325,000 Gulf War 1 Vets On Permanent Disability-11,000 Dead

[chlamor]

In Zbignew Brzezinski’s book “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives,” the map of the Eurasian chessboard includes four regions strategic to U.S. foreign policy. The “South” region corresponds precisely to the regions now contaminated permanently with radiation from U.S. bombs, missiles and bullets made with thousands of tons of DU.

A Japanese professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki, has calculated that 800 tons of DU is the atomicity equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The U.S. has used more DU since 1991 than the atomicity equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. Four nuclear wars indeed, and 10 times the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from atmospheric testing!

How much Depleted Uranium has been used in the current invasion of Iraq is up for speculation, but most accounts consider the amount to be far greater than all of the other "mini-nuclear" wars. Stop the scourge of Depleted Uranium!

An article from Project Censored:


11,000 US soldiers dead from DU poisoning

Heads roll at Veterans Administration Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blamed

by Bob Nichols Project Censored Award Winner 2/2/05 S.F. Bay View
Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S., the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war.
<snip>
"...a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the 'Gulf War Syndrome' has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military."

Bernklau continued, "This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed."

He added, "Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of 'Disabled Vets' means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!" The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/NIC502A.html

“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” - Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/depleted_uranium.html

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/cancer_epidemic_.html

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_syndrome.html

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/pentagon_brass.html

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm

[NMDemDist2]

1. and we use it still. How many DU shells were used in Fallejah? and how

many babies have been and are being born still with (sometimes fatal) birth defects to Iraqi women who are poisoned by the ammo the US military has used extensively in their country?

it's a tragedy and a travesty :cry:

[stellanoir]

3. we will pay for this atrociousness

in ways we can not begin to imagine.

It is certainly no fault of the soldiers.
They are just as must the victims as the generations of Iraqis who will suffer from this.

I've met far too many deblitated Gulf War 1 vets who are just as much if not more messed up than the Nam Vets I'd met over the years.

When will we learn that war is just plain wrong. . .?

[diamond14]

2. amazingly, parents, spouses, siblings keep cheering on their own families

to go into the bush* radioactive war....belching with the carcinogenic smoke from continuous oil fires....as completes the insanity, American troops' families CHEER....as OUR troops are POISONED by our own munitions.....it's crazy bush* WARS and Americans are accepting it totally.....




Fire rages from a sabotaged oil pipeline at al-Dibs oil field south of Kirkuk. At least two people were killed when a bomb exploded near the headquarters of Iraq's leading Sunni Muslim religious organisation, as four others died in attacks elswhere and a number of Iraqis were reported snatched in a spate of kidnappings.(AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)

[Massacure]

4. DU isn't a good substance to be using.

It is 40% less radioactive than normal uranium that is dug out of the ground though. My professor uses a block of it as a paper weight. It is really heavy.

DU isn't such a bad thing when it sits as a paper weight. It is the fact that when it impacts it burns into a really fine dust which is easily inhaled. DU is a heavy metal a lot like lead. It is really wicked biologically, but not because it is radioactive. Once the dust settles the place is usually fine. The people say it will leave the places radioactive for four billion years are full of shit.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. radioactive for four billion

How long is it chemically toxic, (not radioactive) and would you like it in your rivers, streams, and water wells.

What do you think of the WHO's recommendations on the cleanup that should be done, that you know won't be done, and hasn't been done, not necessarily in that order.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/
Recommendations

* Following conflict, levels of DU contamination in food and drinking water might be detected in affected areas even after a few years. This should be monitored where it is considered there is a reasonable possibility of significant quantities of DU entering the ground water or food chain.
* Where justified and possible, clean-up operations in impact zones should be undertaken if there are substantial numbers of radioactive projectiles remaining and where qualified experts deem contamination levels to be unacceptable. If high concentrations of DU dust or metal fragments are present, then areas may need to be cordoned off until removal can be accomplished. Such impact sites are likely to contain a variety of hazardous materials, in particular unexploded ordnance. Due consideration needs to be given to all hazards, and the potential hazard from DU kept in perspective.
* Small children could receive greater exposure to DU when playing in or near DU impact sites. Their typical hand-to-mouth activity could lead to high DU ingestion from contaminated soil. Necessary preventative measures should be taken.
* Disposal of DU should follow appropriate national or international recommendations.

[Massacure]

15. It's toxic for the rest of the lifespan of earth.

Which is why the military shouldn't use it like no tommorow.

I just don't like the fear of the word nuclear in the U.S.

[chlamor]

8. U-238 Decays Into Radioactive Products Before Turning Into Lead

The fact is that the United States and its military partners have staged four nuclear wars, "slipping nukes under the wire" by using dirty bombs and dirty weapons in countries the US needs to control. Depleted uranium aerosols will permanently contaminate vast regions and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations living in those regions, where there are resources which the US must control, in order to establish and maintain American primacy.

