Thursday, September 16, 2004

WMD's found in Iraq!

Yes, but not what you think: this is not some clever wordplay (Weapons of Mass Distraction, Delusion, etc.). These are real, and lethal. And used by America in Iraq.

The item referred to is depleted Uranium (DU) and its impact is discussed in a frightening article on the English website of Al Jazeera (see full article).

Some highlights:

  • the half-life period of depleted uranium is 4.5 billion years.
  • an undue number of deformed births have been reported in Iraq
  • cases of cancer have skyrocketed
  • a number of US service personnel have also been affected, and a huge number from the first Gulf War (remember the Gulf War Syndrome?)
  • among the victims is Major Doug Rokke, director of the US army's DU project in 1994-95.

Finally, Kofi Annan has worked up the gumption to get his tongue around the word, 'illegal', to describe a war started in contempt of the UN (in the name of safeguarding UN resolutions, but not seeking a resolution for the War itself).

Will he investigate this atrocity (for if true, that is precisely what it is)?

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