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TechnoratiHuge Rise in Birth Defects in Falluja
Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.
The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.
Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects - which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.
A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war - including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.
"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies," said Falluja general hospital's director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."
The rise in frequency is stark - from two admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."
After several years of speculation and anecdotal evidence, a picture of a highly disturbing phenomenon in one of Iraq's most battered areas has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried babies, including those with birth defects or infants who were not given ongoing care, were not listed as abnormal cases.
The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.
Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital's children's ward, this week urged international experts to take soil samples across Falluja and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments, most of which he said had been "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy.
Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf - areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.
Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.
"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."
The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic.
Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned with former Ba'athists and Iraqi army elements.
The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US. The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets. Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the US government admitted deploying.
Statistics on infant tumours are not considered as reliable as new data about nervous system anomalies, which are usually evident immediately after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a neurosurgeon, said: "With neuro-tube defects, their heads are often larger than normal, they can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and their lower limbs are often listless. There has been no orderly registration here in the period after the war and we have suffered from that. But [in relation to the rise in tumours] I can say with certainty that we have noticed a sharp rise in malignancy of the blood and this is not a congenital anomaly - it is an acquired disease."
Despite fully funding the construction of the new hospital, a well-equipped facility that opened in August, Iraq's health ministry remains largely disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a response to the city's pressing needs.
The government's lack of capacity has led Falluja officials, who have historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from the international community. "Even in the scientific field, there has been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries," said Dr Salah. "But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself."
Additional reporting: Enas Ibrahim.
86 Comments so far
Show AllAnd the Bush legacy just keeps on ticking.
Huge Rise in Birth Defects in Falluja....
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?
I am truly 'grateful' that I was born in America, but I cannot say that I am 'proud to be an American'.
On the world stage I am ashamed of what we do for world dominance, to grow our American empire.
Why should we (Americans) care? This is 'simply collateral damage'!
I wonder how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, wounded, or made to be refugees because of Bush's war....
Iraqi Civilian deaths: pushing 1 million 400 thousand.
Iraqi Refugees who fled to other countries or have lost their homes and neighborhoods: more than 5 million. And that doesn't mean that the refugees to the other neighboring countries, who are truly stretched to take them in and help, are living the good life, unless they had lots of money I would imagine: Jobs not available. Housing iffy. Worries about those close relatives left behind, and not being able to go back because it's all still a mess and violent.
The U.S. did a number, including destroying one of the most modern, beautiful cities in the world -- Baghdad, with a highest ranking in health care and modern medical technology. The Sunni population was westernized and generally very well-educated -- lots of Ph.D.'s, engineers, architects, scientists, teachers, doctors, etcetera; women could wear western dress or the more modest Muslim attire. Up to them.
Anytime the U.S. decides to attack a country, they don't bother to learn about the culture. And that goes for the British, the French, the Dutch, the Germans, etc., ... any of the old colonial powers.
In the late 1920's, after a war over the Suez Canal and whatever else, the Brits and the French sat down at a table with a map of Mesopotamia -- the true cradle of civilization -- and then divided it up with pens and pencils without knowing anything about the various tribal/religious factions, and from that derived a country known as Iraq -- just like that.
The Arrogance of old White Christian Colonial powers has been a major cause of the destruction of more people than anyone could count.
The so-called darker-skinned people, especially with the funny religions and customs, are perceived as worthless as human beings and frequently as dumb little children whose minds and activities must be set right.
George W. Bush compared the U.S., as a CIVILIZED nation, to the UNCIVILIZED nation of Iraq. Evidently he didn't know [nor Cheney, Rumsfeld, the majority of those who represent us] that so much science and mathematics and astronomical findings and literature and architecture and so many other things basic to our own "civilization" comes directly from this Cradle of Civilization where all those "dark-skinned dummies" live.
The most dangerous people in the world are the truly ignorant who do not know they are ignorant and aren't interested in finding out anything new that challenges their own mind sets and rigid beliefs. Every country has its share, but the United States of America, seems to have gone overboard percentage-wise to the population. Likely its the positive propaganda about our origins writ large and pounded into our heads over and over again. Freedom, Justice, Liberty brought to us by the Brave, Courageous and True who lived in the 1700's.
The Ignorant will always choose to ATTACK THE OTHER rather than open their minds. A story as old as time. Sarah Palin and her new best-seller comes to mind. Oh, m'God.
And then throw in the fixation on power, control and money among the leadership, and then, on some pretext or other, you have the on-going destruction of THE OTHER.
And now our technology truly has outstripped our spiritual and wisdom evolvement and sensibilities, and that truly may mean the end of us.
One Day at a Time, Chuck, and work on becoming the best person you can be, and never stop being curious and learning.
peace, cm
One Day at a Time, Chuck, and work on becoming the best person you can be, and never stop being curious and learning.
peace, cm
cm, Thank you for your encouraging words of wisdom.
Following Ghandi's advice, I am attempting to "Be the change I wish to see in the world".
The sad thing is that I have lost trust in our government. A government that is owned be special interest groups.
"Following Ghandi's advice, I am attempting to 'Be the change I wish to see in the world'.
To attempt that throughout your lifetime is where it's at. And when all is said and done, even on seemingly small things, you will have made a difference even though you may never know.
"The sad thing is that I have lost trust in our government. A government that is owned be special interest groups."
I think just about everyone on this board and so many who haven't discovered this site yet, have lost trust in their government. Since I've lived a long time, I can tell you that always there has been some corruption in government and always some figures who are destructive and even treacherous. To be a politician and an office holder can truly be about a desire to be a true public servant, but that is much more rare now, and most of our politicians are self-serving people and seem to have forgotten whose welfare they signed on to protect and enhance.
