Friendly Americans Killing Canadians

But few understand that the United States is still lying. Iraq is full of WMDs, both used and unused, but the Bushoviks and their sycophantic media fail to alert the public because it is the Americans who are using them. Despite going to war in Iraq on the basis of fabricated evidence about Saddam Hussein’s stock of vicious weapons, the United States itself has a long history of manufacturing, storing, selling and deploying WMD. As far back as the Second World War, there is clear evidence of use by the United States of several chemicals which meet the current U.S. definition of WMD. Still, most of us who point fingers at the Americans are best familiar with their exploits in Vietnam. Agent Orange and napalm are the best known WMDs used in Vietnam although the Americans also deployed Agents White, Blue, Purple, Pink and Green (all of the ‘agents’ were so named because of the colour of distinguishing markers on their shipping containers). These products are actually herbicides, developed during the 1940s, and were used in Vietnam as defoliants to strip away the forests and trees in order to deny the enemy hiding places. Most of these products are known carcinogens and their extensive use in Vietnam has compromised the health of many who came in contact with them, including American forces; and they were used in far greater concentrations than would be usual. Napalm, or jellied gasoline, was also used as a defoliant in Vietnam but, unlike the Agents, it burned the vegetation and killed by incineration anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way. Those of us old enough will remember the horrifying television images of Vietnamese children being incinerated. This was not the first or only use of this material: napalm bombs were dropped on Japan by Allied troops during World War II and used in flamethrowers in Germany in that same war. Later, it was used by United Nations forces during the Korean War before reaching the apex of its popularity during the Vietnam conflict. Although its use was banned by the United Nations in 1980, the United States did not sign the agreement. The U.S. claimed to have destroyed all its supplies of napalm by 2001 but that appears to be a matter of semantics rather than fact; current evidence seems to verify that they have used it as recently as 2003 in Iraq. A report carried in The Independent on August 10, 2003 quotes Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11: "We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches. Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect." The United States has denied using napalm but only because they have altered the petroleum distillate used and renamed the product the ‘Mark 77 firebomb’. Its victims will surely appreciate the clarification. While the United States remains the only nation to actually drop an atomic bomb on an enemy, there have been four occasions in the past 15 years where the United States has actually engaged in nuclear war: in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, and in Gulf Wars I & II. BACKGROUND American soldiers have dropped Depleted Uranium (DU) on enemy combatants since 1991. It is lethal, it is horrid, and even though it doesn’t have the bluster and showmanship of a mushroom cloud, it is still a nuclear bomb. The use of DU is illegal under all international agreements, treaties, and covenants and it is illegal even under U.S. military law regarding WMDs. But in defiance of those international treaties, and its own laws, the United States continues to use this destructive material in full knowledge that its use could result in the slow annihilation of all species, including our own. Depleted uranium is the waste by-product of nuclear weapons and domestic nuclear power. It is deadly and is used in weapons because it is cheap and ignites and burns fiercely on hitting a solid target. When it impacts, it releases an aerosol of fine uranium oxide that is breathable and spreads great distances by wind until rain comes to weigh it down, where it falls to the ground and is absorbed into soil or water sources. The Americans have given DU to weapons manufacturers free of charge. It was first developed for the U.S. Navy in 1968 and DU weapons were supplied to, and used by, Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Since, the U.S. has sold DU weapons to at least 29 countries. The plans for this substance, however, actually date back to 1943. A declassified document from the Manhattan Project is a blueprint for depleted uranium weapons. Euphemistically, some in military circles refer to DU as the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. The half-life of the material is 4.5 billion years. Scientists are quite certain on two points: DU is deadly; and the effects of this material will continue to contaminate the earth long after humans are extinct. They are also fairly clear that continued use of DU will mean the future is going to move ahead without us. There should be no misunderstanding about the seriousness of this material: it meets the U.S. definition of a 'weapon of mass destruction' and while the United States is prepared to invade sovereign countries on the basis they 'might' have WMD themselves and they 'might' be willing to use them, the Americans are actually using them. And they use them in complete disregard for the people and nations on which they are dropped, even in disregard of the health of their own and allied troops. On that basis, there is some serious question as to whom has really earned the title 'Evil Empire'. But lest we blame the United States for all acts of unconscionable callousness, we should recall earlier words relating to weapons of mass destruction: “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be good … and it would spread a lively terror…” (Winston Churchill, commenting on British use of poison gas against the Iraqis shortly after the First World War). CANADIAN CASUALTIES There are known Canadian victims of these American nuclear wars. According to the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC), Captain J. Terry Riordan was the first Canadian known to have died from what is officially known as 'Gulf War Illness' (GWI). At his death, his bones were reputedly rife with depleted uranium. His widow, Susan, currently advocates to seek justice for sick and dying Gulf and Balkan veterans contaminated with DU. For 13 years, veterans of Gulf War Part One, and subsequently the Balkan veterans, have been hounding their governments to determine if they have been contaminated by the DU used in those conflicts. They are unable to search for this evidence through conventional medicine because suitable testing equipment is not available outside of government facilities owing to the national security issues involved. There has been a lengthy debate over the issue of GWI, and now Balkan Illness, while many allied personnel who served in those conflicts have endured unexplained and premature deaths or debilitating systemic illnesses. There is evidence of transmission of related diseases to sexual partners and children born to these veterans since the conflicts. But while the veterans continue to pressure both the Canadian and the U.S. governments