Depleted Uranium

      I have posted on this subject a couple of times on fatcat politics.   This issue is of such prime concern for the troops and the civilians that have been exposed to Depleted Uranium, the use of such similar weapons being a war crime.

This ostrich tactic of trying to ignore this problem has been the attitude of several administrations, not only for Bush amd Cheney.   It is an outrage that weapons like this are used so hazardously.   More attention to it should be a priority.

This issue has been smouldering on the public radar since the first Gulf War I.   Now we are seeing people from 'Iraqi Freedom' suffering along with the thousands from the first war.   - fc

U.S. Soldiers Are Sick of It
 10:20 AM Aug, 12, 2006

NEW YORK -- It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills -- morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves.

Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done.

Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil.

Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon's arsenal of it -- thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead.

Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. The United States has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective.

"We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.' "

Then the medic from their unit showed up. He too, was suffering. That made eight sick soldiers from the 442nd Military Police, an Army National Guard unit made up of mostly cops and correctional officers from the New York area.

But the medic knew something the others didn't. Dutch marines had taken over the abandoned train depot dubbed Camp Smitty, which was surrounded by tank skeletons, unexploded ordnance and shell casings. They'd brought radiation-detection devices. The readings were so hot, the Dutch set up camp in the middle of the desert rather than live in the station ruins.

Continue Reading This Article...

Depleted Uranium Information
Military Toxics Project Nat Gulf War Resource Center Am Gulf War Vets Assoc : D.U. Uranium Medical Research Centre - ca umrc afghan trip 2	Nuclear Information and Resource Service Radiation and Public Health Project nuclear press Breathing Uranium Oxides: Global Medical Crisis of Depleted Uranium
Federation of American Scientists - Topic : D.U. Did the US use tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan? Breathing Uranium Oxides: Global Medical Crisis of Depleted Uranium The quantitative analysis of depleted uranium isotopes in British, Canadian, and U.S. Gulf War veterans. Environmental risks associated with u.s. army use of du and ways to reduce their long-term effects.
Depleted Uranium	"Poison Fire, USA" - Russell Hoffman
Depleted uranium: - Moret	world depleted uranium conference"
American Free Press - C. Bollyn	traprock peace - DU Links
Criminal World - axis of logic	3 questions about DU - TrapRock Peace
D.U. Education Project	Gulf War Illness Office - D.U
D.U. Fed of Am Scientists	Gulf War Illness Office
D.U. - BBC - uk	D.U. - The Silver Bullet
D.U. - Sunday Herald	D.U. - The World Health Org
BetterWorldLinks - D.U.	Traprock Misleads Public
Safety and D.U.	Am Nuclear Scociety Links

 •   •  Technorati Cosmos - Blogs Linking To This Article
 •  Tags:   Politics · Bush · Iraq · Depleted Uranium · War Crimes