Will USA's "CARE PACKAGE" of 200 Tomahawk Missiles Contain any Depleted Uranium?

[99th_Monkey]

Last edited Mon Sep 2, 2013, 08:59 PM - Edit history (1)

This is an old Common Dreams post from 2003, but it illustrates Obama's lose/lose dilemma
regarding Syria and the use of chemical weapons. Depleted Uranium being abbreviated "DU"
is admittedly unfortunate.

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Uranium Warheads May Leave Both Sides a Legacy of Death for Decades
Sunday, March 30, 2003 * Los Angeles Times via Common Dreams * by Susanna Hecht

Although the potential human cost of the war with Iraq is obvious, not many people are aware of a hidden risk that may haunt us for years.

Of the 504,047 eligible veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, about 29% are now considered disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the highest rate of disability for any modern war. And most are not disabled because of wounds.

These guys were rough, tough, buff 20-year-olds a decade ago. The vast majority are ill because of a complex of debilities known as the Gulf War syndrome.

These vets were exposed to toxic material from both sides, including numerous chemicals, fumes and weird experimental vaccines. But the largest number of the more than half a million troops eligible for VA benefits -- 436,000 -- lived for months in areas of the Middle Eastern desert that had been contaminated with depleted uranium.

Depleted uranium, or DU, is a highly toxic heavy metal that continues to emit low levels of alpha radiation. It is a byproduct of nuclear power plants and various military activities.

The United States has hundreds of thousands of tons of DU lying around, and for the Gulf War it developed a new use for the stuff: load it into warheads.

Though not technically "nuclear," because the material is not really fissionable, uranium is a heavy metal ideal for lethally effective "warhead penetrators" that can pierce through armored tanks and fortified positions. When the munitions explode, the area is bathed in a fine dust of DU that can be easily inhaled. These aerosols also taint soil and water and pollute ground water.

If the penetrators do not explode, their casings gradually oxidize, releasing DU into the environment.

DU warheads are essentially dirty bombs -- not very radioactive, but poisonous, and this is why there is an increasing global outcry against using DU in combat as tips for armor-piercing rounds as well as in artillery shells and Tomahawk missiles, among others.

Such warheads were used very successfully by the U.S. in the Gulf War, when more than 350 tons of depleted uranium were dropped on Iraq, and later in Kosovo when about 13 tons of DU were exploded in the conflict there.

The "Balkan syndrome" that emerged among the military and civilians after the U.S. bombing there bears a similarity to the Gulf War syndrome.

Though the findings are controversial, many scientists now see these afflictions as the result of heavy metal poisoning and possibly exposure to very low levels radiation.

DU is implicated in respiratory and kidney problems, rashes and, longer-term, bone cancer, as well as damaged reproductive and neurological systems.

Iraqi civilians -- many more than the 100,000 who died in the conflict or as a result of the war -- also suffer from a range of similar health problems.

Families of soldiers should be very worried.

A huge amount of ordnance has already been unleashed in Iraq, and there is no way of knowing how many thousands of tons of depleted uranium will find "permanent storage" in the rubble of Iraq, its soil and the bodies of its people and U.S. occupying forces.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0330-02.htm

[dipsydoodle]

1. Shouldn't take the UN too long to find traces of that if they do.

[99th_Monkey]

2. I think the UN should inspect the missiles BEFORE they are fired

what the hey, any plausible reason to forestall a very stupid mistake will do in a pinch.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Fat chance of that.

There's also the matter of what the French will use.

[99th_Monkey]

5. Yes. We must always be conventionally 'humane' when indiscriminately killing civilians

Appearances are important you know.

[Link Speed]

4. I think you can pretty much bet on it

DU, the gift that keeps on giving.

But its OK if we deploy crap like Orange, napalm, DU, WP, etc.

[99th_Monkey]

6. I hope Grayson, et. al. are all onto this angle

when Congress convenes to consider Syria.

It's the kind of painfully truthful blunt instrument
that the journo's cannot resist going for, imagine
the sound bite possibilities.

[indepat]

7. We shoot for humane when indiscriminately using our sophisticated weaponry

on a third-world people.

[Abnredleg]

8. Tomahawks have HE blast warheads

DU is used for armor piercing penetrators - in the context of Iraq we're talking tank fired rounds and 30mm rounds from A-10 aircraft.

There have been claims of DU in in Tomahawk warheads but nothing has substantiated - here is the opinion of the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons on DU in Tomahawk warheads.

The conflict in Libya has brought with it a lot of speculation, assertion and debate over the presence of DU in the munitions being used by the US and its allies. ICBUW has already identified the platforms which are known to fire DU and to have been deployed to the conflict.

As pointed out in our statement on the 21st March, we do not believe there is any hard evidence that DU has been used in cruise missiles. We have subsequently been contacted several times with links to articles, and in some cases documents which state that DU is used in cruise missiles. While we retain an open mind on these matters, none of these documents or articles amount to persuasive evidence that DU is to be found in these weapons.

Link to website.

[99th_Monkey]

9. Substantiated or not; just the fact that we must have this conversation

splitting hairs about whether US is using it's well-known arsenal of chemical weapons
or not, in THIS particular incident where CW is at the heart of the issue. <-- says it all.

[arikara]

10. K&R

We need to work for peace. Bombing and killing benefits no one except the arms manufacturers and the psychopaths who get off on the destruction. I would like to advise President Obama, especially as he is a recipient of the so-called "Peace Prize" to think about this.

More on the DU in Iraq...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/mar/06/iraq-depleted-uranium-clean-up-contamination-spreads