The casualties of the Iraq War will be ongoing for years to come, whether we leave now or later. Some of us non-combatants may end up as a casualty years from now just because of where we live.
Radioactive Tank
The enduring vigorous stupidity of the U.S. military pretends that radiation is one of those things that if you can’t see it, it can’t hurt you. They are thoroughly delusional, of course. A National Academy of Sciences report released June 30, 2005, finds that there is no safe level of radiation. Any radiation is bad.
More snippets below:
“In conclusion,” Dr. Rokke urged, “the president of the United States, George W. Bush, and the prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions – their own “dirty bombs” – resulting in adverse health and environmental effects.”
Are Bush and Blair aware of this or was the ‘intelligence’ faulty?
Another explanation is that the U.S. Army and other branches of the military are far from stupid. They are, in fact, the most lethal and carefully planned military in the history of the world. The extensive use of weaponized uranium oxide gas, aerosols and dust is not an accident or an oversight. They did it on purpose.
If this is true, they purposely used a genocidal weapon over at least a 15-year period. No, this is not a callous mistake of empire; it is a calculated act of genocide to weaken the oil- and gas-rich countries of Central Asia, including Iraq. Take your choice: they are either stupid or genocidal monsters.
Who will they blame for this? Osama Bin Laden or will this be the Saddam’s illusive Weapons of Mass Destruction in the history books?
Karen Parker, a prominent U.S. international human rights lawyer, says there are four rules derived from humanitarian laws and conventions regarding weapons:
Weapons may only be used against legal enemy military targets and must not have an adverse effect elsewhere (the territorial rule).
Weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict and must not be used or continue to act afterwards (the temporal rule).
Weapons may not be unduly inhumane (the “humaneness” rule). The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 speak of “unnecessary suffering” and “superfluous injury” in this regard
Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment (the “environmental” rule).
“DU weaponry fails all four tests,” Parker states. “First, DU cannot be limited to legal military targets. Second, it cannot be ‘turned off’ when the war is over but keeps killing.
“Third, DU can kill through painful conditions such as cancers and organ damage and can also cause birth defects, such as facial deformities and missing limbs. Lastly, DU cannot be used without unduly damaging the natural environment.
“In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions,” Parker concluded, “and so its use constitutes a war crime, or crime against humanity.”
I think we need to be more concerned of the future Iraq War Syndrome than of the future Bird Flu.
