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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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30 September 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
America's hidden history is ugly
and disturbing. No nation ever matched it. To Iraq
alone, over the past two decades, it includes ongoing
genocide, destruction, terror, occupation, and
contamination - a horrendous combination of crimes,
unmentioned in Western discourse.
Environmental Engineering
Professor Souad N. Al-Azzawi documents them, including
in his report titled, "Crime of the Century: Iraq's
Occupation and DU Contamination," a detailed account
of US culpability.
America's strategic aims, he
explains, include:
-- controlling most of the
world's oil and other natural resources;
-- remaining permanently in the
Middle East, "the intersection zone of the three
continents where 80% of the world('s) population"
lives; and
-- if the above two objectives
are achieved, America will control the world's
economy, or enough of it to matter.
Spread over a large enough area,
depleted uranium (DU) is a weapon of mass destruction,
because it's radioactive and chemically toxic. If
ingested or inhaled through food, air, water or other
means, it enters the human body, remaining for
decades. An earlier article reported the dangers,
accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2006/01/depleted-uranium-hidden-looming_16.html
It explained that continued DU
use has the potential to end planetary life, yet few
understand the risk, or that weaponized DU is used
regularly in missiles, bombs, shells and bullets
wherever America wages war - first during the 1991
Gulf War.
Its danger comes from radiation
residue after use. On impact, DU munitions penetrate
deeply and aerosolize into a fine spray, polluting
surrounding air, water and soil. It's microscopic,
sub-miscroscopic, and permanent. Spread over vast
areas as radioactive atmospheric dust, its
contamination causes virtually all known illnesses and
diseases from severe headaches, muscle pain and
general fatigue, to major birth defects, infections,
depression, cardiovascular disease, and many types of
cancers. It also causes permanent disability and
death.
Over the past two decades in Iraq
alone, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons have been
used, irradiating the entire country, some areas more
than others. In his October 2009 presentation to the
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia International Conference to
Criminalize War, Azzawi accused America and Britain
of:
"subject(ing) the whole nation of
Iraq for two decades to torture and slow death through
the intentional use of radioactive weapons and the
sanctions. The continuous and intentional use of
(these) weapons is a crime against humanity due to its
undifferentiating harmful health effects on civilians
in contaminated areas tens of years to come after the
military engagements." Radiation, in fact, is
permanent, affecting unborn generations like living
ones.
During the Gulf War, about 320
tons were used in southern Iraq, affecting the Basrah
region. Post-conflict, "comprehensive" examination
detected it, especially "in and around Al-Basrah
City," showing:
-- "high gamma radiation"
levels;
-- "soil samples from 39
locations (with) higher activities than natural
background levels;" and
-- "Surface water channel
sediments (with 2 - 3) times higher radioactivity than
the natural background" level.
Contamination was widespread,
affecting at least "45% of people in the area, the
Iraqi troops, and" coalition ones. As a result,
soldiers (and civilians) exposed "to DU oxides (can
expect) 70 cancer cases per 1,000" persons. Perhaps a
higher incidence over time, and along with other
illnesses and diseases, an epidemic of human
affliction.
Subsequent epidemiological
studies in Basrah showed a "five times rise in the
incidence rate of malignancies amongst children to be
far more noticeable from 1995 onwards." In addition,
exposure to ionized radiation caused:
-- higher child leukemia rates;
-- a "six fold increase in
congenital malformations among births in Basrah City
since 1995 onward," some too disturbing to view; and
-- higher rates of congenital
heart diseases and chromosomal aberrations.
Even more destructive weapons
were used in the 2003 war, including banned ones like
napalm, white phosphorous, cluster bombs, and greater
amounts of DU - "against people, infrastructure
facilities, and environment." Further, "the looting
and burning of factories, industrial complexes,
laboratories, and ministries (including the looting of
the Tuwaitha Atomic Energy Agency, and 300 other
highly contaminated sites....)" caused contamination.
Much more as well across the
country in Baghdad and suburbs, Basrah, Mosul,
Fallujah, Balad, Anbar, Haditha, Qa'im, Rawa, Karbala,
Najar, Aubaidi, Diala, Samara, Tikrit, Baiji, Ahsaiba,
Mada'in, Kubaissa, and other locations.
In March 2009, Gideon Polya used
the Just Foreign Policy estimate of 1.32 million Iraqi
deaths post-March 2003 alone, a number considerably
higher today. It's also well below his post-9/11 eight
million "war on terror" total, mostly affecting women
and children, aged five and younger, killed by war,
diseases, and/or depravation, America's horrific
ongoing genocidal legacy - air-brushed from history.