Somehow we have to find a way to take our government back or work toward a different form entirely. It may be too late, but then again it may not be. Many varied ideas out there that people are implementing to create a better life for all. Those efforts may eventually coalesce and make an enormous difference in our lives.
Disillusionment is certainly part of life. But also there are so many good things and good people. Sometimes keeping your balance between the good and the bad is difficult, but that state of tension has produced some wonderful writers and philosophers and very wise people.
Enjoyed our exchange.
peace to you, cm
Enjoyed our exchange.
peace to you, cm
Likewise,
Chuck
BTW, I am 73 years old and have also seen a lot but I still feel naive.
Amazing, al that and they managed to not mentioned depleted uranium munitions once...
Remember when Rumsfeld met with Saddam Hussein, and he was our ally in his war against Iran, and a deal was struck and Hussein got chemical weapons from our manufacturers and used them. It was a terrible thing, but it was only later when we were really after the Iraq oil that this was made much of. Eventually Saddam was tracked like an animal and then slowly choked in a botched hanging in a dismal building.
Our government leaders are worse it seems than he. Anything goes against any civilian population that happens to be in the way when we're after one or two "terrorists" or there is something they have that we want.
When other countries ban land mines, we vote against it. We want to keep ours and keep planting more of the deadly things wherever we desire. From wars back, peasants now in their fields are still having their legs blown off or are killed. There are millions of the damn things in the ground and we are still planting them.
We are the most cruel nation on earth in the breadth and scope of our justifed "wars."
This is intolerable now. And yet so many of our own U.S. citizens know nothing about these things or could care less.
What a dreadful corner we have turned.
I wake up with it now everyday, and find it unbelievable that this is my country that has chosen this path and has descended into such darkness, year after year. Even though I am safe in my home, somewhere I know people are crying out with their sufferings, and their fear, and their terrible deprivations, and their final tragedies of dead children and husbands and wives and brothers and sisters.
Occasionally I go to a friend's house who has a television on with cable and dish. Every kind of distraction is there, including the news programs that have little to do with the real news, the dark horrors that we are causing everyday.
And relentlessly there is the jazzy music and the balloons and the bright and not-so-bright chatter, and the new cars, and gourmet catfood and toilet paper like a soft cloud and the canned laughter and the violence of crime programs and all the brassy hoopla of Made in the United States.
No wonder so many people don't know anything other than their little lives and their shopping lists and what's for dinner tomorrow and what movie can we see tonight?
And as the economy goes down and people lose their homes and their jobs, but no help seems to be forthcoming, that is what so many are worrying about and have to cope with, and there's no room for anything else.
What perfect setups and what perfect timing to get away with cold-blooded murder. And that's what it is. There's no other term for what we are doing.
Cold blooded murderers ... and that's you Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, and the officers in the Pentagon, and the Cabinet members, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and the vast majority of the members of the Senate and the House. And let's not leave out the arms manufacturers and the Wall Street boys and the chemical and oil corporations and the whole bloomin' lot of the wealthiest old money in the country.
The jigs up. Who you are is clear. It's out in the open and a lot of people do know, and more will know as time goes by.
Adjusting The Law and The Constitution for your own ends will work for just so long. And then one day it just won't work anymore.
And that's part of the story of History too, until one gets to the moment of the Thermadorian Reaction. It's like broth simmering in a pot and then the flame gets turned up a little and a little more, and suddenly the pot boils over and Revolution becomes the word and the force of the moment.
How far away that is I have no idea. But always, sooner or later, it happens.
What an interesting and often terrible ride this life time is.
/cm
"What a dreadful corner we have turned. "
It is as you say, cm. We are monstrous when it comes to war, children's rights, torture, sharing wealth, taking care of each other. Everything in nature is now threatened. My joy in everything, seeing a beautiful child for instance, just makes it that much more painful to know that we are ruining the lives of so many everywhere - AND FOR NO FUCKING GOOD REASON EXCEPT THAT WE HAVE BECOME A HEARTLESS NATION BASED ON PROFITEERING.
Everything is contaminated.
Joe
Has 60 Minutes or Frontline done an expose on this subject? But if they had, or if they plan upon doing so, one suspects that they would be casting a less than critical eye upon the U.S. military and its role in creating the 21st century equivalent of Guernica and Cherynbol.
Yeah, DU is bad but don't assume that it's all there is. Obviously they aren't going to talk about the things they use that would be even more controversial than that. Things that will come out years down the road. Clearly, the end justifies ANY means to the folks who make these decisions.
Don't forget the ones who wrote blank checks for unnecessary war to earn their turn on the revolving throne.
ANOTHER of America's long list of Crimes against Humanity.
as it was with AGENT ORANGE IN VIETNAM and southeast Asia
so it is with iraq and the Middle east.
Americans love to intone "christian god?"
and notions of "HELL?"
it is AMERICA that has created HELL on earth for millions , even billions of people with its IMPERIAL Mendacity , Cruelty and Plainly EVIL nature. that much is clear...if NOT to americans - to those that its imperialism has destroyed and maimed and COMMITTED to lifetimes of suffering, generation after generation after generation.
"WHEN i contemplate about what we are ABOUT TO DO....and I consider if there is TRULY a GOD of JUSTICE........i TREMBLE for our Nation"..........THOMAS JEFFERSON.
and so
Mister jefferson - that entity that you helped BIRTH has turned OUT to be a MONSTROUS concoction spread throughout the world like a cancer of destructiveness, cruelty, greed , injustice, hypocrisy and just plain VILLAINY!
Please provide some source for nukes having been used.
You are correct that WP would also burn the cloth.
