Radioactive Wounds of War

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2298/

Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate, Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had tested positive.

Matthew, 31, decided that since he’d spent much of his time in Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he’d better get tested too. It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.

Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits.

So far Victoria Claudette, now 13 months old, shows no other genetic disorders and is healthy, but Matthew feels guilty for causing her deformity and angry at a government that never warned him about DU’s dangers.


Gerard Matthew and his daughter Victoria Claudette Matthew

[fighttheevilempire]

1. DU'ers nominate this!

I said this would happen just a few weeks ago on here. This baby has to live her life this way forever because of GWB's unnecessary, illegal war. I'm waiting for more Gulf War Syndrome cases also... Isn't it sad that after we went through this once, and now with the knowledge of it, it's happening again? Where are the RW'ers demanding we support the troops by not exposing them to radioactive materials? Someone has to stand up for them. Let's get the ball rolling and get some attention on this!

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Well at least Matthew isn't sick himself (yet).

Not like this guy after he came back from GW1.

Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in the Gulf War. He passed away in April 1999 at the age of 45. The official cause of death was Gulf War Syndrome.

Terry went to the Persian Gulf in December 26, 1990 with honor, dignity and pride - serving his country as Captain J. Terry Riordon of the Canadian Armed Forces. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.

He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death depleted uranium (DU) contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones.

For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. His wife, Susan Riordon, speaks most eloquently of the nightmare of physical, mental and emotional hardship endured not just by Terry but his entire family.

He was ultimately unsuccessful it getting the answers or help he needed in his lifetime. His final wish was to donate his body to independent research on DU. That was Terry's gift to all who served in the Persian Gulf. He wanted his body to supply the answers to years of suffering and frustration. Through his gift UMRC was able to have obtain conclusive evidence of internal DU contamination in his lungs and bones. Even after death Terry continues to contribute to his country and his fellow veterans.

http://www.umrc.net/riordon.aspx

Dr. Durakovic served as Chief of Professional Clinical Services of the 531 Medical Detachment during the Desert Shield phase of the Gulf War. When he returned to the Veteran's Administration (VA) Nuclear Medicine facility in Wilmington, Delaware, which he headed, he was asked to assess 24 soldiers of the 144th Transportation and Supply Company of New Jersey for evidence of DU in their bodies. He recalls: "They had been based in Saudi Arabia from January to August 1991, working with damaged tanks hit by DU armour-piercing shells from 'friendly fire.'" Durakovic's team performed a whole-body count of uranium 238 on the troops and found that 14 of the 24 had been contaminated. According to Durakovic's June 26, 1997, testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, the government 'lost' all records of these examinations. And shortly thereafter, Durakovic 'lost' his job.

Durakovic may have been forced to step down from his VA position at Wilmington, but the army could not strip him of his ethics as a medical doctor. In the interests of his patients he founded the Uranium Medical Research Center, an independent non-profit institute which studies the effects of uranium contamination and challenges Pentagon claims that "exposures to depleted uranium have not to date produced any observable adverse health effects attributable to DU's chemical toxicity or low-level radiation." Dr. Durakovic explains that when depleted uranium is blown up at high temperatures, it changes to tiny particles. If inhaled, the uranium particles can get into the bloodstream and can be lodged in the bone, lymph nodes, lungs or kidneys causing damage by emitting low-level radiation in the body over a long period of time. The price can be cancer, necrosis and genetic deformity. Inexplicable, then, the Pentagon's refusal to comply with a 1993 congressional mandate to study the health effects of inhaled and ingested depleted uranium dust.

Or does the answer lie close at hand? According to Dr. Durakovic there are two main reasons for the Pentagon's DU-paranoia - and they both involve money: compensation for those suffering from DU-contamination, and the exorbitant costs of battle theatre clean up. But money seems a petty concern when we are talking about changes to the human gene pool. "Deformities among children born to Gulf War vets are well-documented as is the rising incidence of birth malformations in Iraq," Dr Durakovic points out. "What will happen in future generations? I have seen the effects of radiation worldwide. The consequences of DU are immeasurable."

http://www.nuclear-free.com/english/durakovic.htm

[txindy]

3. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning

Many of our troops have been exposed to DU. Some may already be showing the effects. Some may take years to get sick, although, like the soldier in the article, their children may be the first to feel the life changes brought about by exposure to depleted uranium. The troops who return and are NOT tested for DU may never find out what is making them sick and/or parents of babies with birth defects.