Azzawi adds more:
-- at least 4.5 internal or
external refugees, many victimized by "militias and
police raids and terrorist groups;"
-- death squads targeting
"certain ethnic and sectarian groups" daily; and
-- in cities throughout Iraq,
sieges cutting off "all life support aids on people,
(affecting) Thousands of children, women and elderly
who could not leave their houses and were subjected to
collective punishment...." For weeks, these areas were
deprived of food, water, healthcare, and electricity.
As a result, contaminated water was used "from ditches
and nearby rivers," causing cholera and other
waterborne diseases.
The continuous use of DU weapons
in heavily populated areas exposes millions to its
destructive effects. Further, "Continuous negligence
of medical care systems, hospitals, and the killing of
prominent medical and healthcare specialists....after
2003" exacerbated a widespread health crisis.
Yet occupation forces provide no
data on civilians killed, wounded, kidnapped or
otherwise harmed. Nor do they allow "exploration
programs to detect (DU) related contaminated areas."
Yet they're vitally needed to "help Iraqi
people....cope with the damages."
Known evidence shows "Continuous
deterioration of environmental quality....in Baghdad
City due to explosions, and heavy traffic of tanks and
vehicles...." Concentrations of numerous toxins way
exceed safe levels. "Water quality deterioration
caused an increase in "pathogenic water born diseases
like Cholera, Typhoid, Hepatitis, (and) others." Air
pollution results from continuous bombing and
explosions.
The "Multiple impact of all of
the above pollution sources on the human body can be
critical, especially for children, women and the
elderly people."
From DU munitions alone, Azzawi
told the Kuala Lumpur conference that contamination is
spread over vast areas by "wind storms, dust storms,
sandstorms, and rainstorms," besides polluted
waterways and surface migration in soil, causing:
-- "Siltation, creeping, and
suspension from contaminated soil to atmosphere;
(and)
-- Suspension and re-suspension
of deposited DU aerosols....the most dangerous and
critical pathway of transfer and spreading from source
to the human population."
America and Britain are
responsible "for exposing a whole nation to the risk
of continually receiving high radioactive and toxic
persistent contaminants," including DU and many
others, a noxious brew leaving no one untouched and
many lethally harmed. "This is a crime against
humanity (because of) its undifferentiated harmful
health impacts on civilians long (after) military
operations" are concluded.
A Final
Comment
On September 19, BRussells
Tribunal Executive Committee member Dirk Adriaensens
headlined, "Iraq: The Age of Darkness," explaining "a
devastating balance sheet (of) success," including:
-- a 150% increase in child
mortality since 1990;
-- only half of primary-aged
children in school;
-- about 1,500 children in
(horrific) detention facilities;
-- in 2007, about "5 million
Iraqi orphans;"
-- over two million external
refugees and almost three million internal ones (IDPs);
-- official unemployment at 50%;
real unemployment at least 70%;
-- at least 43% of Iraqis "in
abject poverty;"
-- at least eight million need
"emergency aid;"
-- at least four million "lack
food and are in dire need of humanitarian
assistance;"
-- at least 80% lack "effective
sanitation;"
-- "Religious minorities are on
the verge of extinction;" and
-- an Oxfam survey showed 33% of
women got no humanitarian aid since 2003; 76% of
widows lack pension help; 52% are unemployed; 55% have
been displaced; and 55% have been "subjected to
(various forms of) violence."
In Iraq today, "killing of
innocent people has become part of daily life."
America is committing genocide against the entire
population. It persists daily unreported, yet called
"a success."
It includes death, destruction,
torture, terror, occupation, displacement, disease,
and insecurity in a nation that no longer exists. For
sure, one unfit to live in - unsafe, corrupt,
terrorized, tyrannized, contaminated, and permanently
occupied. In virtually all rankings that matter, Iraq
scores last, Afghanistan second last, a testimony to
America's liberating values.
They're run from Washington with
no functioning governments, de facto satraps instead
obeying their imperial masters. Yet on August 31,
declaring an "end to the combat mission in Iraq,"
Obama outrageously said: "Through this remarkable
chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq,
we have met our responsibility," infamously displaying
his culpability as a war criminal, matching the worst
America ever produced.
Under him, George Bush, and their
successors, "Iraq has no viable future," Adriaensens'
final assessment of America's "success."
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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