He Gassed His Own People...

by Matt Holdreith (holdie@worldnet.att.net)

A substantial--or as it now turns out, an insubstantial--part of the reason given by the Bush Administration to go to war against Iraq is that Saddam "gassed his own people." (It is much worse to gas your "own" people than other people's people.) The incident in which Saddam is alleged to have gassed his own people took place at Halabja. Saddam, it turns out, may well not have gassed his own people, at least not there. Iraqi responsibility for the gas attack at Halabja is not clear; it has been aggressively disputed by Stephen Pelletier, a former C.I.A. officer. But if gassing one's own people is worthy of blame, and it clearly is worthy of a great deal of blame, let us consider the legacy of George Herbert Walker Bush, who elected to use depleted uranium weapons against the Iraqis in the first Gulf War.

It appeared for a while as if the United States had prevailed rather easily in the first Gulf War. Casualties--i.e., American casualties--were estimated to number about seven hundred and forty, most of them a consequence of "friendly fire." Twelve years later, ten thousand American soldiers who participated in the Gulf War are dead of illnesses associated with exposure to depleted uranium. Ten to fifteen thousand seem likely to follow. One hundred fifty to two hundred thousand soldiers who fought to the Gulf War are on varying degrees of disability. Many are unable to work. Most are very sick indeed. The Pentagon denies that the illnesses of these young people are attributable to their exposure to depleted uranium. It "does not know" what is causing their sickness, and it has spent a lot of time arguing that much of it is mere malingering. Ten thousand young men have malingered right smack into their graves without causing the Pentagon to change its message on that topic.

Let us say at once that the word "depleted" does not mean "depleted of radioactive content." It means "no longer fissionable." It is just as radioactive as it had been in the nuclear reactor from which it was taken, though dangerous mainly after it is fired into a solid object like a tank or a building. Depleted uranium ordnance oxidizes on contact; it becomes, as we have learned, another kind of weapon, one for which we have not yet invented a name. Let us call it "collateral ambient radioactivity." Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, are full of collateral ambient radioactivity. It is in the air. It is in the water. It is in the earth. It is in the food chain. If you are anywhere near depleted uranium after it oxidizes, and if you happen not to be wearing protective clothing, there is a very good likelihood that things will not go well with you within some months or years. Douglas Rokke, who was sent by the U.S. to superintend the "cleaning up" operation after the Gulf War, is severely ill with the nameless disease that carried off ten thousand young American soldiers. He is denied medical care by the Pentagon. After all, if they treat him, he must be sick, and he isn't sick for any reason that the Pentagon wishes to acknowledge or know about.

I am speaking here mainly of American soldiers because I want to make a point: the Pentagon's assertion of a "right" to deploy depleted uranium armaments in a new war again in Iraq essentially means, given the evidence, that we are gassing our own people. We could discontinue the use of depleted uranium weapons in order to save everyone a great deal of sickness, but we like these weapons, and of course if you cave into "political" pressures to abstain from weapons, who knows where that will end. (People will take it into their heads to think that weapons themselves are the problem.) Soldiers are taught an illusionary sense of safety, the safety of "protective clothing." But you cannot liveall day in protective clothing. Sooner or later you will want to breathe some fresh air or go to the bathroom or bathe. And when you quit your protective clothing, you will be in what Douglas Rokke calls a "toxic wasteland." A stew of radioactive material that is everywhere and therefore unavoidable. Most of our soldiers were not in Kuwait or Iraq for more than a few months, and look at their death rates. And then try to imagine the death rates of people--non-combatant Iraqis whose offense is to live in a country governed by Saddam Hussein--condemned to live their lives in this radioactive Gehenna. Imagine their children. UNICEF estimates that the rate of childhood cancers, nearly all incurable, has increased tenfold since 1990. Iraq reproductive health is severely the worse for depleted uranium in the environment. Children are born without brains there, or with vital organs outside of their tiny bodies, all because of our "right" to use depleted uranium weapons.

If you have no feelings for the Iraqis, then oppose the use of depleted uranium weapons on the grounds, by using them, we "are gassing our own people." We know the dangers. We know that they cannot be avoided. And we know the death rates for relatively minimal exposure. Imagine what the death rates will be if this war drags on because the Iraqis have decided to fight back.

[My name is Matt Holdreith. I organized a large peace vigil in Seattle. I live at 6206 Meridian Avenue North, Seattle WA 98103, My telephone number is 206-527-9485, email holdie@worldnet.att.net]