for proper DU screening programs, a series of reports from the two countries confirm the inadequacy of testing efforts by both governments and their fundamental failure to understand the ramifications of DU use. In the absence of adequate testing and follow-up, the military --- mainly the U.S. military at this point --- continues to use this material in a form of Russian Roulette with its own troops, notwithstanding the horrendous results on the nations where the weapons are being dropped. In Canada, a joint paper prepared in 2002 by the Medical Policy Unit of the Department of National Defense, the Royal Military College and various contract laboratories conceded that their testing methods are inadequate. The paper discusses a series of radiological studies that were botched, testing completed at taxpayer expense, while ignoring the well established and well documented advice of independent researchers. SELF ABUSE It is perhaps the ultimate act of infamy when a nation destroys its own sons and daughters in the name of some spurious military adventure. The evidence is clear that the United States is doing precisely that to its soldiers. In the three-week Gulf War in 1991, just 467 U.S. personnel were reported as wounded. Of the 580,400 GIs who served in that war, more than 11,000 are now dead and in excess of 400,000 are on permanent medical disability. New cases are arising by an astounding 43,000 per year. In a nutshell, more than 70% of those who served in the Gulf in 1990-91 now have medical problems. The only substances to which these troops are known to have been exposed are vaccines and depleted uranium. Vaccines do not cause the diseases these troops have contracted. The only known exposure with the potential to cause these illness is the depleted uranium. In response to the mounting evidence of the hazards, the American response has been to use the same material in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, and for a second time in Iraq. For protestors and advocates for the afflicted, there is no comfort in knowing that this transcends politics and has now gone on through three presidential administrations. Even worse, the Americans knew the deadly hazard inherent in this material before they ever started to use it. A military report prepared by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1974 stated: “In combat situations involving the widespread use of DU munitions, the potential for inhalation, ingestion, or implantation of DU compounds may be locally significant.” A contractor to the military, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), noted in a July 1990 report that “aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant, with potential radiological and toxicological effects.” In the words of the well-known humanitarian, Henry Kissinger: “Military men are just dumb, stupid, animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” And as if to prove his point, a report carried by both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post on February 27, 1991 quoted American troops firing DU weapons at hapless Iraqi soldiers: “We toasted him … we hit the jackpot … a turkey shoot … shooting fish in a barrel … basically just sitting ducks… There’s nothing like it. It’s the biggest Fourth of July show you’ve ever seen, and to see those tanks just ‘boom’, and stuff just keeps spewing out of them … they just become white hot. It’s wonderful.” WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? Americans have cheered the successes of their military men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan and, to a lesser degree, in the Balkans. Most remain ignorant of the horrendous weapons their troops used to destroy such feeble enemies. Even more, they are almost completely ignorant of the hazards faced by their own troops from the toys at their disposal. There is no outrage in the U.S. for the dangers being faced by American troops, even less outrage for the innocent victims of this lethal onslaught. But America’s craven allies, including Canada, can offer no excuses for their silence. None of the information presented in this article is secret; it is readily available from a variety of sources. In several countries, including Canada, there are victims of DU exposure who thought they were going to fight the good fight, little realizing that their best buddy was going to expose them to lethal substances, just because they could. The American decision to initiate the use of DU weaponry, and then to continue its use even when evidence mounted to thwart any lingering doubts about the hazards, is a despicable act. This was a cold, calculated decision to inflict long-lasting harm on enemies with no regard for the innocent in those lands and no regard even for American and allied troops. There are few observers who would excuse any other nation behaving in this way from charges of war crimes. BRACING FOR THE NEXT AMERICAN ONSLAUGHT Depleted uranium appears to have been given the green light in 1990 three reasons: • to test the efficacy of 4th generation nuclear weapons still in their development stage • to blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear weaponry • to facilitate the reintroduction of nuclear weapons into the American arsenal And it has done a marvelous job of stopping the enemy. Unfortunately, the side effects on civilian populations and the long-lasting environmental effects are horrendous. If the use of this weaponry marks the future of American strategy, and given their proclivity for military adventures, the deleterious effects of DU on the environment and on the population of various countries is assured. More, the health of American and allied troops is also compromised. The continued use of DU weapons should be sufficient reason for America’s allies to decline invitations to future military excursions. Regardless of the peril presented by the enemy, America’s allies need to be concerned about the peril presented by America. Sources include: • ‘Depleted Uranium: U.S. Commits War Crime Against Iraq, Humanity’ – Christopher Bollyn, American Free Press • ‘Cancer Epidemic Caused by U.S. WMD’ – Christopher Bollyn, American Free Press • ‘No protection from known danger’ – Dan Fahey, Military Toxicity Project • ‘Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets – A death sentence here and abroad’ – Leuren Moret • ‘Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War’ – Leuren Moret • ‘The People versus George Walker Bush: International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan at Tokyo’ • ‘An Examination of Uranium Levels in Canadian Forces Personnel Who Served in the Gulf War and Kosovo’ – Health Physics Society Journal, 82(4): 527-532; April 2002 • ‘Perpetual Death from America’ – Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki • ‘Trail of a Bullet’ – a special series prepared by the Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/uranium/ • ‘Details’ – Paul Harris, YellowTimes.org (March 12, 2003) • several reports prepared by the World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de • various reports prepared by the Uranium Medical Research Centre – especially see the report ’12 years too late?’ for an extensive list of source material