When media reports first uncovered the use of banned weapons in Iraq by the U.S. occupying forces, the American Army and the Pentagon were quick to reject those reports as unfounded.
Later on, the Pentagon admitted using chemical weapons in Iraq.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Defense admitted that white phosphorous was used as a weapon during November 2004 U.S. offense on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Not only does the U.S. use grotesque chemical weapons in its wars supposedly aimed at “Liberation", its leaders try to lie their way out of their own atrocious behavior.
Former Head of Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project Maj. Doug Rokke, who previously stated that thousands of troops are sick and dying from illegal DU use, has been a government target since he stated in a May 1997 article in The Nation Magazine that the military fails to clean-up depleted uranium used in Iraq during the first Gulf War.
DU, a byproduct of uranium enrichment which remains radioactive for 4.5 billion years, is cheap, but it’s pyrophoric; burning everything it hits into a charred crisp.
Of the more than 670,000 American troops the U.S. government sent to fight in the Gulf War in 1991, about one-third of them are receiving disability compensation.
When the U.S. military attacked Iraq and its people during the 1991 Gulf War, it used over 350 tons of depleted uranium (DU). Today in Iraq war, the occupation Army is reported to have fired 2,200-plus tons on people and cities all over the war-devastated country, stated an editorial on The Capital Times.
When DU, an alpha emitter that wreaks havoc on DNA, RNA, proteins and enzymes, strikes targets, a fine aerosol of uranium oxide is formed, which can be inhaled. Those inhaled particles can cause serious damage, especially the insoluble particles that can remain in the body for a long time.
Initial Symptoms of DU contamination include severe headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, night sweats, fever, poor appetite, joint pain, gastrointestinal problems, rashes and oozing lesions. But later on more serious symptoms are caused, including cognitive difficulties, memory loss, mood swings, neuropathies, blood disorders, menstrual problems, burning semen, increased pain and greater immobility.
Death by DU contamination is slow but agonizing.
America has turned the cradle of civilization into a toxic wasteland.
It's happening all over again in the current war on Iraq.
The war is literary sickening the Iraqi people, and there is a noticeable rise in the number of children born with birth defects, all because continuously being exposed to DU and other hazards.
Maj. Rokke bluntly stated that if the military intended to keep using DU, it must address the problems resulting from using it as regulations mandated, or cease and desist from using it.
It was probably the words “cease and desist” or Maj. Rokke’s simple ultimatum of “clean-up or don’t use” that initially ticked-off military brass, since behind the scenes the ‘big boys” never sought to open up a can of worms caused by Maj. Rokke’s report.
Maj Rokke went public about the extent of the DU problems in 1997, revealing the military’s outright refusal to comply with regulations.
“They have been after me ever since I went public,” Maj. Rokke was quoted as saying. “I’ve been shot at, run off the road several times, harassed, threatened and whatever else they could think of doing to discredit me for what I was doing.
“They even shot bullets through my son’s bedroom window. These guys don’t play around and the first thing I was told when I went public was to keep my 45 loaded at all times.”
Even though Maj. Rokke is right and the military wrong, the government tried to crucify him for simply telling the truth.
Even though the military admits using the deadly weapon, it continuously refuses to admit the legal causal connection between its use and its adverse effects on human and environmental health.
“It’s really very simple,” added Maj. Rokke. “I was asked to report on what they needed to do about the DU problem. Our team of experts then reported and provided our recommendations, plain and simple.
“But when I realized in 1997 we were being ignored and thousands of people, including myself, were sick and possibly slowly dying from DU exposure, I had to go public and blow the whistle.”
Many organisations worldwide have stepped up their efforts recently to ban the use of this deadly weapon.
Source: AlJazeera
Our button
print version
