Metal of Dishonor
Edited by John Catalinotto
Published by Depleted Uranium Education Project
$19.95
Review by David Muller
A new generation of weapons is in place. These weapons contain a very dense material, depleted uranium. DU weapons give the US military machine and military contractors a huge advantage.
These weapons were used for the first time in combat during the Gulf War. More than 14,000 large calibre rounds and 940,000 small calibre rounds were fired in Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield, scattering 270-730 tonnes of depleted uranium waste throughout the Gulf.
This new weapon not only kills those it targets, but also poisons soldiers who handle it, civilians for hundreds of kilometres surrounding the battlefields and unborn generations. It will take decades and generations before we know the true casualties.
In November 1995, I interviewed Dr Siegwart Guenther of the Austrian Yellow Cross International about the connection between deformed babies in Iraq and Gulf War syndrome's symptoms — chronic fatigue, chronic headache and joint pain, gastrointestinal distress, insomnia and memory loss.
Metal of Dishonor grew out of the work of the Depleted Uranium Education Project and the other organisations that met in New York on September 12, 1996. Scientific papers, scholarly briefs and forceful arguments — some based on talks given at the September 12 meeting — make up the articles in this book. Scientists, medical and legal experts, political analysts and community activists wrote them.
The book attempts to explain the uses of depleted uranium in weapons and to present what is known about exposure to low-level radiation. Most important, this collection is a resource for those ready to challenge the long history of government cover-ups and denials regarding military toxins and poisons.
Sara Flounders of the International Action Center writes, "More than 100,000 United States GIs have symptoms of what is being called, for lack of a better term, Gulf War Syndrome. Thousands of cases of bizarre and previously unknown diseases, high rates of birth defects and deformities, cancers and leukemias are being documented throughout the Persian Gulf region."
Flounders first became aware of the dangerous impact of depleted uranium weapons in 1991, when she was researching for Ramsey Clark's book on the Gulf War, The Fire This Time.
What raised her concern was a secret report by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority prepared in April 1991, a month after the end of the war. Leaked to the London Independent and published that November, this early report described the potential problems of radioactive dust spreading over the battlefields and getting into the food chain and water.
At that time, it warned that 36 tonnes of radioactive debris left from DU weapons could cause more than 500,000 deaths. Now we find the amount of radioactive debris left behind is over 270 tonnes.
Chapters by Helen Caldicott, Michio Kaku, Leonard A. Dietz, Rosalie Bertell and Jay M. Gould scientifically delineate the perils of low-level radiation and meticulously document the extensive knowledge the military possessed about DU's long-term consequences long before the Gulf War.
Dietz explains that uranium metal burns rapidly on impact and forms tiny airborne particles that can travel tens of kilometres to be inhaled or ingested into the body, where they lodge in vital organs. Caldicott makes a daring leap to correctly characterise the Gulf War as a nuclear war.
Kaku writes, "Our troops were used as human guinea pigs for the Pentagon. Thousands must have walked through almost invisible clouds of uranium dioxide mist, not realizing that micro-sized particles were entering into their lungs."
Gould links increases in cancers and auto-immune diseases to the impact of low-level radiation on the population surrounding nuclear weapons complexes, test sites and nuclear reactors. Bertell lists the major scientific studies that have defined the danger for many years.
A look at the experiences of earlier victims of US war preparations helps expose that cover-ups, stonewalling, and fraudulent promises of compensation for unfortunate mistakes are standard operating procedure.
Former Army nurse Carol Picou, who volunteered for front-line duty, describes her horror at passing the thousands of burning Iraqi vehicles — many destroyed by DU projectiles — on the "highway of death". Then she describes the devastating deterioration and ruin of her own health and of the others in her unit from contact with the toxins in the region, as well as the government's stonewalling and denial of responsibility.
Editor John Catalinotto explains that the low figure of 147 combat deaths suffered by the US in the Gulf War may mean less domestic resistance to future conflicts. If the real casualty figures become a topic of debate, if long-term illness, genetic deformities to future generations and environmental damage become issues, opposition to new military adventures will surely grow.
Today the population of Iraq is besieged by diseases. We know that waterborne parasites and bacteria and malnutrition are responsible for many recognisable diseases. But what about reports of a sharp rise in spontaneous abortions, cancers and other "new diseases"?
The UN sanctions on Iraq keep information on the scope of the catastrophe from reaching the world. Dr Siegwart Guenther boldly brought a spent DU bullet from Iraq to Germany, where he was arrested for transporting radioactive material.
But what about the tonnes of NATO weapons containing DU that are stored, tested and transported throughout Europe? Or the radioactive NATO shells and land mines exploded in Bosnia?
New weapons composed of radioactive material are classified as conventional weapons and are deployed around the world by US and NATO forces. Desert Storm was a great advertisement for the DU weapons US industry sells.
The book inspires people to action — informed, mobilised and angry. Mass protest stopped nuclear testing, stopped the use of Agent Orange, helped end the Vietnam War. This book should certainly help in bringing about a complete ban on depleted uranium weapons.
[David Muller is president of the South Movement.]