I heard the news reports of mysterious incinerations during the battle of Fallujah. I knew of the neutron bomb development from Studs Turkel's 1980's radio show. He exposed reagan's trechary, as it happened, almost daily. The web is now full of stories of neutron bomb use, much like grassy knoll entries. Today, by rare coincidence seems to be the five year aniversery of news and google view blackout of Fallujah battle happenings.
It would be interesting to see documentation of this. At least by this brief discussion, many of the anomalies resemble those associated with radiation exposure during mining, testing, waste storage and experimentation.
I wonder what symptoms the doctors consider "unprecedented" and in what sense -- because they are new to Fallujah, or because they are new in general.
Fallujah reportedly got a couple big doses of DU. Apparently many tons of DU were used both in Gulf I and in the current invasions. CNS deficiences like children born dead with brains outside of skulls and so forth are certainly not unprecedented with respect to radiation exposure, and a large quantity of DU, disintegrating on the air with contact and blowing in the dust and likely on water and food sources thereafter, could well be sufficient.
Many other similar reports have come from Iraq for at least 4 years now. Since radiation exposure death from DU usually requires ingesting the stuff, the timing on this makes sense. Cases would likely still become more frequent rather than less for some years afterward.
On the other hand, one would need a very close accounting of symptoms and cases to rule out the various chemical weapons the States used thereabouts. And there's no reason we should take these to be mutually exclusive.
Fallujah was attacked by the US Air Force with a Neutron Bomb, (small yield nuclear device, developed by reagan admin. producing microwave like results without blast). There were a few initial reports of a 10-block area containing no living organism not incinerated, without damage to clothing, bedding, buildings or machines. The area was cleared of US personal for "the event". The story was quickly covered up as a white phosporus attack, (which would not incinerate people in their bed cloths!)
THE THIRD USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, by the land of the "free"!
Armor piercing ammunition is used to penetrate hardened armored targets such as body armor, vehicle armor, concrete, tanks and other defenses, depending on the caliber of the fire arms. Armor piercing ammunition consists of a hardened steel, tungsten carbide, or DEPLETED URANIUM penetrator enclosed within a softer material, such as copper or aluminum.
Neutron bombs were developed before the Reagan Administration ... Probably during or toward the end of the Vietnam ATTACK. Mega-neutron bombs were designed to eat through flesh or incinerate people [and other creatures too], but buildings and other structures would remain intact other than in direct-hit areas.
The Neutron bomb was outlawed in the Carter Administration. Ronald Reagan lifted the ban and smaller neutron bombs were developed to target smaller populations.
However, the descriptions of wounds by doctors who were treating the wounded -- women, men and many chldren in Gaza and Afghanistan and perhaps Iraq -- included: that the doctors had never seen these kinds of wounds before; that they might leave a small hole that spread and burnt the flesh and then burnt through and penetrated to vital organs. They said that after treating the more surface wounds, the patients would seem to be a little better for a day or so, but then died because of the radioactive neutrons continuing to travel through the body and "eat up" vital organs, except the doctors didn't know they were dealing with radioactive neutrons.
Israel likely has a stash behind their concrete walls, built hastily to keep International inspectors from the Atomic Energy Commission several years back from finding various weapons. Stairways were purposefully removed and the facility redesigned with concrete walls to fool the inspectors. It happened. Who knows what and how much is behind those concrete walls and various levels down? Nobody. And, of course, as usual the Zionist government got and gets a pass. ["If Israel goes down, everyone goes down." ??? - Ehud Olmert or Ehud Barak. ... Swell.]
I recently read an article on the effects of small neutron weapons, and it was an a-ha moment, a sad and horrified moment, especially after I'd read these weapons were banned and then that that ban was lifted in the Reagan/G.H.W. BUSH administration. The senior BUSH was not only Vice-President, but evidently talked Reagan into appointing him Head of National Security, which gave him unprecedented power.
It is possible that white phosphorus is similar, but my understanding is that it is more like napalm that sticks to the body, and the excruciating heat from the chemicals peel the skin right off the body and melt eyeballs and the like.
The United States government is indeed The Great Satan, and particular Israeli Zionists who can only be described as psychopathic kin to some of our very own, are The Diminutive Little-Devil Satans who are thrilled with this partnership, especially if Zionist ambitions are inclusive of becoming KING of the MOUNTAIN.
Evil is Evil and we, who are paying attention, know it. I have no doubt that Karmic Universal Law is still operating. It is just a matter of time.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves, that we are underlings." [Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)]
[Cassius to Brutus trying to convince him that Caesar is a man and not God, even though Caesar is about to declare himself Emperor of Rome and as close to God as it gets, and that as free men they must stop him for the good of the Republic.]
So what else is new? ... THE PLETHORA AND VARIETIES OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ... That's what's new and which very well may be one of the Achilles Heels of the whole or most of the Human Species and the other Heel represents the reasons for climate change, rousing the fury of The Wounded Mother who has had enough, and over-all is the fault of the Unconscious Mind that is attracted to power, control, and money and will stop at nothing to get those things. How very stupid for those who believe they are intelligent and often are perceived that way because they are powerful. And that makes most of us underlings stupid too.
A little old-fashioned Karma is gonna come down, Willie ...
/cm
Birth defects will rise worldwide as the DU dust gradually circles the entire planet. And we keep pumping more of it into Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and soon, Venezuela.
The "DU dust" you speak of is probably the #1 toxic offender in this ecological disaster cocktail currently being served. The bunker busters (aka- mini-nukes) contain depleted uranium. The US military has used bunker busters in Iraq and we sell them to Israel who uses them on the Palestinians. The UN calls the use of bunker busters an illegal an unconscionable act of war. Illegal because using anything nuclear is in violation of international law (the NNPT). Unconscionable because well it's nuclear and anyone with a conscience can see from the article the results of irradiating the land, the water and the people.
Unfortunately we are still feeding production of bunker busters under Obama, through an expansive defense budget and Pentagon. Unless the plug is pulled on funding this Military Industrial Complex then we can only expect more of the same.
Just how hypocritical is a government with a foreign policy that invades a sovereign country based on the lies of a WMD program, when we are ones that threaten the lives and peaceful existence of others with WMDs?
US-delivered uranium dust has contaminated most of the soil in Iraq and will be absorbed gradually over the next decade by the food crops, and thus absorbed by the people, like lead, in the place of nutritive copper, tin, zinc, iron, and collect in the bone marrow, to wreak havok on their health throughout their lifetimes. The USan activists who will protest the crime over the next couple of decades will also help enable expansion of the poison fields by continuing to vote "least worst" imperial candidates into the US Congruss and Whitey House, to protect their "first world privileges".
We should note that if they vote so to protect privileges, they're making a mistake for themselves as well as a problem for others.
We might get farther talking people out of such farces by pointing out that they do not serve themselves by continuing these things. Sure, empire has made cheap toys cheaper. But it has made health care, residence, transport, and time to live one's life all more expensive.
Were empire so all-fired profitable for the rank and file, Americans would be wealthy: they have bases all over the globe, and corporate moles in more places yet. But instead, Americans work night and day, pay other people to raise their poor children, and still wind up owning mortgages rather than homes --- if they do not lose both.
Nah -- the reward the reward the reward of empire ---- is that nice long quaff of Kool Aid.
This is not new. There has been a rise in birth defects in Iraq since the Ist Gulf War and economic sanctions. On Feb. 26, 2003 government agents arrested Dr. Rafil Dhafir of Manlius, N.Y. for his actions of raising money to send relief to the poor victims in Iraq in violation of IEEPA. It is necessary to launder money and do other illegal acts to get aid through to victims of a dictator and a superpower. He was sentenced to 22 years in a federal prison. On Aug 6th, 2003 He sent me a message to read at a demonstration against nuclear weapons: "What can I tell you about the horrors of man's injustice and cruelty to his fellow man that you are not aware of. 58 years have passed since the first use of nuclear weapons against humanity took place, to date the suffering of the victims continue with the immediate loss of life and property and the everlasting effects of radiation in the form of cancer and birth deformities. You would think that humanity had learned it's lesson, but NO!!! Some felt that the first bombs were not "good" enough so they kept researching until they came up with the depleted uranium used for the first time on a massive scale against the children, women and men of Iraq. The horrors of a slow painful death for these innocent victims cannot be ignored or hidden. Most places in the world women ask first if it's a boy or a girl when they give birth but in Iraq they ask first if the baby is normal or deformed". No this is not new.
Yes, genie, this was to be expected.
Dr. Helen Caldicott alerted the world more than ten years ago to the rise in cancer and birth defects in babies born in southern Iraq after the first Gulf War. She was largely ignored. http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/8-us-british-forces-continue-use-of-depleted-urani...
This story won't make the mainstream media, and these war crimes will never be prosecuted.
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
Masters of War
Bob Dylan
"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS OF THE MOTHER??? WTF?
remember falluja! the cowardly bush waited until just after election day 2004 to launch the massacre. before attacking, he refused to let males between 15 and 64 leave the city, a war crime in itself. when the bombardment started and the doctors began treating civilians and telling about it, bush shut down the hospitals, another war crime. the obvious intent of the full scale attack was to kill anyone who was or might become part of the sunni resistance, another war crime, this one particularly egregious because of its ethnic cleansing aspect. now the us, the nation totally worried about weapons of mass destruction, has used white phosphorous on falluja and littered its atmosphere with depleted uranium, both illegal acts under treaties we have signed. saddam never used chemical weapons against us, but we twice did against iraq and three times against our own soldiers. we're still paying billions to vietnam veterans damaged by agent orange, and we'll soon be paying nearly as much to those aging veterans exposed to the radioactive clouds that still hover over the iraqi battlefields of 1990, 2003, and 2004. and, saddam had to look no farther than our own us corporations to get what chemical weapons he once used on his own people. trite to say, but we have met the enemy and he is us.
I saw images yesterday and have been holding back the tears, so didn't look today.
Buck - so cry already ... sob ... and from the belly. It's cleansing.
I sound like a wounded animal sometimes in my living room. Tears to sobs to howlings out of the belly. Holding grief and rage inside hurts the body, and energy levels are hard to keep up because of the energy it takes to hold everything in.
Too many folks, especially men in Westerm societies, hold back tears and grieving and appropriate responses of emotion. Then one day ... over nothing ... the person snaps and gets violent, or there is brooding and that translates into violence. Throw in too many beers or other booze to deaden the pain ... It always catches up.
Italian men know how to emote, and the ancient Greek warriors cried mightily over their fallen comrades. Being publicly distraught was/is okay.
Next time ... let 'er rip. There is good reason not to be polite and keep one's cool in the face of evils committed against others. If ever there was a time to be real and passionate, this is the time of our time for profound outrage and grieving and mourning.
/cm
Thanks for that good advise.Being an em path myself I cry and laugh constantly.A shrink would call it "inappropriate effect" a symptom of schizophrenia.I call it being a human being.In this society it is sometimes recommended to be "quiet about it"
pieces
Appropriate reactions to an inappropriate world.
Joe
Do we care if they don't let us watch them on teevee?
