some uranium atoms are more radioactive than other uranium atoms and are partially removed from natural uranium to make enriched uranium, which is why what’s left over is called “depleted”—but it is still radioactive. DU is 99.75 percent uranium 238. One gram of U 238 emits ionizing radiation at the rate of 12,430 disintegrations per second. As the U 238 breaks down or “decays” into daughter products, or “progeny”, these decay products also emit radiation so that after 30 weeks one gram of DU and its progeny emits over 36,000 disintegrations per second. Just one milligram of DU (1/1000 of a gram— barely visible to the human eye) in one year emits 450 million alpha particles, 900 million beta particles and 900 million gamma rays. For reference, a pound is 453.59 grams. That’s 453,590 milligrams. U 238 emits alpha particles, which cannot penetrate your skin, but the decay products emit beta particles which do penetrate skin.

According to one official White House website statement by/from G.W.Bush, "During the Gulf War, coalition forces used armor-piercing ammunition made from depleted uranium, which is ideal for the purpose because of its great density." However, their efficacy against standard armor had been researched and "proven" back in the late '60s and subsequently used in Kosovo, the first Gulf War, Afghanistan and the second Gulf War. These munitions are a uniquely hazardous material, consisting of a radioactive penetrator which breaks down into small particles when burned, and an explosive charge or combustible propellant in the shell of the cartridge. In an accident scenario, DU munitions can burn and spread radioactive material. DU shipments therefore are, in essence, the "dirty bomb" that our own government warns us about.

The point is however, that G.W.'s Gulf War was not the first such application of these highly hazardous and (alleged) internationally illegal munitions. They are now deployed by the U.S. military in a number of weapons systems in various locations in the United States and other nations, and are daily shipped on U.S. highways, railways, waterways, and through foreign nations. In the case of an accident involving a fire, it is very likely the driver would be incapacitated. The driver would not be able to communicate to others that radioactive material is involved in the fire, making it impossible for first responders to correctly control the fire and protect the public from radioactive material.

Unfortunately, our own military are not told of the hazards of these munitions and that in occupying ground where DU munitions have been used our own people can be and have been exposed to breathing radioactive particles, not to mention the indigenous people that come back to their own bombed-out homesteads to (maybe) live. Mysterious illnesses among our returning troops have been turning up from these wars, just as they did from Agent Orange in Vietnam. There is little to no data concerning the handlers of these munitions

Quote from: http://www.vfp-northcountry.org/du/du.php:

"Since 1991 veterans have been returning from combat areas with mysterious illnesses that are still not understood. The percent of veterans of the Gulf War I who are disabled is the highest ever. Depleted uranium (DU) is the "primary suspect" regarding these illnesses. The United States Dept. of Defense and the Veterans Administration have done a terrible job regarding the risks of DU. Many soldiers were not given proper training before combat operations. They were not given mandated pre-deployment medical evaluations. They were not given appropriate protective clothing or face masks. They were not told when they were sent into areas where DU weapons had been used. When they left combat areas they were not given proper post-deployment evaluations.

"There are reports of sick veterans not being tested for DU contamination even when they asked to be tested. Even the test currently used by the Veterans Administration is regarded by many experts as not capable of detecting DU except in high concentrations. A much better test is available but the VA seems reluctant to use the better test. Perhaps the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration already know just how bad these weapons are. If so, then while they stall and stonewall more of these weapons are used, more people are exposed and medical services are not being provided to sick veterans. And what about the civilians of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkan countries?"

No degree of prosperity could justify the accumulation of large amounts of highly toxic substances which nobody knows how to make "safe" and which remain an incalculable danger to the whole of creation for historical or even geological ages. To do such a thing is a transgression against life itself, a transgression infinitely more serious than any crime ever perpetrated by man. The idea that a civilisation could sustain itself on the basis of such a transgression is an ethical, spiritual, and metaphysical monstrosity. It means conducting the economic affairs of man as if people really did not matter at all. -- E.F. Schumacher

Below are only a few of the available additional links discussing the DU problem and can provide additional references, taking this topic as far as anyone would like to go.

http://www.citizen-soldier.org/CS09-uranium.html A very good history, which is also here in MSWord format.

http://www.veteransforpeaceny.org/vfpduvets.htm This is a heavy-duty site!

http://www.grassrootspeace.org/depleted_uranium.html Another heavy-duty site!

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm Discussion of international law and documented diseases.

http://www.grassrootspeace.org/depleted_uranium_milner.html Navy knew about hazards since 1984!

http://www.ratical.org/radiation/The Health Costs of Low-Level Ionizing Radiation; 50+ years of Lethal Deception by what has become the International Nuclear Mafia.

Notes:
(1) From http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0330-02.htm...
According to an August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing 'poison or poisoned weapons' and 'arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering'. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.

Other DU Resources:
• Why Weapons Containing Depleted Uranium Are Illegal, http://www.nukewatch.com/du/20030930bthm.html
• Veterans For Peace, Chapter 56, http://www.vfp56.org/DU.html
• International Depleted Uranium Study Team, http://www.idust.net/
• Military Toxics Project, http://www.miltoxproj.org/
• Intl Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/
• WISE Uranium Project, http://www.wise-uranium.org/
• Uranium Medical Research Center, http://www.umrc.net/
• Traprock Peace Center, http://www.traprockpeace.org/
• Uranium Weapons Conference, http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de