Troops to Iraq - Apathy and complacency in today's neo-liberal Australia

• weapons may only be used against legal enemy military targets and must not have an adverse effect elsewhere (the “territory” 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 must not be unduly inhumane (the “humaneness” rule). The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 speak of “unnecessary suffering” and “superfluous injury” in this regard; and
• weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment (the “environmental” rule)

According to US Army Health physicist Dr Doug Rokke, who led the first cleanup of DU after the Gulf War, “Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity”. Of Rokke's crew of 100 employees, 30 died as a result of their cleanup efforts. In the present conflict, The Washington Post reported on September 2, 2003, that “more than 6,000 personnel have been medically evacuated from Iraq since the launch of the war”. The source of this information was cited as coming from US military Central Command. For every soldier killed at least another 15 have fallen so ill that they have required urgent evacuation home.

Uranium has been spread as a fine dust by detonating thousands of tones of DU in the recent US-led campaigns against these countries. The DU from these WMD are all over Iraq. They have been used extensively by the US and coalition forces in vast quantities. Iraqi children continue to find them every day.

They have ruined the lives of an estimated 300,000 in the last decade - and no doubt the figure will increase. Two hundred tonnes of radio-active material were fired by invading US forces: into buildings, homes, streets and parklands all over Baghdad.

DU is favoured for its ability to penetrate armored objects such as tanks which are 1.7 times denser than lead. After a DU-coated shell finds its target, it goes straight through before exploding into a burning vapour which turns to dust. DU has a half-life of 4.7 billion years. Thousands of Iraqis will suffer the horrific symptoms such as cancer and birth defects for tens of thousands of years to come.

Dr Ahmad Hardan, Special Scientific advisor to the World Health Organization, the UN and the Iraqi Ministry of Health are in no doubt as to the effects of DU. He expects to see significant rises in congenital cataracts, anopthalmia, corneal opacities and coloboma of the iris. And that is just the effects on people’s eyes. Iraq is staring down the barrel of an inerema of over 300 per cent in all types of cancer over the coming decade.

For the growing number of sick and disabled US troops, DU has been blamed for many of the symptoms commonly called “Gulf War Syndrome”. The release of a recent study conducted by American Free Press reveals that almost half the soldiers returned in one unit have malignant growths. This is critical undisputed evidence. Half a million veterans from the first 14-year-old Gulf War are sick and disabled.

Those who have seen the effects of DU weapons in Iraq’s inadequate hospitals hope the US will never use these weapons again, though of course it is too late.

Dr Hardan arranged for a delegation from Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological-related diseases we are dealing with. The delegation told me, “The Americans had objected and we have decided not to come”.

Similarly a renowned German Cancer Specialist agreed to come only to be informed he would not be granted permission to enter Iraq. In view of this reality, perhaps the Australian Prime Minister should inform the Australian people of the real risks to Australian troops within Iraq. A bullet in the head may just be the lesser of two evils.