The link between Gulf War Syndrome and depleted uranium

I recently penned an article, “Why are our Gulf War veterans dying?” Some of the comments touched my heart, and I want to update the article and discuss another serious consequence of those wars, the 1991 Gulf War, and the Gulf War II — wars that have been and continue to be fought against our own military by an incompetent and corrupt Department of Defense. But I also want to condemn the entire U.S. government for its level of arrogance and feeling that we are a nation that is above law. It seems that when we go to war, there are two enemies: the one we face on the battlefield and the one sending us off to war. We as a nation must stand up for our forgotten heroes. Let us be the wind beneath their broken wings.

Gulf War Syndrome, which has impacted more then 80,000 members of our military, continues to kill our men and women in uniform more than two decades after it was concluded. It is a remarkable reminder of the level of corruption we would expect to find in countries like North Korea and China, not here in the “land of the free”

But are we as free as we believe, or are our freedoms an illusion masked by deception? A growing body of attitudes suggest that we are the subjects rather than the masters, that we are to be ruled rather then the rightful rulers of our government.

The use and inclusion of depleted-uranium weapons are a serious violation of the laws of war. In short they are illegal weapons. But the U.S. government has never been one to follow laws, not only in war but even with its own citizens. And its slipshod arrogance has demonstrated a psychotic lack of compassion that goes beyond human endurance and is reflective of a broader problem: the final days of our republic.

As Karen Parker, a prominent lawyer, has said, “Weapons fall under Customary international law, which includes: The Hague law (governing military operations); and Geneva law (governing protected parties in time of war) is binding on all countries. The United States Supreme Court has consistently upheld the binding nature of customary law, including customary humanitarian law. All of international law, including the UN Charter and Statute of the International Court of Justice, reflects the binding nature of customary law.”

Yet the countries with nuclear weapons, which have used them in Iraq and include both the U.K. and the U.S, have flaunted their superiority by engaging lesser nations with superior weapons that contaminate not only the enemy but the soil, the drinking water, and the air, leaving in their wake generations of children born with life-threatening defects. Uranium is a toxic, organ-destroying weapon directly or indirectly. But to say that we only crippled Iraq is a lesson to be brought home to America.

The following is taken verbatim from the government’s “Clinical Guide to Veterans Specific Issues”:

This aerosol is able to travel many kilometers in the air. Once it resettles on the ground, it can be re-suspended when the sand is disturbed by some motion or by wind. Once breathed in, the very small particles can reside in the lungs for years, passing slowly through lung tissue into the blood. It can also be stored in bone, lymph, liver, kidney, or other tissues. Eventually, the uranium is excreted through urine.

Soil, air, and water samples from Iraq studied in 2003 show “hundreds to thousands of times” the normal levels of radiation. Uranium is a chemical toxin and a radioactive hazard. Because of its slow absorption through the lungs and long retention in body tissues, its primary damage will be due to its radioactive damage to internal organs rather than chemical damage to the renal system. Both types of damage occur simultaneously, but with the length of time the contaminant resides in the body, the risk of cancer death becomes greater than the risk of significant damage to the renal system.

The National Gulf War Resource Center reported that as of May 2002, 221,000 Gulf War I veterans were on medical disability, and 56,000 more were in the process of applying for disability. Because veterans serving in the Middle East have often been exposed to several different toxins, it is often difficult to sort out exactly which exposure is responsible for the physical problems soldiers have developed.

These are some of the physical symptoms that may occur as result of exposure to depleted uranium:

Our messengers of war

Our messengers of war, our men and women in uniform, carry the brunt of these illegal weapons. They bring home their own contamination, which becomes a death sentence not only for them but for their offspring.

As I have said before, it is one thing to face an enemy on some battlefield and another to come home and face yet another enemy: a government that lives in a constant state of denial whose lawlessness may in the end bring about a counter-revolution to take back our country and set right the embedded principles upon which it was founded.

Depleted uranium and birth defects

In September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital in Iraq had 170 new births with 24 percent of whom died within seven days. Of the babies who dies, 75 percent were deformed. In some cases, they had two heads. A significant number of the babies that did survive developed severe disabilities at a later stage, including organ failure and cancer.

The cause is well known: It is the result of depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by the U.S. and U.K. military when we invaded Iraq both times.

Depleted uranium bullets can rip through tank armor. And once inside, they combust on contact with air, exploding into a 10,000-degrees-centigrade ball of fire. Both the U.S. and U.K. used depleted uranium in Iraq. During Gulf War I, the U.S. fired some 320 tons of DU in Iraq and another 2,000 tons in Gulf War II.

The Department of Defense knew of the health risks of DU but concealed reports of its lethal nature: its cancer-causing effects and organ-killing potential.

Why have these traitors not been brought to justice?

Terry Jamison of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reported to the American free press that “Gulf-era Veterans” now on medical disability since 1991 number 518,739 with only 7,035 wounded in Iraq in that same period.

Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are deceased. By 2000, there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability.

Of soldiers who served, 56 percent now have medical problems.

The number of disabled vets has been increasing by 43,000 every year.

We have more disabled vets from the Gulf Wars than from World War II.

Iraqi birth defects are far worse than those incurred in Hiroshima: babies born with two heads, one eye, multiple tumors, disfiguring facial and body deformities, and complex nervous system problems.

According to the figures of the U.S. General Accounting Office, between 2002 and 2005, the U.S. armed forces expended six billion DU bullets. That is 250,000 bullets per “insurgent” killed.

Now the Gulf War has come back to haunt us. Our veterans have also experienced deformed babies.

The U.S. Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (2004) “Scientific Progress in Understanding Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses: Report and Recommendations” found increased rates of immune system disorders. Other wide-ranging symptoms including chronic pain, fatigue, and memory loss have been reported in over one quarter of combat veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

A study by Fleming and Townsend found that veterans of the conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, and Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their genes.

Human epidemiological evidence is consistent with increased risk of birth defects in the offspring of persons exposed to DU. A 2001 study of 15,000 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times as likely to have children with birth defects. After examination of children’s medical records two years later, the birth defect rate increased by more than 20 percent.

The U.K. has experienced the same birth defect rate as the U.S.

This is a serious problem not only for our military personnel but for us as a nation. We owe our military the best care possible and above all the truth. We should be on a mission to rid ourselves of the deceit, lying, and gross incompetence that has killed more of our military personnel than actual conflict on some battlefield. We own them a cure for the contamination our own government has heaped upon them.

Many are too sick to stand up for themselves so it is up to us to stand up for them.

In 1947, Albert Einstein wrote:

Perhaps it’s time to use the government petition process and air our multiple grievances. A petition requires some 100,000 signatures for a White House response. Surely there are more then 100,000 concerned citizens who will sign an online petition!

petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create