by Zen Garcia

What I want to know is who is going to protect this country, should our country nuke Iran and plunge us into the next global war? We do not even have a larg civilian defense force present in the country to protect our homefront as most are in Iraq. This vulnerability was perfectly illustrated by the Katrina disaster and the abandonment of hundreds of thousands of American citizens on American soil, all in desperate need for critical basic life necessities which their government, leadership failed to provide.

Many died in the streets awaiting help that was yet days away. Bush and Co. must not have considered the drowning of one of America's greatest cities an important enough cause to end their month long sabbaticals as they did not even disrupt their vacations to address the onrushing threat of what turned out to be the greatest natural disaster to ever hit American soil.

The National Guard troops that should be protecting our homeland are in Iraq, breathing the same depleted uranium killing our active military. It is just a matter of time before all of our troops begin dying from the mysterious Gulf War syndrome that military doctors inside the US cannot declare cause of, but doctors outside the military have determined to be depleted uranium poisoning. Our troops are not going to be able to take care of themselves much less defend our nation, protect the common good, from fascist interests domestic and abroad.

At some point our nation will have to own up to the horrible truth that the leadership poisoned our own troops. Once the grunts on the field understand that the President and military leaders sacrificed them like a sin offering, who then will ever join our military to defend our nation? How could soldiers in the field ever trust leadership that lied about reasons for going to war and then endangered their lives by not telling them the dangers of depleted uranium usage. It is unconscienable that our military leadership has known since 1943 that depleted uranium weaponry would be grossly harmful to our own ground soldiers as well as the civilian population that remains behind long after the battle is waged.

A declassified memo (written by James B. Conant and two other physicists working on the U.S. nuclear project during the Second World War) sent to Brig. Gen. L.R. Groves on October 30, 1943, proves our government's accountability. "As a gas warfare instrument the [radioactive] material would be ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs," the 1943 memo reads. "In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulation in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty."

If our leaders really wanted to support our troops, they would come clean on the realities and horrors of depleted uranium usage. Can you imagine how betrayed our military personnel will feel once they realize the leadership condemned them to die horrible deaths unless they all get detoxed from exposure to this nuclear waste which the Veterans Administration won't pay for or even list as a cause for symptoms.

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Studies of the first Gulf War veterans and the gulf war syndrome find 300,000 US veterans have been exposed to inhaled DU and are excreting uranium 238 (DU) in their urine and semen. Children in countries where DU has been used (Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq) are having a higher than normal incidence of malignancies and congenital malformations. Children of Gulf War veterans exposed to DU also stand the higher than normal risk of malignancy or malformation.

The crises only grows as we continue adding du particles into the atmosphere. Whereas Coalition Forces dropped 350 tonnes of DU in the first gulf war, 2003 estimates for the current gulf war we have dropped or shot, 1100 to 2200 tonnes of depleted uranium shells, bullets, and bombs. Unless we place pressure on the pentagon to quit using DU munitions, the whole world will be at risk as DU can travel piggyback easily into every part of the world threatening the health of all biological creatures everywhere it ends up.

This stuff is so harmful that just 1 particle can lead to cancer in lung, bone, kidney, prostate, gut and brain. Here's the real shocker though, DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years which means contamination will last until it is placed in a secure environment where it cannot harm living tissue or contaminate soil or groundwater.

Our Military and National Guard everyday return home sick and dying from exposure to depleted uranium rounds. As they suffer doctors try as they might to alleviate the pain, they can not do much about the escalating symptoms. How does the U.S. Military view the safety of DU munitions? In a letter to Senator Sam Nunn, a representative of the U.S. Air Force stated, "...these projectiles are no more hazardous to store, transport, or employ than those composed of lead or copper" (Ref. 39).

This view is echoed in the U.S. Army report to Congress that states, "The health risks associated with using DU in peacetime are minimal. This includes risks associated with transporting, storing and handling intact DU munitions and armor during peacetime" (Ref. 40).

Neither the Air Force nor the Army has publicly presented an analysis of the health risks to soldiers and to others who inhale or ingest radioactive fallout particles of DU, or the health risks of living in an environment contaminated with DU after these munitions have been fired: these are the real safety issues they ignore. In the AEPI report, (Ref. 42) the Army judges it an acceptable risk if its personnel become exposed in an unprotected fashion to the combustion products of fired DU munitions on the battlefield or elsewhere

The official military stand on DU is that it does not harm soldiers. The American people must demand our government truly support our troops by bringing them home and getting them the help they absolutely need to detox, preserve their lives, and the unity of their families.

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Zen Garcia [send him email] is Executive Director for Endeavor Freedom Inc., Executive Producer for EndeavorFreedom.TV, and Chairman of the board for Multiple Choices -an Athens, GA area Center for Independent Living. He is the author of three books; Look Somewhere Different, When the Evening Dies, and A Different Way of Being. A one time columnist with Disabled Dealer Magazine, Zen is now a regular contributor to the Populist Party of America.