Described as the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, depleted uranium is the weapon that keeps killing. The half-life of Uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, the age of the earth. And, as Uranium-238 decays into daughter radioactive products, in four steps before turning into lead, it continues to release more radiation at each step. There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government’s own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

After forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere. Global radioactive contamination from atmospheric testing was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, and still contaminates the atmosphere and lower orbital space today. The amount of low level radioactive pollution from depleted uranium released since 1991, is many times more (deposited internally in the body), than was released from atmospheric testing fallout.

1943 MANHATTAN PROJECT BLUEPRINT FOR DEPLETED URANIUM

In a declassified memo to General Leslie R. Groves, dated October 30, 1943, three of the top physicists in the Manhattan Project, Dr James B Conant, A H Compton, and H C Urey, made their recommendation, as members of the Subcommittee of the S-1 Executive Committee, on the ‘Use of Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon’:

"As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small … There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty … it will permeate a standard gas mask filter in quantities large enough to be extremely damaging."

As a Terrain Contaminant:

"To be used in this manner, the radioactive materials would be spread on the ground either from the air or from the ground if in enemy controlled territory. In order to deny terrain to either side except at the expense of exposing personnel to harmful radiations … Areas so contaminated by radioactive material would be dangerous until the slow natural decay of the material took place … for average terrain no decontaminating methods are known. No effective protective clothing for personnel seems possible of development. … Reservoirs or wells would be contaminated or food poisoned with an effect similar to that resulting from inhalation of dust or smoke."

http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm

[Career Prole]

22. "Once the dust settles the place is usually fine."

In a desert the dust rarely settles. :shrug:

[JohnyCanuck]

6. The horror of depleted uranium.

The horror of Depleted Uranium is not limited to Iraq – it may well be at our doorsteps.

by James Denver

'I’m horrified. The people out there – the Iraqis, the media and the troops – risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It’s going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car.’

The speaker is not some alarmist doom-sayer. He is Dr Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best kept secret of this war: the fact that, by illegally using hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq, Britain and America have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world. For these weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such abundance that – whipped up by sandstorms and carried on trade winds – there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate – including Britain. For the wind has no boundaries and time is on their side: the radioactivity persists for over 4,500,000,000 years and can cause cancer, leukaemia, brain damage, kidney failure, and extreme birth defects – killing millions of every age for centuries to come. A crime against humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time.

<snip>

On hearing that DU had been used in the Gulf in 1991, the UK Atomic Energy Authority sent the Ministry of Defence a special report on the potential damage to health and the environment. It said that it could cause half a million additional cancer deaths in Iraq over 10 years. In that war the authorities only admitted to using 320 tons of DU – although the Dutch charity LAKA estimates the true figure is closer to 800 tons. Many times that may have been spread across Iraq by this year’s war. The devastating damage all this DU will do to the health and fertility of the people of Iraq now, and for generations to come, is beyond imagining.

<snip>

Since DU darkened the land Iraq has seen birth defects which would break a heart of stone: babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumours where their eyes should be, or with a single eye – like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific. Doctors report that many women no longer say ‘Is it a girl or a boy?’ but simply, ‘Is it normal, doctor?’ Moreover this terrible legacy will not end. The genes of their parents may have been damaged for ever, and the damaging DU dust is ever-present.

http://www.energybulletin.net/4121.html


From the Uranium Medical Research Centre:

Fiction: Uranium is ubiquitous in nature and we are exposed daily. There is no cause for concern.

Fact: Uranium is present in nature in trace amounts, about 3 parts per million (ppm) by weight. It takes about 5 tonnes of dry soil or rock to produce 1 teaspoon of what is called ”natural uranium”. It is “natural” in that is has the isotopic proportions that exist in nature. However, what is “unnatural” is when uranium is presented in concentrated quantities. In these concentrations of radioactivity its effect on human health and the environment become dangerous.

When uranium is exposed to the natural chemical action of the environment it can become solublized and can then migrate into the water supply. Uncontained uranium waste is a problem when left in the open as it oxidizes. This is the case all over the world in nuclear waste repositories.

Uranium is most dangerous when it burns and is aerosolized as happens when it is used in weapons.

<snip>

Fiction: Alpha particles can't penetrate clothes and skin.

