Effect of D.U. Used by U.S. in Iraq

In Iraq, infants are being born without limbs, or with gaping holes in their backs, or eyeless. These are the effects of depleted uranium used in U.S. weapons dropped in Iraq, which have turned whole living areas into toxic wastelands, the contaminants absorbed by Iraqi mothers, with horrifying results to the fetus.

Dr. John Hittinger, former instructor at the U.S. Airforce Academy and now philosophy professor at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, says, "We can’t hide behind the doctrine of double-effect, or legalisms, and we need to face squarely the indiscriminate effect on Iraqi civilians.... Although this is not a deliberate, direct, planned attack on the unborn of Iraq, it is such a serious matter because we are attacking the sources of life in Iraqi men and women. There is a potential here for a genocidal effect."

It isn't just Iraqi civilians suffering from radiation; American soldiers returning from Iraq have also experienced its toxic effects, with some fathering newborns with severe birth defects. The Chicago Tribune’s Robert C. Koehler writes:

DU dust is everywhere. A minimum of 500 or 600 tons now litter Afghanistan, and several times that amount are spread across Iraq. In terms of global atmospheric pollution, we’ve already released the equivalent of 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. . . . The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse. DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who breathe or touch it; the substance also alters one’s genetic code.
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This ghastly toll on the unborn — on the future — has led investigators to coin the term ‘silent genocide’.