The US is Using Nuclear Weapons in Iraq
This issue has been eating at me and bothering me, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about Depleted Uranium (the radioactive material that is being used to tip US missiles and mortars to increase their 'penetration power') and the health and environmental impacts of its use. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that it can't be a good thing for people or for the earth, and it's not a stretch to admit that it's pretty damn unethical. I don't know what to do. Any Advice? Any Information? Any Suggestions? I visited with my area's Senator, and he told me to e-mail his office and his staff would help me find more information, which was a really nice thing for him to say. We'll see how it goes. Here is what I wrote:
Senator Gumm and Staff:
My name is Rebecca Westbrook. I am a senior Elementary Education and Special Education student at SOSU. I am also a Peace Corps volunteer candidate who is looking forward to serving for two years in a developing nation soon after I graduate. I am a daughter, an aunt, a sister, a friend, and a teacher. It has recently come to my attention that our country, which blatantly denounces and opposes the use of nuclear weapons (WMDs) by other countries, is using missiles, mortars, and rounds for other firearms that are tipped with depleted uranium (DU), despite considerable evidence that this can negatively affect the health of the people who manufacture and handle these rounds as well as the people left living in areas surrounded by radioactive shells. There is a mass of research out there that supports a claim that this practice is hazardous to civilians, soldiers, and the environment. It is also morally and ethically wrong for a country that opposes nuclear warfare to actively engage in it. By using nuclear weapons ourselves, it conveys the message to other countries and to potential terrorist groups (which we also actively oppose) that nuclear warfare is a way to demonstrate power equivalent to that of the US. We make it more difficult to engage in any type of negotiation with other countries because we also make it obvious that we think we are above the rules that we make regarding fair conduct. I believe that the US is weaseling past UN restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons on a technicality, but I don't know where to begin to investigate UN policies and other US-backed treaties on war conduct. I know that the most conclusive studies on the effects of similar weapons and warfare is being done in the Balkans currently. I also know that the waste from DU is not toxic unless it is internalized...but that it can easily be internalized by shrapnel, eating contaminated food (such as food from gardens in a reasonable proximity to an attack) as well as by breathing dust particles and drinking water from contaminate sources. Any reasonable person can see that, in the chaos of war and the struggle for day-to-day survival, there is no way to contain radioactive particles from an explosion so that they won't spread through the air and contaminate food and water supplies. I would like some help, both in researching the effects and ethics of DU use, and also in making more people aware that this is going on. I am not the type of person who would drop nuclear waste into the back yards of civilians, but because I am American, and because the US Army is doing just this, I am an unwitting party in something that I feel is very deeply wrong. This is not the way I want to be represented, and this is not the face that I want to show the rest of the world (Is this how you want to be categorized?). I would feel much safer, personally, with an Iraqi civilian in my living room than with a radioactive mortar shell. I am not comfortable at all with the thought of giving mothers, children, brothers, sisters, grandfathers, aunts and uncles egregious cancers, especially in a country that is war-torn and will be without sufficient health care facilities for the foreseeable future. Iraqi children are already experiencing startlingly elevated incidences of leukemia and birth defects, and whether that can be attributed to DU or to chemical warfare, there isn't time to conduct a 10-year survey and study before we try to eliminate the causes - by that time, hundreds and possibly thousands of people will have been affected. I honestly fear that the repercussions of DU use will span decades, not only in the health and environmental tolls exacted, but also in terms, as I've mentioned before, of US foreign affairs and policy and even into the realm of war practices. This needs to stop, and the only way to make it stop is to raise public awareness so that voters put pressure on their respective representatives to take issue with the situation and work to change it.
Here are a few of the best resources I have found on the issue so far:
www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/8.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium (There are many, many links on this page)
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0710-04.htm
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/depleted_uranium.php
http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/Depleted-Uranium.pdf#search=%22Human%20Health%20Fact%20Sheet%20ANL%2C%20October%202001%22
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer215/215_peterson.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/du-global-spread.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0515/p01s02-woiq.html
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/16/160254
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0301/0301059.pdf
http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/duserbiamont.pdf#search=%22Depleted%20uranium%20in%20Serbia%2FMontenegro%22
Thank You, in advance, for your attention to this matter. I know that there are countless issues of concern that are closer to home and more familiar to this area's voters, but all of us, as citizens of the world at large, have the responsibility of taking care of one another.
Sincerely,
Rebecca A. Westbrook
Senator Gumm and Staff:
My name is Rebecca Westbrook. I am a senior Elementary Education and Special Education student at SOSU. I am also a Peace Corps volunteer candidate who is looking forward to serving for two years in a developing nation soon after I graduate. I am a daughter, an aunt, a sister, a friend, and a teacher. It has recently come to my attention that our country, which blatantly denounces and opposes the use of nuclear weapons (WMDs) by other countries, is using missiles, mortars, and rounds for other firearms that are tipped with depleted uranium (DU), despite considerable evidence that this can negatively affect the health of the people who manufacture and handle these rounds as well as the people left living in areas surrounded by radioactive shells. There is a mass of research out there that supports a claim that this practice is hazardous to civilians, soldiers, and the environment. It is also morally and ethically wrong for a country that opposes nuclear warfare to actively engage in it. By using nuclear weapons ourselves, it conveys the message to other countries and to potential terrorist groups (which we also actively oppose) that nuclear warfare is a way to demonstrate power equivalent to that of the US. We make it more difficult to engage in any type of negotiation with other countries because we also make it obvious that we think we are above the rules that we make regarding fair conduct. I believe that the US is weaseling past UN restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons on a technicality, but I don't know where to begin to investigate UN policies and other US-backed treaties on war conduct. I know that the most conclusive studies on the effects of similar weapons and warfare is being done in the Balkans currently. I also know that the waste from DU is not toxic unless it is internalized...but that it can easily be internalized by shrapnel, eating contaminated food (such as food from gardens in a reasonable proximity to an attack) as well as by breathing dust particles and drinking water from contaminate sources. Any reasonable person can see that, in the chaos of war and the struggle for day-to-day survival, there is no way to contain radioactive particles from an explosion so that they won't spread through the air and contaminate food and water supplies. I would like some help, both in researching the effects and ethics of DU use, and also in making more people aware that this is going on. I am not the type of person who would drop nuclear waste into the back yards of civilians, but because I am American, and because the US Army is doing just this, I am an unwitting party in something that I feel is very deeply wrong. This is not the way I want to be represented, and this is not the face that I want to show the rest of the world (Is this how you want to be categorized?). I would feel much safer, personally, with an Iraqi civilian in my living room than with a radioactive mortar shell. I am not comfortable at all with the thought of giving mothers, children, brothers, sisters, grandfathers, aunts and uncles egregious cancers, especially in a country that is war-torn and will be without sufficient health care facilities for the foreseeable future. Iraqi children are already experiencing startlingly elevated incidences of leukemia and birth defects, and whether that can be attributed to DU or to chemical warfare, there isn't time to conduct a 10-year survey and study before we try to eliminate the causes - by that time, hundreds and possibly thousands of people will have been affected. I honestly fear that the repercussions of DU use will span decades, not only in the health and environmental tolls exacted, but also in terms, as I've mentioned before, of US foreign affairs and policy and even into the realm of war practices. This needs to stop, and the only way to make it stop is to raise public awareness so that voters put pressure on their respective representatives to take issue with the situation and work to change it.
Here are a few of the best resources I have found on the issue so far:
www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/8.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium (There are many, many links on this page)
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0710-04.htm
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/depleted_uranium.php
http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/Depleted-Uranium.pdf#search=%22Human%20Health%20Fact%20Sheet%20ANL%2C%20October%202001%22
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer215/215_peterson.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/du-global-spread.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0515/p01s02-woiq.html
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/16/160254
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0301/0301059.pdf
http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/duserbiamont.pdf#search=%22Depleted%20uranium%20in%20Serbia%2FMontenegro%22
Thank You, in advance, for your attention to this matter. I know that there are countless issues of concern that are closer to home and more familiar to this area's voters, but all of us, as citizens of the world at large, have the responsibility of taking care of one another.
Sincerely,
Rebecca A. Westbrook