"Depleted" uranium is first a toxic metal, similar in neurological effect to lead and mercury, and second is a radioactive carcinogen. In depleted uranium the more highly radioactive U-235 has been stripped away for nuclear power and for genocidal bombmaking, leaving the less radioactive U-238.
As a neurotoxin, uranium accumulates in a human body over a lifetime. A mother's body gives a fetus a disproportionate amount of its rarer elements such as calcium, and also dumps high concentrations of uranium into the fetus when available.
Neurotoxins by definition kill neurons. In a developing fetus with very few neurons, one or two cell deaths at the wrong moment can be critical.
A depleted uranium projectile such as an antitank shell catches fire immediately upon impact, and becomes uranium oxide smoke particles, which blow everywhere.
The city is a place to die. Fallujah should be abandoned for our lifetimes, just as the city of Pripiat near Chernobyl was abandoned.
Azjoe, for whose postings I generally have high regard, writes:
"OleManRiver; you are wrong in my humble opinion about the 1st sentence, it's crystal clear; relative to a recent previous point in time, by a factor of about 15, infant deformities have increased. ..."
But which "recent previous point in time"? For example, since the First Gulf War? Before the First Gulf War? The U.S. used DU during that earlier bombing campaign, so the stuff was spreading around the Iraq environment for a decade before Dubya invaded.
Agreed, that the article seems to be suggesting a sudden spike in early childhood deformities including brain tumors (which are generally quite rare elsewhere) and the Iraq doctors seem unable to hone in on a specific source. But what do we expect of their medical infrastructure given that in the first battle of Fallujah (if memory serves it was to retaliate for the four Blackwater deaths) the Americans invaded their main hospital and shot it up. What the hell, most American hospitals lack the capacity to confirm a diagnosis of swine flu and they've had around a year to prepare for what is now a global pandemic (declared so by the UN on 6/11/09)!
Meanwhile, I recall reading a Lindorff article on the subject of DU many months ago and was impressed by his methodology. This country's use of depleted uranium is, as noted by others here, an international war crime, grossly under-reported by the MSM. And, yes, this failure to report is reminiscent of decades of denial of the effects of Agent Orange on both the Viet Namese and American soldiers exposed to it. In both cases--depleted uranium and Agent Orange---we are contaminating our own and the world's gene pool, producing EXTREMELY complex and expensive debilitating disease and illness and pain and suffering extending over generations. So much for health care costs...
Hey AGG, tell us more about this treadmill cardiolite test. I've had some sort of flu for more than a month, with cardiac symptoms. I've been trying to fortify with Vitamin C, but then just read at wikipedia that H1N1 actually takes advantage of "strong immunity" and can produce something called a "cytokine storm" (hypercytokinemia). So now, if I want a cardiologist to check me out, they're gonna inject me with radioactive tracers while they put me on a treadmill to find out at what stage I collapse? This is medicine? What if we imposed the Hippocratic Oath on the American military? 'FIRST, DO NO HARM'? Just a thought...
-30-
OleManRiver,
I hear you. They injected me while I was on a treadmill. All this came about because my heart stopped in the emergency room and I ended up with a pacemaker. The test was given to me a month later. They "watch" the trace of the blood flow around your heart on a computer screen and measure ejection fraction (see wikipeda) and any possible blockage or valve flutter. However, if you have a condition which might make your blood vessels react adversly (sudden compression or dilation due to a hypersensitive immune system), don't let them do it. There are other ways to measure clinical heart disease. The tracer just makes their job easier. It doesn't make you healthier. If your cardiologist swears up and down that it's okay, ask him when the last time he had cardiolite injected into him was.
This is the FDA web site on cardiolite:
http://www.drugs.com/pro/cardiolite.html
By the way, there is no way that I'm getting that H1N1 shot.
What can you say about this sort of thing???
I suppose the pro-lifers would argue that at least the fetus' had a chance to be born before they died.
It makes me wish that there was indeed an afterlife, as there cannot be enough punishment in this life to begin to atone for such an evil act.
HENRY8! Where the fork are you? It was YOUR "kids" that did this!
Hello?
Stop hiding and send money to Fallujah for the murder and pollution you profit from every month when you collect your marine corps officer pension.
Send at least 10%. God doesn't mind if you don't give it to the pastor bigot at your church.
The "honor" of the USMC is at stake! Get your bayonet out!
The US military destroyed Falluja. They didn't like what happened to the four hung contractors/invaders that the locals dealt with. Don't mess wit the US military was the message. This is all part of the sorry invasion that Bush/Cheney saddled the people of Iraq with. The quicker we get out of Bush/Cheney foreign occupied territory, the better--out of Af-Pak, Iraq, etc.
I first saw this reported on June 12, 2008, after the massacre in Falluja. (See http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42762)
Because of the incredibly long half life of the radioactive waste in depleted uranium, Iraq, the cradle of civilization, will be toxic to all generations to come. "Depleted" uranium is a misnomer - it is still radioactive waste.
the US had been looking for a way to get rid of this stuff since the Manhattan Project.
Quite true. They have gotten quite imaginative at it too. A by product (nice PR name, huh? I produce a brownish by product every day.) of nuclear power plants (a radioactive isotope) is presently being injected into people doing a treadmill test. It's called cardiolite and it costs a fortune. These bastards try to make a profit on anything.
I'm sure that if they could get away with it, they'd sell us radioactive waste as cleaning products (Buy this! It REALLY kills germs!).
where do you think the flouride in toothpaste comes from!?
google: flouride nuclear byproduct
The US is a Toxic Substance. It delivers toxins to other parts of the globe.
This is prima facie evidence of war crimes.
It simply could not be the hundreds of tons of depleted uranium sprayed into the city, because the Army has told us that particular material is safe. It must be something else. I wonder what it could possibly be.
