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Printed on Wednesday, March 12, 2003 @ 04:11:17 EST
By Paul Harris
YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada)
(YellowTimes.org) – I offer this article as a service to those who might be unaware of the horrors of present day war, and to admonish those who are.
We first got our fill of televised war during the Vietnam conflict and those silent soldiers marching on our television screens night after night eventually soured the enthusiasm for war that had seduced so many people. It was bloody; it was ugly; it was children burning; and it was in your face every evening. Those among us who had fought in armed conflict were certainly not surprised by what we saw, but for the majority of us for whom war is only something distant, it was a while before we all began to appreciate the horror.
Our next big exposure to battle came with the Gulf War of 1991. Where Vietnam had been the first war to be so thoroughly displayed for all to see, the Gulf War appears to have been the first that was almost orchestrated for television. We were told about "surgical strikes" as though they were somehow neat and sanitary; we learned about "smart bombs" as though that is not an oxymoron; we got to watch missiles and bombs finding their targets through the eyes of cameras attached to the actual weapons as though we were all watching a video game.
Much of what follows is taken from "Perpetual death from America," an article written by Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, Ph.D., an Afghan-American.
Dr. Miraki describes "perpetual death" as the continuous murder of the people of a community, state or nation. He opens his article with a quote from an Afghan victim of the American bombing in that country: "If they had killed us once, it would not be so bad. But what the Americans have brought upon us is not only depriving us, but our future generations (as well), of our basic god given human right, the right to live. They will be killing us for generations to come."
The Afghan people had already experienced institutionalized horror following the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 by the former Soviet Union; "perpetual death" was sown into the very soil of their land. Millions of mines were planted all over the country and they have continued to do their insidious work ever since. Following the departure of the Soviets, the Afghans turned to the United States for help in clearing the mines but were refused. The Americans had been quite willing to train counter-insurgents against the Soviets, including one Osama bin Laden, but were unwilling to help the Afghans recover once the war ended.
For millions in Afghanistan, life took an even worse turn when the United States used depleted uranium weapons against them. This was an attack on one of the poorest and weakest countries on Earth by the richest and strongest, in an effort to try to locate the perpetrators of a horrible terrorist attack on the United States. That the U.S. wanted justice and even revenge is understandable; that they inflicted on the Afghan people the horror of "perpetual death" is inexcusable. Notwithstanding that the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the U.S. were apparently Saudis and notwithstanding the obnoxious nature of the Afghan leadership at the time, the people of Afghanistan had done nothing to warrant the death and destruction rained down upon them.
The depleted uranium weapons utilized by the Americans and the British against Afghanistan have created a "perpetual death" that will haunt that land for decades to come. These same two aggressors also used depleted uranium weapons against Iraq during the Gulf War and in the Balkans. Unfortunately, they used almost three times as many of them in Afghanistan.
So what does all this mean? A slow death, deformities in children, stillbirths, tainted soil and water. Soil and urine samples taken since the cessation of bombing in Afghanistan have revealed levels of uranium 400 to 2000 percent above normal acceptable levels. In fact, some of these readings are the highest ever recorded in a civilian population.
The Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) was established by Dr. Adaf Durakovic, a professor of nuclear medicine and radiology and a former science adviser to the U.S. military. Dr. Durakovic has been testing U.S., British and Canadian troops and civilians for depleted uranium and uranium poisoning and his group has found significant evidence as much as nine years after exposure. According to a UMRC report: "Durakovic and his team have searched for possible alternative causes [to the poisoning], such as geological or industrial sources, or the likelihood of al- Qaeda having uranium reserves. But the uranium found is not consistent with the 'dirty bomb' scenario proposed by the U.S…."
In Iraq, after the Gulf War, it apparently took up to five years to have any significant effects of exposure to depleted uranium; in Afghanistan, the UMRC suggests that 25 percent of newborns are already showing signs of exposure to uranium weapons. Dr. Miraki writes: "... that the U.S.-U.K. militaries are using uranium ore in their weapons in order to increase its destructive capability. The usage of uranium ore also makes it difficult to trace these weapons to the U.S.-U.K. militaries and creates a distortion as if the uranium had come from the local uranium deposits." The conclusion of the report was:
However, marked differences between natural uranium and the uranium used in the metal fragments found in Afghanistan was uncovered with the use of an electron microscope, which revealed the presence of small ceramic particles produced by the high temperatures created on impact. This method of disguising uranium would benefit governments that are under pressure from the growing anti-DU [depleted uranium] lobby.
The only conclusion is that the allied forces are now using milled uranium ore in their warheads to maximise [sic] the effectiveness and strength of their weapons, as well as to mask the uranium, hoping that it may be discounted as part of any local natural deposits.
The destructive effects of the uranium-based weapons became evident in the beginning of the bombardments in Afghanistan, when Reuters reported that people died from minor injuries. Afghan Public Health Minister Mullah Abbas said: "Our findings prove that this is true. These bombardments have radioactive rays and chemical materials that also cause cancer." (Reuters, October 29, 2001)
The U.S.-U.K. forces in Afghanistan used a series of weapons designed to burrow underground or into caves in an effort to smoke out Taliban forces who might have sought refuge there. Whether this was effective in vaporizing the Taliban is unsure, but the contamination of local water supplies is not. Evidence in Afghanistan of large numbers of people dying from radiation-induced illness long after the bombing ceased is alarming and certainly calls into question the moral rectitude of those who would use such weaponry.
So while the world watches and waits as the United States and Britain gear up for yet another war, allegedly because their target possesses weapons of mass destruction that no one seems able to find, it is ironic to realize that their attack is likely going to utilize exactly the weapons that they accuse the other guy of having. All those who are supporting this murderous plan will be equally guilty of inflicting yet another episode of "perpetual death" on Iraqi children and peasants. I hope they are all proud of themselves.
[Paul Harris is self-employed as a consultant providing Canadian businesses with the tools and expertise to successfully reintegrate their sick or injured employees into the workplace. He has traveled extensively in what we arrogant North Americans refer to as "the Third World," and he believes that life is very much like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Paul lives in Canada.]
Paul Harris encourages your comments: pharris@YellowTimes.org
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