November 20, 2002 13:38

From Bosnia, More Depleted Uranium

By Robert L. McMahon

There was a major news story out of Europe on Veterans Day that was overlooked or ignored by most of the American news media: Radioactivity has been detected in areas of Bosnia where the U.S. military used Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions.

DU munitions are most commonly used in anti-armor weapons and M1A1 main anti-tank rounds. The Air Force's A-10 Warthog fires a 30-mm cannon (GAU-8) that spits out these DU rounds like a laser-beam in the movie, "Star Wars." They can literally saw a tank in half.

DU weapons will penetrate 200-mm of laminat armor like a Ka-Bar through a beer can. U.S. Army armor units use a sabot round, the M289. The kinetic energy the weapon releases while making its nanosecond trip through a tank's hull first creates a "spalling" effect. Essentially the armor inside will crack and flake off at high velocity, like taking a machine gun and spraying it through an open hatch. This will kill the crew instantly and, a split second later, the heat will be so intense that everything inside the hull - particularly ammunition and fuel - will ignite and burn.

But for all this efficient tank-busting power, there is a downside. The DU weapons leave radioactive material behind that will be kicked by the breeze and inhaled by humans. Or, as in the case in Bosnia where it tends to rain more, seep into the water supply. And Americans are not immune from depleted uranium exposure even when it's manufactured here in the states.

As I have previously noted ("Iraq: Invading a Toxic Kill Zone," DefenseWatch, Oct. 2, 2002), for years the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs denied that DU material was dangerous. In a controlled environment where you aren't eating the stuff with your MRE or drinking it from your canteen, the chances are you'll be okay. However, once you go stepping through 320 tons of this battlefield detritus, health issues ought to be a primary concern.

During Gulf War I, the combined U.S.-allied air attack went after the Iraqi Armored units swinging this radioactive laser-sword like Jeti Knights. Likewise, where our armored units engaged Iraqi armor, sabot rounds were used with great efficiency.

But as a result, the Iraqi landscape is a hot zone of radioactive waste that should be avoided at all costs by infantry. Areas where Iraqi armored units were destroyed should be marked on our maps and bypassed in any ground campaign. If our intel says that Saddam is hiding anything there, the solution will be to call in some old B-52s and just BUF the target.

The first Gulf War lasted only 100 hours, resulted in 145 troops KIA, and 467 American wounded, an astonishingly low casualty rate. But that is not the full account: The VA is currently paying out medical disability payments to 159,238 Gulf War veterans, and over 8,000 more have died since 1991. That is nearly 25 percent of the 696,778 military personnel who served in the Gulf War, an astonishingly severe long-term casualty rate.

These veterans are not gaming the system. They weren't told about the warning label on DU weapons and a host other "hazardous to your health" materials - particularly experimental vaccines - that the U.S. military exposed them to the first time.

As the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Robert L. McMahon is President of the Soldiers for the Truth Foundation. He can be reached at mcmahonr1@rcn.com.