I have been posting links to such articles for well over 5 years wherein Doctors in Iraq were reporting ever higher numbers of birth defects. Most everyone pooh poohed this claiming it simply enemy propaganda. The only newspapers that would carry such stories were foreign sources.
Al Jazeera was reporting on this years ago.
Jesus had something to say about people who would harm a single hair on a Childs head did he not?
Thank you for posting this article. One thing people fail to mention in articles is the true extent that Fallujah has suffered over the years, since even the Gulf War. The city was bombed by the U.S. and British back then, too. The sharp increase in birth defects and cancers is undoubtedly due to the accumulation of toxins (DU and white phosphorus, especially) in Fallujah over the years. And, even if there are other factors that contribute to these birth defects and cancers, overall, the invasion and occupation of Iraq have proven to have disastrous health consequences on the population of Fallujah (and other people in Iraq).
One problem that I have noticed over the years since the Gulf War is that Iraqi medical professionals had a very difficult time getting publications "out there" about the cancers and birth defects increasing in Iraq due to war and sanctions... it was even difficult for them to get articles "out there" regarding the rampant, fully preventable diseases that, thanks to war-ravaged sewage and hospital systems, were on the rise in Iraq. Although I don't believe that academics/medical professionals in the U.S. are necessarily pro-war, there is definitely a bias in the medical journals regarding what is worthy of being published. For instance, the death tolls reported in The Lancet (which is actually a very well-ranked, peer-reviewed medical journal, world-wide) are more of an anomaly, if you think about it - how many other journals are publishing similar statistics? And, I don't, for one minute, believe that other journals aren't publishing on the topic because the statistics are invalid (that's why we have peer review - to independently validate by other medical professionals/academics that the methods used are correct).
I've come to believe that even in academic, medical literature, there is an inherent disregard for the consequences of U.S. wars and foreign policy on the health of affected civilians. And, if medical journals want to prove me wrong - if they want to prove to us all that there is no such bias - then I challenge them to do so. Anyway, this bias can be more-or-less inferred from the article. The reports on the effects of war on the population of Fallujah derive from news agencies who contact the Iraqi doctors, themselves, and not from the medical literature.
The sad thing is: why did we wait so long to document these effects? Isn't it a little too late?
Here in Los Angeles. is the belly of the beast for high tech weapons systems and fabrication.
The idea of revealing the extent of the poisoning of the "cradle of civilization" and NOT pointing the finger directly at DU is EXCRUCIATING.
How can we be this cowardly and wicked that we cannot even look upon it, we dare not discuss it we cannot address it???? HOW!?
Will we end up on some list? For seeing the obvious??
I am so sad, what vengance have we earned?
Unfortunately, neither GB or Darth Cheney will be having deformed babies any time soon.
This is directly attributable to DU. The deformities will be showing up in US babies once the marines and soldiers are having babies. The military brass will deny all responsibility for this abomination.
The big brass will deny any harmful effects of DU Munitions for the next 20 years.
Then the science will be overwhelming so that the ill effects can no longer be denied. Class action lawsuits will be filed. Then a "Compassionate President" will speak tearfully of the harm done to "Americas Finest" and pass legislation recognizing it as harmful and releasing funds to treat the Americans harmed by the same. (Conveniently in such legislation will be clauses added to prevent lawsuits against the Weapons Manufacturers)
Then the people will point to this and say "See how GOOD we are. See how we treat our OWN and admit to our mistakes?"
And in the nation of Iraq millions will have still live with these deformities for generations to come but the USA will admit to no wrong or no role in it for like the peoples in Vietnam...If you are not "American" you are not really a person.
This while they are busily bombing another nation...a South Africa or a Brazil perhaps, using the latest and greatest weapons of destruction that their scientists have been devloping in labs to destroy "Latin American Terrorists" or "South African Fascists".
"The deformities will be showing up in US babies once the marines and soldiers are having babies."
another reason to neuter all recruits.
these people sign up to destroy life, not create it.
best to get their genes out of the pool.
This is a gift to the children of the world from George and Laura Bush.
did you mean george and barbara?
Your tax dollars at work.
Hitler would've been proud of Obama and his white clones predecessors in the White House, Bush and Clinton.
The Doctor, The Depleted Uranium, and The Dying Children
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5146778547681767408#
And to think that it didn't have to be this way.
D U continues to kill the innocent children and people of Iraq
SHAME!
To really draw more attention to the video you posted a link for, you should've quoted the text for the piece, so I'll now do this.
Quote:
The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium, and the Dying Children
53:02 - 2 years ago
An award winning documentary film produced for German television by Freider Wagner and Valentin Thurn. The film exposes the use and impact of radioactive weapons during the current war against Iraq. The story is told by citizens of many nations. It opens with comments by two British veterans, Kenny Duncan and Jenny Moore, describing their exposure to radioactive, so-called depleted uranium (DU), weapons and the congenital abnormalities of their children. Dr. Siegwart-Horst Gunther, a former colleague of Albert Schweitzer, and Tedd Weyman of the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) traveled to Iraq, from Germany and Canada respectively, to assess uranium contamination in Iraq.
End quote
But there's also more than DU that poisons all of Iraq with the present and prior U.S. wars there. With the present one, there's also white phosphorous, in Falluja anyway, and then there are the many toxicities caused without even using DU and WP. All combined, we have a much worse "cocktail" for Iraq, and for its neighbouring countries, as well.
THANKS very much for the link though. I look forward to viewing this nearly one-hour documentary and will likely do this before "hitting the sack", tonight.
"Yeah, but Saddam WAS a bad man." - Unca Sam
Who will finally step up in the international arena and demand the United States government goes on trial for genocide and war crimes?
