Dear All
Many people think that the killing of civilians using nuclear weapons ended after the Second World War and the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaski.
It didn’t.
Since the military is in the public mind, I would like to do a piece on depleted Uranium.
What is DU?
Depleted Uranium is a waste product of the nuclear enrichment process use in modern warfare.
18 countries have DU in their arsenals such as the UK, US, France, Russia, China, Greece, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, India, Belarus, Pakistan and Oman.
The smaller countries bought these weapon systems from the US.
It is a war crime by any stretch of the imagination that these weapons are used at all, and the effects on population areas such as in Iraq bear witness to that.
Is there a case for a world wide ban, mostly certainly, one place stands out as a modern horror; Fallujah.
Fallujah is in Iraq and came under intense bombing and shelling during the war, while American soldiers cheered loudly as depleted Uranium shells hit buildings, they were also cheering their own cancer as a wall of death swept towards them.
Many American soldiers came back from Iraq only to die from cancer caused by depleted Uranium.
But for the people of Fallujah, a tragic legacy was to come as babies were born deformed.
The picture on this post is scarcely believable but this is the reality of using depleted Uranium in modern warfare in civilian areas.
So, how does it work?
DU is used as the ‘penetrator’ fired from a weapon system as a long dart at the core of the weapon in armour piercing tank rounds and bullets.
It is usually alloyed with another metal. When DU munitions strike a hard target the penetrator sheds around 20% of its mass, creating a fine dust of DU, burning at extremely high temperatures.
It is deadly.
Uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years, so DU released into the environment will be a hazard for unimaginable timescales.
It is time that the US showed leadership again and a start could be banning all depleted uranium weapon systems in its forces.
The evidence is there, the pictures speak for themselves, unimaginable horror not seen since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski.
Just because we don’t see the mushroom cloud and large scale detonation of the A bomb, lets us also not forget that it's nuclear weapons, that is what depleted Uranium is.
The picture paints more than a thousand words and every word should be no to this type of nuclear warfare!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
3 comments:
Unfortunately several of the countries listed will not stop using DU. Militarily it is a highly effective metal - consequently the after effects are as bad as any WMD.
Even if they are publicly banned, you can bet certain countries will maintain stockpiles.
Perhaps the human race will grow up some day.......
About an hour ago you supported nuclear weapons.
Dear Anon
Yes, I do support the West having nuclear weapons, they keep the balance of peace in global politics.
That is why you aren't speaking Russian.
The use of DU doesn't.
It is a weapon currently used against international law and causes great harm to civilians.
Is it so wrong I want them banned?
We can't rid the world of nuclear bombs, but at least we can speak out where necessasry to protect others, that is what I am doing.
Finally, everyone is against using nuclear A bomb weapons, but people have to know if such a time does come, then politicians will push the button.
Can you?
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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