Blogging for Freedom

Call me a liberal softie, a bleeding heart, a sentimental war protester.  I just don't think we should be dropping bombs with Depleted Uranium on the children of Iraq.

Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr. and the War Crimes Left Behind

by Heather Wokusch heatherwokusch.com

(published date unknown but sometime after the Iraq invasion 2003, somewhere online)

It's understandable that the US is seeking another one-year exemption on its war crimes exemption for peace-keepers. It's not just because of Abu Ghraib. It's because the US has been dropping depleted uranium weaponry on Iraq that will remain radioactive for an estimated 4.5 billion years. According to the Geneva Conventions, that's a war crime.

Given repercussions over Abu Ghraib, it isn't surprising that Washington recently asked the UN Security Council for another one-year extension on its war crimes exemption for peace-keepers. The prison abuse scandal is just the iceberg's tip of Geneva Convention violations by the United States, and closer inspection could send Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., not to mention Bill Clinton, straight to the courtroom docks.

Back in the heady days of 1991's Persian Gulf War, Commander in Chief Bush, Sr. was widely praised for the invasion's rapid end, but the true battle had only begun for many on the ground: the United States had dumped 375 tons of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry on Iraq during the war, despite foreknowledge its radioactivity would make food and water in the bombed regions unsafe for consumption on an indefinite basis (DU is estimated by scientists to remain radioactive for 4.5 billion years). And, according to the Geneva Conventions, that's a war crime.

DU is a highly radioactive nuclear waste product valued by the US military for its ability to penetrate tank armor, but it's also a remorseless enemy. A region's food chain is devastated by the trails of carcinogenic dust left in a DU bomb's wake, and of course, humans inhale and absorb the dust as well; even nine years after the war, veterans afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome ailments still had DU traces in their urine.

Depleted uranium is also suspected in dramatically elevated levels of birth defects and cancer cases among those in bombed areas, as well as in a wide litany of Gulf War veterans' health complaints.

Fast forward to 2001, when Bush Jr. used DU weaponry in the invasion of Afghanistan. Cities subjected to allied bombing were later reported to have uranium concentrations at 400% to 2000% above normal, with birth defects sharply on the rise. Then, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, US and British forces deployed an estimated 1,100-2,200 tons of depleted uranium weaponry, with untold future health implications for both Iraqis and coalition service members.

It's worth considering the future of warfare Bush-style, as can be gleaned by his administration's funding of weaponry. Despite the Cold War's end, the Bush administration is spending 12 times more on developing nuclear weapons than on securing or reducing existing stockpiles or on non-proliferation efforts.

The administration has also repealed the ban on low-yield nuclear weapons, dismissed international non-proliferation agreements, and pushed development of the so-called "bunker buster," which in fact is a nuclear weapon. It is safe to say the Bush administration won't be backing off nuclear or radioactive weaponry anytime soon.

In testimony on the Abu Ghraib crisis, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "It is the photographs that give one the vivid realization of what actually took place. Words don't do it." So if our leaders really can't grasp pain and suffering without Polaroids, then bring out the cameras. Bring out pictures of populations devastated by WMD such as radioactive weaponry, tainted water supplies and the starvation wrought by sanctions. Splash those images across the media along with photos from Abu Ghraib.

Because if as a nation we can bring ourselves to face the horrors inside one prison far away, then the scope can be widened to consider other war crimes. And when that happens, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. will have some explaining to do.

Heather Wokusch is a free-lance writer and can be contacted via her web site heatherwokusch.com