Depleted Uranium

[Peter Lemkin]

I was just listening yesterday to George Carlin's [who died last year] comedy on how words are used as propaganda now and nothing means what it says - usually the opposite. The term 'depleted' makes it sound as if the dangerous part has been removed. SOME of the MORE dangerous Uranium has been, but some of it remains [it is still radioactive]. More to the point is that even the non-radioactive Uranium is a highly toxic metal that causes chronic lung problems, dangerous skin problems and [tah dah....] cancer and also poisons the body [not to mention the water, air and for all other living things - rather forever]. There is no process to remove it - more so when it has been used in munitions. It is used because it is very dense [more so than lead] and has the unique property of creating enough heat to melt its way though metal [say a tank] and has no problem with flesh or concrete either. When it strikes something hard it combines with Oxygen, creating a fine powder oxide [still toxic and radioactive] that is even more dangerous than a 'round' just lying there, which will more slowly oxidize and get into the soil, water, air, bodies of plants and animals [us]. A bit of the material will even drift afar in the air and be washed into streams to rivers and into the oceans. Bioconcentration will also concentrate it up our food chain, and that of other animals. Magda is correct in saying that the feeling is that it is 'over there' (not here) and to hell with the consequences to 'them' (or us - or anyone). War is too important for those who promote it to be bothered with the megadeath ecocide they are creating for all humans - and all living things. Iraq is now a toxic waste dump for the next million years or so showing greatly increased cancers and birth defects - that will greatly increase in the next years! Ditto parts of former Yugoslavia. Ditto other places we've been lately. Israel has used it in the occupied territories, as have others elsewhere. War is toxic in and of itself, but this is total madness (on top of the usual madness)......ending life not with a bang, but a whimper is not a kinder, gentler end. America has been the biggest user of depleted Uranium by far, and falsely claims it is not harmful. No toxicologist not owned by the government would agree with that. The area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was the birthplace of modern civilization. Bravo America for destroying it for oil and making it the deathplace centerpiece for so-called civilization.