Introducing DU
Akira Tashiro
During the Gulf War in 1991, US and UK forces used a new weapon against Iraq. This new weapon, the depleted uranium (DU) projectile, is radioactive. Unlike atomic or hydrogen bombs, It involves no nuclear fusion or fission, but nine years after the end of the war, adverse health effects from DU exposure continue to manifest among military personnel and civilians in Iraq where the fighting took place, and among US and British veterans and their families. As I traveled through the US, UK, and Iraq to cover this story, I was confronted at every turn by the sad and frightening spectre of "discounted casualties," people exposed to depleted uranium and other toxic substances, and now tormented by leukemia and a whole array of chronic disorders.
430,000US Troops in Contaminated Areas
Huge amounts of depleted uranium (uranium-238 from which most uranium-235 has been extracted) are generated in the process of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons or nuclear reactors. Denser and more penetrating than lead, DU has proven to be extremely effective when used for penetrators fired from anti-tank guns. Easily ignited by friction, DU burns on impact, dispersing minute radioactive particles into the air.
This radiation, in combination with high chemical toxicity, contaminates the environment and produces harmful effects in animals and humans.
During the Gulf War, US and British troops fired from tanks and planes a combined total of about 950 thousand rounds (about 320 tons of DU) over a wide geographical area. As a result, it is estimated that 436,000 US ground troops entered areas contaminated with radioactivity, inhaled particles of depleted uranium, and were thus exposed to radiation.
As of July 1999, of the 579,000 American veterans who participated in the Gulf War, 251,000 (43%) were seeking medical treatment from the department of Veterans Affairs. About 182,000 (31%) were seeking compensation for medical disabilities or damage related to illness or injury. The illnesses for which claims are being filed include leukemia, lung cancer, chronic kidney and liver disorders, respiratory aliments, chronic fatigue, skin spotting, and joint pain.
To date, more than 9,600 veterans have died, and many of their children born after the war ended suffer from congenital defects. Similar health problems have appeared among the British soldiers who took part in the war.
In Iraq, soldiers who managed to survive the combat show an increased incidence of leukemia, lymph cancer, and a variety of other cancers, as do Iraqi civilians and children. A conspicuously large number of newborns are being born with congenital abnormalities. The shortage of medicines and medical equipment resulting from UN-based economic sanctions against Iraq applied by the US, Japan and the Western allies aggravates the situation tragically.
The US Defense Department and the British Ministry of Defence refuse to concede that depleted uranium shells harm human bodies or the environment in any way. The US military used DU again in the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. In a letter on Kosovo sent to UN secretary General Kofi Annan on February 7 this year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officially admitted using about 31,000 depleted uranium shells.
In the US, the effects of DU are apparent among employees working at factories that produce DU munitions, those who live near those factories, and those who live near firing ranges; but a comprehensive picture DU radiation exposure has yet to emerge.
Akira Tshiro
My notes and thoughts:
I see small numbers when compared to war zones, but impacting for generations to come in Waianae. Connecting the dots between the spread of Isotopes from Schofield and Makua-- we are hemed in.
Replies
During Georgie Boy/Cheney rogue regime, they pushed it all the more along with the illegal white phosphorous and cluster bombs that are also illegal. This is the country that boasts on building a better "mousetrap and push for its New World Order.
In the process they must reduce the world population to something more manageable; thus the military industrial complex is motivated for profit than that of human rights and protection. The pharmaceutical industry complex and the GMO/GE is all part of the sinister group along with the financial and media industry. It's a bigger picture than is actually portrayed.
The DU is only the tip of the iceberg and people should be maka'ala. In Hawai'i the native Hawaiians arre the most affected and other area that the military exists. UH Manoa is no different for they have already been cited for lack of proper disposal of many toxins and hazardous material which they stated they cleaned up only for the public to discover that they didn't follow the guidelines.
The U.S. powers that be always inadvertently states that Hawaii is expendable whenever they refer to Hawai'i. If anything goes wrong; it won't affect their continent. Many of the local residents just don't get it and remain sheeple to the U.S. oligarchy. This is part of the reason that this is an uphill battle to break up the status quo of U.S. criminal conduct. U.S. citizens are afraid to upset the U.S. corporate oligarchy. People need to get outraged at what will affect them and the following generations.
Mahalo for your activism,
Tane
That cartoon is a little girl, keep your filty hands of little girls. You stupid pervert.
We need to say all the things we need to say against the Akaka Bill and not against each other.
I don't need credit or happy faces--just to focus on the details of the issues.
I needed the time element to connect to Keala Kelly's work
Here is the introduction to the text that we can use to bring more of text and meaning to our lives as to why this is terrible and why we should be attentive to the military and the partnership of phoney native Hawaiians that are not by the bloodquantum rule or land base. Martial law by an agreement is more than just a covenant, but a gun to our heads.