Deep Wounds of Iraq War
By Ellen Thomas
August/September 2004
Volume 40, Number 2
(Published in two parts)
On July 4, 2004, with fireworks gunpowder wafting across the White House, I searched for numbers of dead and dollars resulting from the current Iraq war. Here were the Independence Day numbers for our boys and girls in Iraq:
o The U.S. had spent well over $121 billion in Iraq. The Washington Times estimates this at $1600 per household. It will more than double with a 3-year occupation.
o Iraq Body Count listed 13,085 Iraqi civilians reported as dead. No one accounts yet for how many Iraqis have been physically injured and maimed, nor is there any way to know how many military and other deaths are unreported.
o The US Department of Defense (DoD) reported 900 US soldiers dead, over 40 from Washington DC area. More than a quarter of total deaths are listed by the DoD as non-hostile. Friendly fire accounted for some 18% during the first six weeks of the current Iraq conflict.
Suicides
Twenty-five soldiers have taken their lives during the past year in Iraq, plus seven suicides among newly State-sided troops, including two who killed themselves while they were patients at overcrowded Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, MD. The suicide rate for army troops in Iraq has been 17 per 100,000 soldiers, compared to the overall Army rate of 12 per 100,000 between 1995 and 2002.
Depression, shame, fear, and exhaustion cause suicides. As tours of duty are extended unreasonably, and friends and civilians die, soldiers lose heart. ‘The higher suicide rate in Iraq can be attributed to the higher percentage of married and reserve troops, and the lower amount of stress training and screening in basic training for non-combat troops,’ military analyst James F. Dunnigan, author of The Next War Zone: Confronting the Global Threat of Cyberterrorism, wrote in a recent commentary.
The Injured
The Pentagon admits to 5,394 US soldiers who have been wounded in action, 190 from the DC area. It’s hard to know what the real figures might be, since there is a veil of secrecy at the hospitals over the numbers and types of casualties. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 threatens health care personnel with prison and/or astronomical fines for talking.
A tragic number of US soldiers have lost arms, legs, eyes, while others suffer less obvious internal and psychological ailments. Nearly two-thirds admitted to Walter Reed Hospital have had brain injuries. Lack of adequate armor for the soldiers or their Humvees were responsible for a huge number of amputations. Although many thin-skinned Humvees have been armored in the field, they’re now top-heavy, at least 17 people have been killed in accidents.
For returnees, post-traumatic stress disorder is a major problem. Army physicians have found that fewer than half of soldiers who need help get it. Those with the greatest problems are the least likely to seek treatment, fearing that they’ll be considered weak or cowardly.
Meanwhile, although veterans using U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care increased from 2.9 million in 1995 to 5 million in 2004, assistance for veterans has been cut: 540 full-time jobs, 37% of nursing home beds, and $50 million from research. The 2005 budget falls $2.6 billion short of the amount needed to fully fund quality VA health care
The Homeless
Homeless veterans have been part of the Washington scene since at least the days of Stacey Abney, the World War II vet who protested outside the White House and US Capitol in the 1970’s and 80’s. Too many Vietnam vets have had to stand in DC’s soup lines, slept or died in its shelters, parks and alleys, while trying to get help from the VA. According to the federal government, veterans make up 9% of the U.S. population but 23% of the homeless population. Among homeless men, veterans make up 33%. A comprehensive study by the Census Bureau in 1996 revealed that 47% of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era, but soldiers from as far back as World War II and as recent as the Persian Gulf War have also ended up homeless.
Casualties Will Continue
The casualties will continue to mount, not only from skirmishes with Iraqis or despair at home, but more insidiously from a slow, hidden killer which the US has used twice in Iraq: depleted uranium, a radioactive and toxic waste now mixed forever in the blowing desert winds, and in the lungs, brains, kidneys, and reproductive organs of those who breathe or swallow the ubiquitous sands.
Depleted Uranium Poisoning
(Published October 2004)
Iraq, 2001
The Pentagon admits to having used at least 300 tons of depleted uranium in the First Gulf War in 1991. US and UK soldiers' urine still tested radioactive in 1999. (Toronto Star, 2/19/99) In "Undiagnosed Illnesses and Radioactive Warfare", Dr. Asaf Durakovic of Uranium Medical Research Center, Washington DC, wrote: "Internal contamination with DU isotopes was detected in British, Canadian, and United States Gulf War veterans as late as nine years after inhalational exposure to radioactive dust in the Persian Gulf War I. DU isotopes were also identified in a Canadian veteran's autopsy samples of lung, liver, kidney, and bone."
(http://www.idust.net/Docs/Durakovic2003.pdf)
Remarkably, American and allied soldiers were not told they had radioactive bullets and artillery shells in their arsenal in 1991, and moreover, were not aware of the hazards and precautions required when dealing with DU and DU-contaminated vehicles. (National Gulf War Resource Center, September 22, 1997)
"We have uncovered dozens of reports which show the Department of Defense was well aware of the significant potential of DU as an environmental health hazard" before 1991, said Chris Kornkven, President of the National Gulf War Resources Center and a veteran of the Gulf War who tested positive in 1995 for DU contamination. "Under the Freedom of Information Act, we have obtained documents that show the Department was aware of the exposure of soldiers from DU when it burns, aware of the downwind spreading and incidental contamination hazard, and aware of the large number of military personnel that were exposed."