Fact: This statement ignores the most prevalent and dangerous pathway for uranium to get into the human body. Inhaled uranium can remain in the lungs and bones for years where it continues to emit alpha, beta and gamma radiation. Each alpha particle can traverse up to several hundred cells causing somatic and genetic alterations. Multiply this by billions of such particles and a huge amount of cellular damage becomes possible. The majority (50-70%) of the airborne DU particles sampled during the testing of 105 mm DU projectiles were in the respirable range and capable of reaching the non-ciliated bronchial tree. Studies also indicate that the half-time in the lungs is up to 5 years.

http://www.umrc.net/facts_and_fictions.aspx

[Paintedlady]

7. The use of DU is insane!

And goes to show that the administration doesn't give a rat's ass about it's own soldiers, or the people it claims to be liberating. Liberating to what? A life of cancer and birth defects, if you survive the bombings.
This article talks about a poor soldier coming home and now is hurting his wife with radioactive semen.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_15814.shtml

[JohnyCanuck]

12. PaintedLady, that soldier you refer to is now deceased

I assume you're referring to Canadian Armed Forces Captain Terry Riordon. Here's an excerpt from the web site of the Uranium Medical Research Centre (headed up by Dr. Asaf Durakovic a former head of nuclear medicine at the Department of Veterans' Affairs medical facility in Delaware.)

Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in the Gulf War. He passed away in April 1999 at the age of 45. The official cause of death was Gulf War Syndrome.

Terry went to the Persian Gulf in December 26, 1990 with honor, dignity and pride - serving his country as Captain J. Terry Riordon of the Canadian Armed Forces. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.

<snip>

For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. His wife, Susan Riordon, speaks most eloquently of the nightmare of physical, mental and emotional hardship endured not just by Terry but his entire family.

He was ultimately unsuccessful it getting the answers or help he needed in his lifetime. His final wish was to donate his body to independent research on DU. That was Terry's gift to all who served in the Persian Gulf. He wanted his body to supply the answers to years of suffering and frustration. Through his gift UMRC was able to have obtain conclusive evidence of internal DU contamination in his lungs and bones. Even after death Terry continues to contribute to his country and his fellow veterans.

You can honour Terry Riordon's memory and other veterans who gave their lives and health for their country. UMRC has established the "Terry Riordon Memorial Fund" to help make possible scientific research on uranium and informed medical diagnosis of exposed persons. By making a financial donation, you are supporting essential work that has as yet to be undertaken seriously by public agencies in Canada. All contributions are tax deductible in the United States and Canada. Donations are made payable to Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC). Please indicate that the donation is directed to the "Terry Riordon Memorial Fund".

http://www.umrc.net/riordon.aspx

[Karenina]

21. The use of depleted uranium

is GENOCIDE. It's GENOCIDE, GENOCIDE, GENOCIDE.

[jonnyblitz]

9. DAMN! as a gulf war vet I guess I should be glad I am still alive!

:scared:

[bpilgrim]

10. sounds like we solved our nuclear waste problem, just drop it all over our

ENEMIES :puke:

peace

[chlamor]

13. Dep. Uranium is pure evil

The war mongers knew how deadly this stuff was and purposefully covered up and PRed "the product" to bring it to market. Gross and criminal. Reading direct comments from the 50's from Pentagonians who wanted to use this stuff is chilling.

[indepat]

11. Gulf War I was fought on the cheap should one play like the costs

of these disabilities and deaths don't count.

[tsuki]

14. Does anyone remember when the Republicans from the first

Gulf War were pooh-poohing "Gulf War Syndrome?" Saying that the returning Vets were just lazy?

[Eloriel]

19. Oh, there are a number of DUers who insist there's nothing wrong

with DU aside from a little "heavy metal" toxicity if you ingest it, and ingesting doesn't happen often.

:puke:

[bigtree]

16. Quite true chlamor

and tragic . . .

The American death-count from that first Gulf war was 346 total from all causes, out of 511,000 troops deployed from August 1990 to February 1991.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, thirty-six percent of the 581,000 retired veterans serving at the height of the 1991 Gulf War have filed health claims.

Of that number, 22 percent of the claims remain pending, or have been denied. As you stated, ore than 11,000 Gulf War veterans, whose average age was 36 when the war began, have since died, many from illnesses their families believed were war-related from exposures to chemical weapons that troops found and destroyed, depleted uranium from U.S. armor-piercing munitions, pollution from oil well fires, experimental vaccines, and anti-nerve agent pretreatment pills, among other toxins.

