Radioactive Weapons

L. David Roper (roperld@vt.edu)

Advice for Bush Iraq War Soldiers Regarding Radioactive Weapons

For information about the effects of uranium in humans see the Vanity Fair November 2004 article Weapons of Self-Destruction by David Rose: http://www.refusingtokill.net/USGulfWar2/weaponsofself.htm.

The latest book about radioactive weapons is: The Trojan Horses of Nuclear War, World Uranium Conference 2003, Hamburg Oct 16-19, $29 including shipping, NEIS, PO Box 1637, Evanston IL 60204. You can also order the book from the web site:http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de.

A documentary film has been made about radioactive weapons: http://www.pinholepictures.com/downwind.html.

Depleted uranium is uranium that has had most of the small amount of a particular isotope of uranium (U235) removed, so that it is even more U238. Both U235 and U238 are radioactive; so, depleted uranium is still radioactive uranium. Besides its health-dangerous radioactivity, it is also health-dangerous because it is a very heavy metal.

Depleted Uranium

There were huge sandstorms that impeded the U.S. troops in Bush's Iraq War. That is very special sand, because it contains huge amounts of toxic and radioactive depleted uranium and natural uranium, put there by weapons in the Gulf War (over 300 tons) and by weapons used in the no-fly zone over the last twelve years. Much larger amounts of depleted uranium and natural uranium are being put there by weapons used in Bush's Iraq War. The Gulf War was the first war to use radioactive weapons; another first for the U.S. Iraq will have to live with this radioactivity for millions of years.

Depleted uranium and natural uranium is used in many shells and missiles used by the U.S. military. It is well known that the ongoing massive "Shock and Awe" onslaught on Baghdad involves thousands of missiles that are "hardened" by depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is used because its high density (1.7 times the density of lead) allows penetration of standard tank armor and concrete buildings and because the uranium explosively ignites (pyrophoric) inside the tank or other object penetrated, burning the occupants to a crisp. (The military jargon for the charred bodies is "Crispie Critters.") The U.S. soldiers who operate tanks are surrounded by depleted uranium to make the tanks less vulnerable to anti-tank weapons; that is, they are surrounded by low-level radiation, which accumulates to high doses in their bodies over long times in the tanks. U.S. soldiers who handle the radioactive weapons receive a larger dose of radiation in about one hour than they receive from natural radiation in one year.

When depleted-uranium particles are inhaled and ingested, both chemical and radioactive effects cause illnesses, including cancer, renal failure and chromosome damage that can lead to birth defects in children. There is much evidence that the Gulf War Syndrome and the Bosnian/Kosovo Wars Syndrome (where many depleted-uranium weapons were used) are related to such contamination; even an Afghan Syndrome is appearing probably due to using depleted-uranium weapons in that ongoing war. It has been shown that radioactivity in the Gulf War area is 20 to 100 times normal background radiation. Leukemia incidence in children in Iraq is highest in the 5-9 age group, the group that was born immediately after the war. There has been a cancer epidemic in Iraq since the Gulf War. The radioactivity left in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo will last for millions of years.

The U.S. military and other government agencies know about the health hazards of depleted-uranium, but they overlook it because it helps them win battles and because it uses the left-over toxic and radioactive uranium waste after uranium ore is enriched for nuclear reactor fuel and nuclear bombs.

It appears highly probable that Bush's "whatever it takes to win the war" includes a new Bush-Iraq-War Syndrome for U.S. soldiers when they eventually come home. Families of soldiers in Bush's Iraq War should be pressing Bush to proscribe the use of depleted-uranium weapons in this war, or else their loved ones will likely be coming home with a Bush-Iraq-War Syndrome disease. Actually, it is probably too late for this war, but Bush is planning more wars in Iran and elsewhere.

The use of depleted-uranium hardened weapons, called "weapons of indiscriminate destruction", is forbidden by the same part of the Geneva Convention that forbids the use of "weapons of mass destruction." Any nation's leaders who authorize the use of such weapons are subject to international prosecution.