One such report, published by U.S. Army Mobility Equipment, Research & Development Command in March 7, 1979 -- more than a decade before Desert Storm -- concludes: "Not only the people in the immediate vicinity (emergency and fire fighting personnel) but also people at distances downwind from the fire are faced with potential over exposure to airborne uranium dust."
"Wind-blown particles readily lodge in lung tissue, exposing the host to a growing, toxic dose of alpha radiation and capable of inducing cancer and other deadly illnesses. A single, microscopic particle of DU lodged in the respiratory system is the radiological equivalent of fifty (50) x-rays, and can subject lung tissue to 8,000 times the annual radiation dose permitted by federal regulations for whole-body exposure," said Laura Olah, board member of the Military Toxics Project, a national coalition of veterans and community activist fighting for an international ban on DU, in 1997. (http://www.rimbaud.freeserve.co.uk/dugulf.htm)
Iraq, 2003-04
During the first year of the second Bush Iraq war ("Operation Iraqi Freedom"), the US Army and Air Force fired 127 tons of DU munitions, says Michael Kilpatrick, the Pentagon's director of the Deployment Health Support Directorate. (In These Times, 5/14/04) Other experts, however, estimate the amount that was used in the Second Gulf War was between 800 and 2000 tons, with much of it dropped directly on Baghdad. That's three to six times times the amount used in 1991, and the exposure period has been ten times as long for many soldiers. The longer people stay in a contaminated area, the more exposure they will receive.
The Army's training manual acknowledges the hazards of DU, requiring that anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment or terrain wear respiratory and skin protection. The manual warns: "Contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption."
Yet the returning men of the National Guard 442nd Company (New York), whose urine tested radioactive, said they had never heard of depleted uranium and they were not issued dust masks or other protective gear.
At the request of Representatives Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas) and Robert Filner (D-Calif.), the General Accounting Office (GAO) now is investigating whether the Pentagon has ignored the medical consequences of depleted uranium armaments. Based on the GAO's findings, Filner and Rodriguez are considering the introduction of legislation to extend service benefits to veterans who develop health conditions that can plausibly be caused by depleted uranium exposure.
These are steps in the right direction. But the men of the 442 and the 131,000 U.S. and 24,000 Coalition soldiers serving in Iraq deserve more. They deserve a ban on depleted uranium.
(http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/depleted_morality/)
And they need to come home.
Bring Them Home Now, a part of Military Families Speak Out, has issued this information for troops who fear DU exposure (http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/stand/du.html):
What Are the Symptoms of DU Exposure?
Depleted uranium has two different effects on the body, chemical poisoning and radiation poisoning. Symptoms are similar to those described as Gulf War Syndrome.
Scientists believe respiratory irritation caused by sand storms, oil fires, and concentrated vehicle fumes weakened the blood/brain barrier and allowed DU to enter the central nervous system of soldiers in the field, resulting in slowly developing neurotoxic responses. Their brains, in effect, were slowly poisoned. The brain is a 'target organ' for dissolved uranium. Tests on some Desert Storm vets show lowered ability to think and solve problems, as well as lowered motor skills in subjects with above average uranium levels.
DU is also toxic to the kidneys, and is known to cause lung cancer and leukemia.
According to a 1998 report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the inhalation of DU particles can lead to symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, lymphatic problems, bronchial complaints, weight loss and an unsteady gait.
A four-year study released last year by the Defense Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found "significantly higher prevalences" of heart and kidney birth defects in the children of Gulf War veterans, though it did not mention DU specifically.
Doctors in Basra found that the rate of birth defects tripled between 1989 and 1999.
What Should One Do If These Symptoms Appear?
o Report them to a physician and get them on record. If they persist, do not be discouraged by military doctors who seem to brush them off. Return again and again if necessary as long as the symptoms persist.
o Those who are still on active duty should immediately register with DOD by calling 1-800-796-9699. Those who have left active military service should call the Veterans Administration at 1-800-PGW-VETS.
o Increase the frequency of screening for lung cancer and leukemia.
What Can One Do to Limit Exposure to D.U. and Other Causative Agents?
Get out of Iraq. Until then ... Cover the face to prevent inhalation of dust, and keep dust out of food and water. Avoid exhaust fumes and other respiratory irritants. Inform the chain of command when there is a way to reduce exposure to dust and respiratory irritants, and explain to them why.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Bring Them Home Now
http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
BTHN@mfso.org
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors: CCCO
http://www.objector.org
info@objector.org
Center on Conscience and War
http://nisbco.org/
nisbco@nisbco.org
1-800-379-2679
Information on lobbying Congress
Anti-Draft & CO Talking Points
Citizen Soldier
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/
Institute For Policy Studies
http://www.ips-dc.org/
202-234-9382
Military Families Speak Out
http://www.mfso.org/
mfso@mfso.org
Veterans Against the Iraq War
http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php
VAIW@hotmail.com
212-866-1114
Veterans for Common Sense
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/
ashianna@veteransforcommonsense.org
202-543-6176
Veterans for Peace
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
vfp@igc.org
314-725-6005
About DU:
Military Toxics Project
http://www.miltoxproj.org/
mtp@miltoxproj.org
207-783-5091
NucNews DU List
http://nucnews.net/2000/du/dulv.htm