Adding to the horrors
of the current offensive into Lebanon, with Afghanistan
close to anarchy and Iraq drifting into civil
war, Bush is now rushing depleted uranium (DU)
bombs to Israel. This supports their colossal
act of homicide and will increase further global
contamination by radioactive DU particles.
Laser guided GBU-28 bunker
penetration bombs and much of the tank ammunition,
such as M829 A1 shells, have DU penetrators built
into them. What is even more galling is the likelihood
that Rakon NZ probably manufactured the software
to guide these obscene weapons.[i]
Although UN reports have
stated that the use of the DU weapons is in violation
of numerous laws and UN conventions, its use continues.
As Dr Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's
DU project, said, "We must do what is right
for the citizens of the world - ban DU."
The silence of most of
the media is deafening over this increasing menace
to our global atmosphere. Thousands of horrendous
genetic deformities in Kosovar, Afghan and Iraqi
children - both immediately apparent and left
as a future legacy - are virtually ignored. And
increasing numbers of US war veterans find they
are also now having deformed and mentally damaged
children.[ii] All this despite Pentagon
assurances that DU is harmless.[iii]
The dangers of radiation
damage from both nuclear plants and weaponry have
been well documented since the first nuclear power
plants began operation.[iv] Gagged
from getting their message out to the public,
scientists resorted to writing books, like Professor
Ernest Sternglass's Secret Fallout.[v]
The millions of kilograms
of depleted uranium in storage are a by-product
of plants that produce enriched uranium. What
better way to use it up than in weapons? Almost
twice as dense as lead, with pyrophoric properties,
DU burns its way through the toughest armour plate
like a warm knife through butter. Converting its
kinetic energy to heat, it burns at 3000oC to
5000oC. At these temperatures, the depleted uranium
vaporises to form an ultra-fine ceramic dust [vi]
which rises into the atmosphere and eventually
into the troposphere. These particles hitch a
ride to wherever the winds carry them. Like the
debris from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the
particles drift as a poisonous radioactive gas
to fall with rain and snow onto whichever country
they settle over.
Thousands of kilograms
of DU penetrators were vaporised in the Balkans,
Afghanistan, both Gulf Wars and now in Lebanon,
thus adding to the toxic load our atmosphere must
carry. Thanks to US efforts, the Iraqi and Afghan
population is now free to live in a radioactive
homeland. When will this madness stop? For years,
we have fought to maintain a test ban treaty after
scientists discovered the inevitable increases
in neonatal deaths and early childhood deformities
[vii] which followed nuclear tests.
Constant denials and cover-ups
are made by the nuclear industry which maintains
spurious "safety levels." Many renowned
independent scientists have pointed out that there
is no "safe level" of radiation. [viii]
While ingested uranium can be excreted from the
human body, inhaled particles cannot. When inhaled,
it settles into the lowest parts of the human
lung to irradiate the surrounding tissue for ever.
[ix] Cancer can be triggered by just
one alpha particle. One gram of uranium - the
size of a full stop in this sentence - emits 12,000
alpha particles per second into the surrounding
tissues. Once inhaled, depleted-uranium particles
irradiate the internal organs and do irreparable
damage. DU-related genetic damage is happening
to people of the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Courageous scientists -
e.g. Professors George Wald and Ernest Sternglass,
and many others - help keep alive the debate on
the health effects of low-level radiation, a debate
that the military, the nuclear power industry
and indentured scientists have tried to bury.
Without media coverage, how are the public to
know that their world and that of their children
and grandchildren [x] is inexorably
being poisoned by radioactive weapons? According
to the United Nations, an estimated 50,000 deformed
children [xi] have been born to veterans
who were directly sprayed with Agent Orange or
exposed through contaminated food and water. How
many more must we accept from DU contamination?
One study of Gulf War
veterans found that 67% of their children, conceived
after they returned from war, were born with severe
illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory
problems and fused fingers. [xii] Scientist,
Dr Rosalie Bertell, maintains: "Desert Storm
veterans, along with the people of Iraq and Kuwait,
are victims of one of the latest military experiments
on human beings. I believe that the ignorance
was culpable and criminal."
Rather than being ashamed
that a local magazine, [xiii] Uncensored,
was more willing than they to publish the truth,
major media outlets deluded themselves into believing
that the story need not be covered. It was "old
news." The average New Zealander knows nothing
about depleted uranium, any that do most likely
saw reports on DU's remarkable armour-piercing
abilities. Its deadly long-term effects on people
and the environment were never mentioned. Why
should oligarchs such as Tony Blair and George
Bush continue to ruin Earth's environment? Even
Britain's Peers have requested that Blair be stripped
of his power to go to war without vote. [xiv]
Must we now bear witness
to even more childhood cancers and deformities,
in Lebanese children? Israel's onslaught in Lebanon
to cripple Hizbollah has so far claimed 355 lives,
mostly women and children, and this figure increases
daily.
As Albert Einstein said:
"The world is a dangerous place, not because
of those who do evil, but because of those who
look on and do nothing." Isn't it time our
media spoke out for all our sakes?
References