It's already been done once, but not on the government level. A world tribunal was inititated by the Japanese for the war on Afghanistan years ago (2002, I believe), and there was a related international conference held Oct. 28th to the 30th or 31st, 2009, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the "War Crimes Conference & Exhibition", which is or was about more than the war on Afghanistan. Among other speakers were George Galloway, who mostly spoke on the crisis for Palestinians and the extreme crimes of Israel treated with impunity, and there was Cynthia McKinney, who at least begins with reference to the Hurricane Katrina event(s). The PM or President of Malaysia spoke more than the others and officiated the opening of the war crimes exhibition, which clearly includes the crimes committed by the U.S. at Guatanamo Bay Prison and other U.S. GWoT prisons.
This is for another world tribunal against the criminal U.S. wars, genocide, etcetera; and it evidently includes U.S.-Israel war on Palestine. They want a world tribunal and hope we'd get governments to support an official kind, but without believing that the governments will agree to this. They'll nevertheless have a Peoples international tribunal, which, like they say, realistically is all we can hope for without dreaming. But governments are still encouraged to call for and support an official tribunal.
The videos are available at Youtube and they can all be easily found by searching Youtube using only ""War Crimes Conference & Exhibition" criminalisewar" (without the outer quotes) for search terms. People can get the 12 videos at the criminalisewar channel at Youtube, but I just checked it and didn't find a convenient playlist, while the Youtube search is simple, quick, and lists all 12 of these videos posted by criminalisewar. At the channel, we can select viewing the contents in grid view, as opposed to player view, and then click on "see all" beneath the column of videos, which, in that page, lack the videos with the Malaysian PM or President. That provides a good horizontal index of the videos, two rows, while a single column listing can be obtained by clicking "see all" in the main channel page and for the set of "Uploads (13)". I prefer the clean horizontal index with practically nothing else on the page; or using the Youtube search results. Those two ways provide clear indexes.
Thank you.
Tardy on my part, but you're welcome.
The vast majority of the world's population has.
Just not the colluding empowered minority...
Count me in.
Me too.
Me three.
Add a fourth.
Same here.
Dave Lindorff recently wrote a couple excellent pieces on Depleted Uranium.
I believe he said that the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in D.U. remains in Iraq.
I hope he provided sources for his information, for it's not his area of expertise. There are people who have this sort of expert knowledge, however, and Leuren Moret, who's known worldwide, has previously stated that much of the whole Middle East will be poisoned with this radiological poisoning. There were reports of I believe two sudden readings of serious increases of radiation in England and maybe Greece, or another European country; being pretty sure it wasn't in England in both cases. These sudden changes occurred exactly or around nine days after this present war on Iraq was launched, when psychopath Gen. Tommy Franks had commanded the massive opening bombardments of or on Iraq. It was believed that this was the only likely explanation for the sudden jumps in radioactivity in whatever part of England was affected, and the other country, which I don't recall enough to say which one it was. Like Leuren Moret explained plenty of times, the very tiny dust particles formed from when DU munitions strike are so small that people wearing masks aren't protected and the winds blow this stuff around [all over the place], including upwards, into winds that travel great distances, like jet streams, I guess.
If David Lindorff didn't cite or name his sources, then he should have. Anyone correctly writing would.
Just an aside to this thought process...whatever DU poisons the Middle East, will eventually make its' way around the world. We all breathe the same air. It does not stop at borders. Man is poisoning the planet with his war.
This was inevitable.
Meanwhile, this is a badly constructed article, with the first sentence defective:
"Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants..."
Fifteen times as many as...WHAT? Or as BEFORE what?
"The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic."
No mention in the article of "depleted uranium." Most people do not understand that "depleted uranium" is still radioactive, but that even if it were not radioactive, uranium is highly toxic to humans, and our war machine has spread it throughout much of Iraq in inhalant form. And in the soil upon which crops are grown.
Chernobyl was a terrible accident, leaving a radioactive wasteland. The irradiation of Iraq was intentional. Much of it is not habitable, yet people are forced to live there. This is the Greater Crime of the United States.
-30-
I think it highly unlikely that depleted uranium has anything to do with neural tube defects.
We know that the incidence of NTDs in normal environments can be dramatically reduced by having women who are at risk of pregnancy take supplemental folic acid. Furthermore, unless the article is biased to NTDs, it seems that NTDs are greatly increased while other defects may not be. This leads me to suspect some chemical residue acting as a folate anti-metabolite.
OleManRiver; you are wrong in my humble opinion about the 1st sentence, it's crystal clear; relative to a recent previous point in time, by a factor of about 15, infant deformities have increased. "War ravaged," infers things are untidy, conclusions from there NOT drawn in a lab.
I too kept waitinfg to hear DU mentioned....maybe the Brit's used a lot too, so willie-peter, US, rings sweeter. That felt unbalanced/contrived.
Late-uh; moi viejo aussie....
OleManRiver is right, while you're the one who's mistaken about the first sentence of the article. It's not for us to insert "relative to a recent previous point in time", which is more wording than needed, anyway. It's not for us to insert a shorter and more precise, correct reference, such as, "since the start of 2009", or 2008, or an earlier year, whatever it is. Defend when it's right to defend, but not otherwise; and your defence of the author of the article is nonsense, for he clearly was negligent as OleManRiver described.
Mike Corbeil: I'm ashamed to have expressed a perception, an opinion w/o clearing it with you first. I apologize.
You're post was rude, insipid and arrogant. Handed down from on high. Let's avoid each other! I don't learn from you. I ain't read one a your posts in months. TJ, cygnus, SR, sirius 333, JB, MD, GM; teachers.