For more information about the use of depleted uranium in weapons, see:

Letters to Roanoke Times:

It is amazing how closely the Bush-Iraq-War script is following the Vietnam-War script. The U.S. is again destroying cities to "save them." I had hoped that a lesson had been learned, but apparently not. But there is a new deadly twist to the destruction in Iraq that was not available during the Vietnam War: depleted-uranium (radioactive) hardened weapons. If the Iraqis do not hate us enough for destroying their cities and killing so many citizens, they will have a longer-lasting reason to hate us for transporting our nuclear wastes to Iraq (that no U.S. state wants stored within its borders) and dispersing it all over Iraq as hardening components for the shells and bombs used to bomb Iraqi cities. The poisoning of U.S. troops in the Gulf War and the Bush Iraq War by the radioactive dust from the use of depleted-uranium weapons (see Vanity Fair December 2004 p.204) is just a hint of the much greater problem facing Iraqi citizens for many years to come. If some miracle happens and Iraq becomes a democracy of some sort, they will be free to get the information about how the U.S. has callously strewn their country with radioactive dust without regard to the health consequences for Iraqi citizens. The hate of the U.S. would simmer for decades, perhaps centuries. The U.S. had better hope that a new dictator takes over Iraq, so that this bad news will not be widely known.

Iraq is a very hot and dusty place. The dust there contains huge amounts of toxic and radioactive depleted uranium, put there by weapons in the Gulf War (over 300 tons), by weapons used in the no-fly zone over the last twelve years, and by the massive "Shock and Awe" bombings ordered by Mr. Bush in the recent Bush Iraq War. When depleted-uranium particles are breathed and ingested, both chemical and radioactive effects cause illnesses, including cancer, pneumonia, immune-system disfunction and renal failure. There is much evidence that the Gulf War Syndrome and the Bosnian Syndrome (where many depleted-uranium weapons were used) are related to such contamination; even an Afghan Syndrome is appearing probably due to using depleted-uranium weapons in that ongoing war. It has been shown that radioactivity in the Gulf War area is 20 to 100 times normal background radiation. Leukemia incidence in children in Iraq is highest in the age group that was born immediately after the war. There has been a cancer epidemic in Iraq since the Gulf War. Depleted uranium is used in many shells and missiles used by the U.S. military. It is well known that the massive "Shock and Awe" onslaught on Baghdad at the beginning of the Bush Iraq War involved thousands of missiles that are "hardened" by depleted uranium. They are used because the high density (1.7 times the density of lead) allows much better penetration of tank armor and concrete buildings and because the uranium explosively ignites inside the tank or other object penetrated, burning the occupants to a crisp. (The military jargon for the charred bodies is "Crispie Critters.") The U.S. soldiers who operate tanks are surrounded by depleted uranium to make the tanks less vulnerable to anti-tank weapons; that is, they are surrounded by low-level radiation, which accumulates to high doses over long times in the tanks. The U.S. military and other government agencies know about the health hazards of depleted-uranium, but they overlook it because it helps them win battles and because it uses the left-over toxic and radioactive uranium waste after uranium ore is enriched for nuclear reactor fuel and nuclear bombs. It appears highly probable that Bush's "whatever it takes to win the war" includes a new Bush-Iraq-War Syndrome for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and when they eventually come home. Families of soldiers in Bush's Iraq War should be pressing Bush to proscribe the use of depleted-uranium weapons in war, or else their loved ones will likely be coming home with war-syndrome disease. It is too late for the Bush Iraq War, but Bush is planning for more wars in Iran and elsewhere. The use of depleted-uranium hardened weapons, called "weapons of indiscriminate effect", is forbidden by the same part of the Geneva Convention that forbids the use of "weapons of mass destruction." Any nation's leaders who authorize the use of such weapons are subject to international prosecution. For more information about the use of depleted uranium in weapons, see the Depleted Uranium Education Project web site: http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm

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