According to: Steve Robinson, of the
National Gulf War Resource Center
http://www.ngwrc.org/

~697,000 served in the first Gulf War;

~320,000 veterans who deployed in the first Gulf War have sought medical treatment from the VA;

~214,000 veterans who deployed to the first Gulf War have filed for disability;

~167,000 veterans who deployed to the first Gulf War have had their claim approved;

~40,000 veterans who deployed have had their claim denied;

~22,000 veterans have a claim pending

GAO Report, Gulf War Illness
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-833T

British Syndrome Diaries
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-833T

Gulf War 'linked to nerve disease'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3129180.stm

Gulf War Illnesses~

Department of Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses
http://www.va.gov/rac-gwvi/

Department of Defense, Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/

Walter Reed Medical Center Program for Gulf War Veterans
http://160.151.186.19/departments/dhcc/

Gulf War Illnesses: Fact & Fiction - A Guide for Veterans and Families Am. Leigon
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/gwi1.pdf

Gulf War Benefits & Programs: A Guide for Veterans and Families Am. Leigon
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/gwi2.pdf

Gulf War/Agent Orange Helpline: 1-800-749-8387

National Gulf War Resource Center
http://www.ngwrc.org/

Citizen Soldier depleted uranium report
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/CS09-uranium.html

GULFLINK FILES
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/CS09-uranium.html

Depleted Uranium National Public Radio broadcast (4/18/03)
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1236241

Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs - Gulf War Veterans Project
http://www.kcva.org/gulfwar.html

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Division of Epidemiology - Gulf War Syndrome
http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/epidemi/gws/

Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC)
http://hsrd.durham.med.va.gov/ERIC/ALS/ALSregistry.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/

Gulf War Veterans' Health
http://www.va.gov/gulfwar/

[diamond14]

17. ahhhhh...the bush/bush* RADIOACTIVE wars just keep on KILLING

and those bushites LOVE it, because the costs don't even get associated with their perpetual Pro-WAR policies, and our soldiers DIE QUIETLY, at home, after the war...

[chlamor]

18. 5 Nuclear Wars

Evidence is mounting as to this scourge being the primary culprit of a whole host of ailments. I'm also concerned about it cycling through the atmosphere all around the world. Playing with fire.


"Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a “liberation” gift that will keep on giving. Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually stored at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear.

Over a decade ago, war-makers decided to incorporate this lethal waste into much of the Pentagon's weaponry. Navy ships carrying Phalanx rapid fire guns are capable of firing thousands of DU rounds per minute.1 Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. ships and subs are DU-tipped.2 The M1 Abrams tanks are armored with DU.3 These and British Challenger II tanks are tightly packed with DU shells, which continually irradiate troops in or near them.4 The A-10 “tank buster” aircraft fires DU shells at machines and people on the battlefield.5

DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal weapons of mass destruction. Their use breaches all international laws, treaties and conventions forbidding poisoned weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering."
<snip>
"When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact. Uranium, plus traces of plutonium and americium, vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles of radioactive dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the body and emit radiation indefinitely. A single particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can devastate the entire immune system according to British radiation expert Roger Coghill.7

The Royal Society of England published data showing that battlefield soldiers who inhale or swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney failure within days.8 Any soldier now in Iraq who has not inhaled lethal radioactive dust is not breathing. In the first two weeks of combat, 700 Tomahawks, at a cost of $1.3 million each, blasted Iraqi real estate into radioactive mushroom clouds.9 Millions of DU tank rounds liter the terrain. Cleanup is impossible because there is no place on the planet to put so much contaminated debris.

Bush Sr.'s Gulf War I was also a nuclear war. 320 tons of depleted uranium were used against Iraq in 1991"
<snip>
"Drought-stricken Afghanistan's underground water supply is now contaminated by these nuclear weapons.32 Experts with the Uranium Medical Research Center report that urine samples of Afghanis show the highest level of uranium ever recorded in a civilian population. Afghani soldiers and civilians are reported to have died after suffering intractable vomiting, severe respiratory problems, internal bleeding and other symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. Dead birds still perched in trees are found partially melted with blood oozing from their mouths."
<snip>
"Between 1995-2000, the U.S. and NATO fired DU missiles, bullets and shells across the Balkans, nuking the peoples of Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. As DU munitions were slammed into chemical plants, the environment became hideously toxic, also endangering the peoples of Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Austria and Hungary.

By 1999, UN investigators reported that an estimated 12 tons of DU had caused irreparable damage to the Yugoslavian environment, with agriculture, livestock and air water, and public health all profoundly damaged.38

Scientists confirm that citizens of the Balkans are excreting uranium in their urine.39 In 2001, a Yugoslavian pathologist reported that hundreds of Bosnians have died of cancer from NATO's DU bombardment.40 Many NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans now suffer ill health. Their leukemias, cancers and other maladies are dubbed the “Balkans Syndrome.” Richard Coghill predicts that DU weapons used in Balkans campaign will result in at least 10,000 cases of fatal cancer"

http://thereitis.org/displayarticle144.html

[Eloriel]

20. Synchronicity -- another thread in Editorials

The Silent Genocide from America
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x109375