As soon as our troops moved into that region, I've cringed, waiting for these problems to arise. It's inevitable. We've hidden the effects of DU on the Iraqi people over the years since the first Gulf War. It's going to be harder to deny the exposure results our military has experienced. It'll be like Agent Orange, though - denied for years before someone finally admits it.

[enough]

4. Excellent article

Thanks for posting this.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. Would it be wrong of me to tell my son to get his gf pregnant

before he leaves for Afganistan in 6 months? Would it be wrong of me to tell him that when he gets back he should never have sex without a condom because of what it will do to her?

[Stuckinthebush]

7. Tell him to freeze sperm instead

When he gets back, they may decide to not be together at some point. If they do decide to stay together, then they can use the non-damaged frozen sperm to conceive.

[Briar]

6. Just think how many

Iraqis and Afghans must be contaminated too.

[phusion]

8. Horrible...

Absolutely horrible.

If this is happening to US troops, imagine what this shit is doing to the Iraqis.

:(

[phusion]

9. .

ignore...dupe!

[Peace Patriot]

10. The 'enemy' is the War Party, not just Republicans and Bushites.

We really need to understand this. In 2004, all of our votes were tabulated by two Bushite voting machine companies using SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our elected secretaries of state are permitted to review it. Mainly, two companies: Diebold (whose CEO was the Bush/Cheney campaign chair in Ohio, and promised in writing to "deliver" Ohio to Bush/Cheney in 2004), and ES&S (funded by far rightwing billionaires.) And Bushites were able to gain total control over our election system only with the complicity of War Democrats.

The Democratic Party leadership SHOULD HAVE burned the Capitol down to get this changed! It is an outrage! And here's why they did not: The War Democrats support Bush's war. They don't care how Bush stayed in power, and have sold out our right ot vote for their financial and career interests in the military-industrial complex, and for Israel. Secondly, local Democratic election officials and other Democrats have been corrupted by Diebold's and ES&S's lavish lobbying (i.e., for instance, recently, a week-long junket of fun, sun and high-end shopping at the Beverly Hilton in Hollywood--see below), and they have also been corrupted by the heady power of brokering the big business deals in what is now the billion dollar business of voting. (Bush's Congress provided them with $4 billion to install electronic voting systems with private, "trade secret" vote tabulation written into the contracts with the states, and often without even a "paper trail," let alone a paper ballot backup.)

You wonder why, when 58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war BEFORE the invasion--in Feb. '03--we still had this war--now an endless, bloody quagmire?

You wonder why we now have 15 permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, some the size of small cities--when American opposition to this war and occupation has skyrocketed to over 80%?

You wonder why, when 63% of the American people oppose torture UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES--May '04--we had the architect of Bush's torture policy, Alberto Gonzales, shoved own our throats as the chief law enforcement officer of the U.S.A.?

You wonder why, when the great majority of Americans--way up in the 60% to 70%--oppose every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, across the board in all opinion polls, for over a year now, we continue to have these anti-majority, anti-progressive, pro-rich, pro-corporate, pro-war policies forced upon us?

You wonder why the corporate news monopolies, acting in concert, FALSIFIED their own exit polls on everybody's TV screens late on election day--"ADJUSTING" the exit polls (Kerry won) "fit" the "official returns" that came in from Diebold's and ES&S's SECRET vote tabulation formulae (Bush won)--this depriving the American people of major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation?

You wonder how Bush could win, when the Democratic grass roots movement to oust the Bush Cartel blew the Bushites away in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40?

You wonder why we can have such a idiot as President--an obvious puppet who can barely speak the English language, let alone think complex thoughts, who is being "handled" by the Bush Oil Cartel, and is in thrall to people like Prince Bandar and the Saudi royals including the bin Ladens?!!

The answer to all of these questions is GRAVE CORRUPTION in our election SYSTEM. This corruption and these ill motives are bipartisan. And we MUST do something about it, or our democracy is over! We need...

Paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (--Canada does it in one day, although speed should not even be a consideration, just accuracy and verifiability)

or, at the least

Paper ballot (not "paper trail") backup of all electronic voting, a 10% audit (automatic recount), strict security, and NO SECRET, PROPRIETARY PROGRAMMING! (...jeez!).

Join your local election reform group, or form your own, and let's get this done! Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

For more information and action ideas, see the "DU 2004 Election Results and Discussion Forum," at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

And check out this Diebold and ES&S "corruption fest" for election officials from around the country, at the Beverly Hilton this August. It'll burn your eyeballs!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340


---------

Depleted Uranium weapons (and other uses) began as the result of decisions by BOTH Democrats and Republicans. It's true that only Republicans have led us into major wars in the last two decades, but then, the Democratic Party could NOT do major wars after Vietnam, which tore the party to shreds, with something like 90% of the Democratic rank and file opposed to unjust war (then, and today). So how the War Democrats get the wars that they want is by supporting huge military expenditures and Republican war initiatives (Gulf Wars I and II). That's exactly what happened on the Iraq war--which was made possible by the support of the War Democrats in Congress.

We need a Big Broom, my friends. And the Republicans are not the only ones who need their house cleaned.

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Iraq: The Democrats Are Just as Bad

by Justin Raimondo

Terry Michael, the founder-director of the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism, bemoans the "nondebate" over the Iraq war that takes place in the "mainstream" media:

"The most influential interpreters of our public affairs are accepting, rather than expanding, a noose-tight frame the Washington political culture is enforcing to limit permissible discourse on the war in Iraq…. Look at almost any major daily op-ed page, watch the Sunday shows or listen to nightly cable-babble. See how seldom you encounter voices against the war permitted to argue we should just end it, not try to mend it."

As former press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, however, Michael ought to be fully aware of just how and why this sad state of affairs persists even as the rationale for our continued presence in Iraq collapses. The reason is because practically everything is presented and discussed in partisan terms, i.e., in terms of the never-ending conflict between Democrats and Republicans, and the reality is that the Democrats are just as hawkish – albeit in a "multilateralist" way – as the GOP. In a perceptive piece published in The Nation, Ari Berman described the views of "the strategic class" that dominates the Democratic party's foreign policy councils:

"At a time when the American people are turning against the Iraq War and favor a withdrawal of U.S. troops, and British and American leaders are publicly discussing a partial pullback, the leading Democratic presidential candidates for '08 are unapologetic war hawks. Nearly 60 percent of Americans now oppose the war, according to recent polling. Sixty-three percent want U.S. troops brought home within the next year. Yet a recent National Journal 'insiders poll' found that a similar margin of Democratic members of Congress reject setting any timetable. The possibility that America's military presence in Iraq may be doing more harm than good is considered beyond the pale of 'sophisticated' debate."

<snip>

The party of Thomas Jefferson, the anti-elitist, anti-royalist libertarian party known as the Democrats has a long and distinguished tradition of opposition to foreign wars. From the Sage of Monticello's opposition to a standing army to the antiwar activism of Eugene McCarthy, the Democrats have always had a strong noninterventionist populist impulse to contend with. Whether or not it finally manages to take – or rather, retake – the party leadership is an open question. Unless a self-conscious antiwar movement develops within the party, however, and finds some real leaders, the Democrats will remain what they are today – the left wing of the War Party.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7097

[enough]

12. kick

[JohnyCanuck]

13. Presentation on Depleted Uranium by Thomas Fasy MD PhD

If you haven't seen this presentation previously posted at Democraticunderground, here's the recent thread started by reprehensor with a presentation on Depleted Uranium by Thomas Fasy MD PhD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Dr. Fasy is an Associate Clinical Professor of Pathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He has longstanding interests in carcinogenesis and environmental toxicology. In the past two years, he has lectured at conferences and university campuses on the toxic effects of inhaling uranium oxide dusts derived from depleted uranium weapons.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4124449

Dr. Fasy is one of the experts briefly mentioned in the "In These Times" article linked at the start of this thread. "According to Mt. Sinai pathologist Thomas Fasey (sic), who participated in the New York Guard unit testing, the element has an affinity for bonding with DNA, where even trace amounts can cause cancers and fetal abnormalities."