There was nothing to defend and you tried. There's nothing "on high" about proper grammar and semantics.
The umentioned DU is glaring.
This is what Falujah suffers for having executed three Backwater mercenaries.
The Vietnamese are still having birth defects from and waiting for reparations for agent orange.
"The Vietnamese are still having birth defects from and waiting for reparations for agent orange." –(glenn ford)
–As half Vietnamese, half American this is a matter close to my heart. America does not 'do' reparations. That would be contraindicated.
Although painful to me especially as an M.D. I thank you for providing and remembering the historical continuity. The continuum is unbroken. Without the memory, no one can begin to understand the present; nor can they formulate the future.
Americans forget everything. That is why they have no future except more of the same. as the blood testament of current history incisively proves.
In retrospect, the majority of the maternal side of my family– which was slaughtered gratuitously by American soldiers in Vietnam– were the lucky ones.The agent orange saturations were two valleys northwest from their village.
Only the survivors are dead. It is true that the ravages of 'agent orange' continue and remain contemporaneous 'medical' problems after more than 40 years.
Only the devil would know for sure how the after effects of the new death technologies of 'depleted uranium', white phosphorous' or 'neutron' bombs' will haunt the future for the victims of American imperialism.
And good 'progressives' everywhere intend to 'vote' those responsible from office by finding better candidates? America does not 'learn,' it only repeats the same, only more exigently.
Settle into the darkness...know it and understand it.
Think again, and formulate a politics worthy to truly redress Falluja, Gaza and Vietnam, not simply acknowledge there was an 'injustice' done by aberrant politicians. There is nothing anomalous at all about Falluja: It is a totalized distillation of what America 'is.'
But then, I was lucky enough to know other members of my family who marched into Saigon as soldiers with the liberating North Vietnamese Army. Those who drove the imperial fascist Americans from the country by force.
Maybe someday similar memories may grace the survivors who drive the Americans from Baghdad, Kabul and probably Caracas, Venezuela as well.
"People do not judge in the same way as courts of law; they do not hand down sentences, they throw thunderbolts; they do not condemn kings, they drop them back into the void." –(Maximilien Robespierre)
America into 'the void?' No. America is the void.
–(Jill Bains)
Also unmentioned white phosphorous, although I think some of the flares heading to the ground from the sky and from U.S. weapons might possibly be some WP bombs or shells, whatever they're called. They look, in this video, like what we see in videos from Israel's firing of WP over Gaza last winter anyway.
From a relatively recent article and/or video on deformities found in, I believe, Fallujah, maybe also other parts of Iraq, but am pretty sure it was only about Falluja when it came to the topic of WP having been used ... plenty by the U.S. there, the report stated that it's been found that this is another toxic substance that not only horrifically burns people and animals, but also poisons the environment and, thereby, people and animals.
And this is besides all of the other poisons, toxic pollution, in large amounts, that U.S., British, NATO wars cause whereever these countries attack. Bombings of buildings causes toxicities to spread, including in dust form, but I suppose that there are definitely other examples of toxic pollution caused by these wars, the massive bombings committed.
DU, WP, and all of the other poisonous crap? The affected country doesn't have a hope for future generations; unless they hope for misery, which we can know that none of these victims do.
There's a LOT that this video report omits. It's so damn cheap that it's rather worthless; except for criticing its lack of truly informative reporting. It's barely informative at all and, due to this, I think it can be considered as insulting for Fallujans, their doctors, and for viewers; as if we're all dumb and haven't viewed related videos and read related articles of [qualitative] sort before. It can be considered in this way, and it's what I think of the video report; it's insultingly omissive.
it is discouraging that DU is left to be deduced under the umbrella of "controversial weaponry".
the sad thing is that any blowback may never touch the real culprits.
That video just breaks my heart. I get angry when the innocent of the world have to suffer because of the actions of others who don't care how their actions effect others.
These beautiful children have no chance of a good quality life. Even if they survive they will be facing an uphill battle just to survive.
I blame all the governments who say they love children but who do not take into consideration the effects that their actions have on the children in the world. Who don't care that because of their chemicals that children are being born into a toxic world that makes them sick, are born into a world that they suffer from birth deficts, or that they are living in hell.
We citizens of the United States must get real......it is not 'some' governments; it is OUR GOVERNMENT. This evil act was done to the unborn children of Faluja, and all the nation of Iraq, by the United States of America. The same results of our use of depleated Uranium was seen in Yugoslavia as well.
The government of the United States of America is evil and the worst terrorist nation on earth. It is nothing to be proud about. It is the responsibility of the citizens of this nation to change our government. Our elected officials are not working to provide us an opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: and what our government is doing through its foreign policies is evil and must be changed.
Take a look at those corrupt individuals and groups (our two major political parties) in our national government and you should feel nothing but anger and disgust.
Our Congress is nearly completely corrupt. Maybe you can find one 'representative' who voted with the people and against the big bucks on the bankster bailout, the surge in Afghanistan and against Obama care (wanting to vote for Medicare for all, Single Payer which was "off the table")----maybe even two of these ethical people can be found---but the rest of them----CORRUPT TO THE CORE.
Kick them out of Congress. Don't vote for the reelection of the corrupt.
We citizens of the United States must get real......it is not 'some' governments; it is OUR GOVERNMENT. This evil act was done to the unborn children of Faluja, and all the nation of Iraq, by the United States of America. The same results of our use of depleated Uranium was seen in Yugoslavia as well.
You might believe that it is 'our government' but I believe Americans have lost our democracy. It is no longer my/our government. We are owned by corporate interests, big businesses. My vote doesn't mean much these days.
"you should feel nothing but anger and disgust"
how about rage and revulsion?