"Depleted" Uranium: Would you want it in your kids' breakfast cereal?

There were several recent revelations to me at the Annual Pathways to Peace Conference at Minnesota State University Mankato. One was that the U.S. was stockpiling nukes in Kuwait. A second, and perhaps a more disturbing one: That the U.S. military is claiming that all veterans of the Iraqi theater are receiving exit physicals to determine, among other problems, whether the soldiers have been exposed to depeleted uranium (DU) weapons when in fact such tests are not being done. Apparently, the military has even falsified personal medical records to indicate that soldiers have undergone such tests and have passed.

The U.S. military claims that radiation from DU weapons is safe "as long as it remains outside the body. Taken into the body via metal fragments or dust-like particles, depleted uranium may pose a long-term health hazard to personnel if the amount is large" ("Depleted Uranium," Office of the Secretary of Defense).

Of course, there is an abundance of evidence that DU weapons are more dangerous than the Pentagon claims. Below is just a partial list of sources:

• The BBC's in-depth story on depeted uranium
• "US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons is 'illegal'" from the Sunday Herald (Scotland)
• "Study: Depleted uranium could damage DNA" from the Stars and Stripes
• "Uranium bombing in Iraq contaminates Europe" from the San Francisco Bay View
• "The U.S. Military is in DU Denial" from PULSE of the Twin Cities
• "Iraq mess is literally making people sick" from the Madison (Wisconsin) Capital Times
• "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War"
• The Depleted Uranium Education Project from the International Action Center
• The Campaign Against Depleted Uranium

I suppose we should say, "Ho hum, what's the big deal? It's just another lie from the United States government."

LP