Depleted Uranium or DU

The Open Source Intelligence site has posted this news item:

News Flash: Depleted Uranium Reaches England?

Depleted uranium from the Iraqi campaign has evidently reached England.

A repeat of Gulf War syndrome, which put over a quarter million US veterans on disability, appears to be joining the massive number of amputees.

Some of the coverage of this new finding is quasi-hysterical, but what we find very interesting is the combination of policy acceptance of depleted uranium impacts on both our own troops as well as our downwind allies, and the larger discussion of deliberate depopulation strategies including genetically modified corn.

The post includes an interesting list of links.

I note that a search of the NY Times for "depleted uranium" turns up 135 results, the most recent which is from December 20th, 2005:

THE REACH OF WAR: DETAINEES; 24 Ex-Hussein Officials Freed From U.S. Custody ... effects of the depleted uranium used in American bombs ...View free preview December 20, 2005 - By JOHN F. BURNS (NYT) - World - News - 1110 words

It is certainly true that, if the allegations contained in the story about DU reaching England are proven, then we will be unable to claim ignorance of what our government has been doing in our name as an excuse. We did not fight the current administrations policies of secrecy above all else and now we may rue the years and days we did not.

For, if the story is true, then the Bush administration has plumbed unknown depths of moral depravity while we stood silently by. Do we honestly believe that our ineffectual protests will atone for the consequences of our willful ignorance?

It is time to take stock. We are now a debtor nation and have put our children and their children in debt for the foreseeable future. We are creating enemies faster than we are creating friends. We are destroying our middle class and shifting the burdens of society to those who can least afford it -- simply in order to make the rich richer. We have allowed the the wealthy elite to impose the notion that humanity serves the market, putting Mammon ahead of people. We now have more people in hunger, without jobs, without health insurance, and with no retirement security. Our only earthly environment is at risk while our government refuses to confront the issue. Our economy and our foreign policy are held hostage by our unrelenting reliance and unquenchable demand for imported energy. And the list goes on.

How much longer can we afford to remain ignorant and passive?

Posted by Jock Gill at April 13, 2006 11:48 AM | TrackBack