Depleted Uranium -- Ted Rall says our troops get suckered again LINK

[Blackhatjack]

http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A218009

We should all be outraged by the facts included in this article. And if there is any doubt that the Bush Administration does not support the troops except as cannon fodder, this article should lay that misconception to rest.


"Bush Administration has asked Congress to slash veterans' benefits by a net 7 percent. A staggering 30 percent of the 700,000 soldiers who served in the 1991 Gulf War have filed claims with the American Legion stating that they are afflicted by Gulf War Syndrome, ... Congress paid benefits only to vets who'd become ill within two years of 1991--eliminating 95 percent of applicants from eligibility.

Researchers suggest a myriad of possible causes for Gulf War Syndrome...--but the smart money is on exposure to radiation released by the 286 tons of depleted uranium munitions fired by the United States in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991. Twice as dense as lead, 60 percent as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium and with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, depleted uranium is extremely toxic. Reduced to a fine airborne powder, it coated everything in the Gulf: tanks and other equipment, uniforms, lungs.

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Now get ready for Iraq War Syndrome. The 130 tons of depleted uranium dropped on Iraq in the Second Gulf War are destroying men like Herbert Reed, who ingested the substance in Samawah in July 2003. "Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq," reported Wired last year, "his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil." Yet the Pentagon still refuses to clean up its act. Veterans poisoned by depleted uranium haven't received a dime in compensation. Depleted uranium bombs are still being dropped on Afghan villages. "There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is," continues the Wired story. "He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick."

"The Department of Defense takes the position that you can eat depleted uranium for breakfast and it poses no threat at all," says Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center. "