Yesterday I saw a shocking documentary from the BBC about the use of depleted uranium missiles in the two Gulf Wars and the war in Bosnia. The US Government never really admitted the use of these weapons. And it was not until a German doctor, Dr. Siegwart-Horst Gunther, became suspicious about the sudden increase of children with abnormal cancers, tumours and terrible deformities, that rumours became to spread about the use of uranium shells. He proved the use of uranium during the first Gulf War, and its correlation with the Gulf War Syndrome, but the Pentagon didn’t listen to him. You see, uranium shells were very handy weapons: they penetrated every tank like butter and exploded inside, causing bodies to char instantly.
But Dr. Gunther went on with his investigations. A few examples:
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Armed with a Geiger teller, he investigated several tanks who were blown to pieces by the Americans. The Geiger teller totally flipped, and according to the manual, the noise of the instrument indicated that one should IMMEDIATELY leave this area. Levels up to 30,000 times the normal background radiation were measured. And yet, young children were playing on these tanks.
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He picked up a small remainder of an empty uranium shell and went to Germany to investigate it properly. After visiting 3 universities, he was told to come back on Monday. When he arrived that day, police was all around and men in white protection suites grabbed the little piece of metal, put it in secured boxes and drove off. Dr. Gunther was later on fined because he was walking around in Berlin with a piece of metal, highly contaminated with radioactive elements, thus dangering the general health and safety of the Berliners. He refused to pay so they imprisoned him for five weeks. All this happened, while Iraq was filled with a total of 300 tons of depleted uranium missiles, often used as toys by little children.
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At a parking lot in Basra, a colleague of him gathered some dust from a place where once a destroyed tank stood. After examination they found out that about 60% (!) of the dust was pure uranium. The colleague stayed only for two weeks in Iraq, but that was enough to triple the amount of radioactive uranium in his urine.
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There are clues which seem to suggest that also highly radioactive reprocessed uranium and even plutonium is used in some of the laser guided missiles. How else could they penetrated through the six floors of the headquarters of the main radiostation of Baghdad, without being destroyed by the impacts? A core of depleted uranium couldn’t handle this magnitude.
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Uranium has a half-life of 4,5 billion years. Once the uranium lies there, its radiation level remains deadly for thousands of years.
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About 150,000 soldiers are said to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome to some extent. One Englishman for instance worked with the uranium shells for months. Later on, he became sick and gave birth to three genetically sick children. This guy was also the first one ever to won a case about GWS against the UK Government. Everyday however, thousands of children in Iraq are suffering from the side effects of the intense radiation. Many children are born with leukemia, sometimes without eyes or even without a head every day, though you never hear of them. Same thing, to a lesser extent though, happens in Bosnia.
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What’s the US Army doing about it? After the first Gulf War they made a training TV clip in which they warn against the various dangers of the use of depleted uranium. However, due to the efficiency and level of destruction of these weapons, they reasoned it’s better not to ban their use.
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The silence about the topic suggests the governments are hoping will all pass in a few decades, once the main victims are dead, buried and forgotten. However, most of the 150,000 soldiers have families and many of them got children after they returned from their missions. Many of these children suffer from genetic diseases (mainly immunological distortions) and their DNA has changed dramatically. These children will also get children, and so on… the severe genetic mutations, and its accompanying genetic diseases, will spread until it’s become like an epidemic plague. It will take some time though, but if you calculate in centuries… you’ll see where this is going. And I’m not even talking about the children of Iraq and Bosnia. Baghdad is a becoming a genetic timebomb.
While all of this is happening, Bush keeps talking about how he planted the seed of democracy in Iraq, how his coalition forces won the war and how the people are freed from the dictatorship of Saddam. He forgets to mention however that instead of Saddam, the people of Iraq now need to cope with headless children and a silent timebomb in the form of thousands of rusting uranium shells all over the country. Why don’t the Democrats use this film as propaganda? Perhaps they also reason it’s better to keep these uranium missiles… I mean, after all they’re pretty handy aren’t they?
Saddam was bad because he tortured thousands of people, but the pain he caused will slowly be eased within a couple of generations. Bush however is worse because he poisoned the Iraqis and it will have its effect for many many decades. Strictly speaking, the wounds Saddam caused can be healed to some extent. Unfortunately this can’t be said when people mess with your DNA…
Really tragic 
