A part of the terrible legacy of the last Gulf war are the lasting effects of a weapon — then new — which proved highly effective in the fight against Iraq.
Depleted uranium is radioactive, and it is a heavy metal. It is very dense, about 1.7 times heavier than lead. It is not only very hard but, unlike other materials, it has the added advantage to those who deploy it that it is self-sharpening when it penetrates armor.
When it is used as defensive armor, it can make ordinary munitions bounce off. Yet while it involves no nuclear fusion or fission, its effects continue to manifest themselves to this day. They manifest themselves among US war veterans and their families, many of whom believe that there is a link between depleted uranium and the symptoms known as Gulf War syndrome.
It has also been blamed for cases of leukemia in former Balkans peacekeepers.
Medical experts believe that there is a strong connection between depleted uranium and leukemia and other cancers. The likelihood of absorbing it is increased significantly if a weapon has struck a target and exploded because the DU vaporizes into a fine dust and can be inhaled. Figures from southern Iraq, where depleted uranium was extensively deployed during the 1991 war, show a 100 percent increase in leukemia in the decade up to 1999 in children under 15 years of age, while overall cancers in these children increased by almost 250 percent.
It is estimated that some 500 tons of DU weapons were deployed in southern Iraq by the US armed forces during the Gulf War, releasing unacceptable levels of radiation into the atmosphere, and polluting the soil and water. From a sample group of 17 families living in Basra at the time of the Gulf War, prospective analysis shows that five families have since been affected by cancer: 24.4 percent with breast cancer, 15.5 percent with lymphomas, 10.6 percent with acute leukemia and 8.5 percent with chronic leukemia.
In other words, vast numbers of civilians were exposed to depleted uranium and other toxic substances, and are now afflicted with a whole array of chronic disorders, leukemia and other cancers only the most vicious among them.
The whole magnitude of the contamination is unknown, and no end to the suffering of these people is in sight.
Under the Geneva Convention, it is illegal to leave harmful materials on a battlefield after the conflict has ceased. The use of depleted uranium weapons against Iraq during the Gulf War did exactly that.
It left depleted uranium in the ground water, in the bodies of civilians, in the very air they breathed. This makes its deployment illegal under international law.
But the US position is that no such link between cancer and depleted uranium exists. The Iraqis, so its argument goes, are only complaining about depleted uranium because it proved such an effective weapon against them.
The pentagon therefore sees no reason not to continue using depleted uranium against Iraq in the latest military onslaught. This arrogance and lack of concern for human suffering are a logical continuation of America’s decision to launch the new war in the first place.
