The United States military is without a doubt the most powerful and technologically advanced in the world, but it did not get this way from shear luck; brave men and women have risked their lives time and time again for the pride and security of this country in times of great support such as World War II, and in times of protest and indifference such as Vietnam. These soldiers not only have excellent training, but also some of the finest armaments and protection in the world thanks to our tax dollars and government programs.
The United States also has a reputation of being a moral leader in the world, from liberating Europe from Hitler, to liberating Iraq from Saddam. However the liberation of Iraq may come not only at the cost of those who died fighting, but at the health of the soldiers and the people of Iraq. The United States has been using depleted uranium ammunition and armor in combat since the first Gulf War, and many point to the militaries use of depleted uranium for Gulf War Syndrome, which has killed thousands of veterans from the first Gulf war. Depleted uranium has also been attributed with increased cancer rates in war zones where they have been used.
So why exactly is depleted uranium used by the military? Depleted uranium (DU) when alloyed is a dense material ideal for piercing armor. Ammunition made with DU also does not blunt upon impact--it stays sharp and therefore is more successful at destroying targets than other armor piercing substances. Yet depleted uranium is about 70% as radioactive as natural uranium, so although it saves lives by making missions easier for our soldiers, it is also a toxic and radioactive substance that could be harmful to those living near combat zones or engaged in combat (and to future generations, given DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years). Also despite it's relative low radioactivity, holding a spent DU round for one hour would be comparable to getting eight chest x-rays in one hour.
Despite the military's continued stance that they have not found a direct link between DU and an increased risk of cancer or other diseases, they still have written rules about handling DU contaminated sites. For example the Army's official regulation outlines that a person must have a respirator and skin protection suit if they are within twenty-five meters of DU contaminated equipment or terrain. However, according to a report released by the US General Accounting Office, "Army officials believe that DU protective methods can be ignored during battle and other life threatening situations because DU related health risks are greatly outweighed by the risks of combat." Are we really willing to not only send young people off to be killed by the enemy, but also to suffer from our own negligence and fast-road-to-success attitude?
The United States is not the only nation to use DU; a number of US allies also use it such as Great Britain, France, and Israel. NATO forces used DU ammunition in the Balkans, an area which is already being observed to have increasing cases of cancer. A study performed by The Royal Society, a British organization, says that 1/1000 soldiers who breathe in DU will die of lung cancer as a direct result. Currently there are about 130,000 American troops in Iraq, which would mean that that if even half of our troops breathe in DU that sixty-five will die as a direct result of our using DU. Killing sixty five of our troops is more than the insurgents have done in most months since the beginning of combat.
The Council of Europe parliamentarians called for a worldwide ban on DU use, sale, and manufacturing after Kosovo in 1999, but their demands went unheeded and brushed away. New evidence has been found by Alexandra Miller, a radiobiologist with the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, that radiation from DU can damage chromosomes in such a way that could lead to cancer. Liquidmetal Technologies, a company based in Florida, has said that an exotic alloy of tungsten could be used instead of DU with similar effectiveness and without the radioactive and toxic debris left by DU shells, and could be integrated into the US arsenal in about two years if the Army accepts the substitute.
In the first Gulf War the United States used about 375 tons of DU ammunition. In the latest war with Iraq the Pentagon and the UN estimate between 1,100-2,200 tons of DU ammunition were used. Geiger counters measuring radiation levels in Baghdad reached as high as 1,000-1,900 times greater than normal in four parts of the city, yet none of the residents of these areas were warned about the increased radiation levels. After the first Gulf War, a number of Iraqi doctors observed a dramatic increase in the number of cancer deaths. In southern Iraq in 1988, cancer deaths were 34, in 1998 they were 450, and in 2001 they reached 605. Dr. Janan Ghalib Hassan a doctor working in the cancer ward at the Mother and Child Hospital in Basra, says that incubation time for cancer is about five years, so by 2008 we will have begun to see the effects of the latest Iraq war and that she thinks "... the number of cancer cases will be as much as 10 times or more higher. It's a crime; a crime."
Footnotes:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/133581_du04.htmlhttp://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htmhttp://www.rferl.org/features/2003/09/04092003185213.asphttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/133581_du04.htmlhttp://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/DU_Quotes/DU_Quotes.htmhttp://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/11/06/number_of_troops_in_iraq_to_expand/http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx
