UPDATED - ColdType

the UN that the Iraqi armed forces, acting on his
instructions, had destroyed the last of their
banned munitions. But, whether Saddam Hussein
is able to use such weapons or not, their
deployment in Iraq appears to be imminent, for
the Americans seem determined to do so.”
Depleted uranium:
Words we never hear
EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
AMONG the weapons being used are anti-tank
shells coated with depleted uranium. The US
insists they are safe. Critics contest that. The LA
Times, a winner of yesterday’s Pulitzer Prize,
noted on March 30th:
“Although the potential human cost of the war
with Iraq is obvious, not many people are aware
of a hidden risk that may haunt us for years.
“Of the 504,047 eligible veterans of the 1991 Persian
Gulf War, about 29% are now considered
disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs,
the highest rate of disability for any modern war.
And most are not disabled because of wounds.
“These guys were rough, tough, buff 20-yearolds
a decade ago. The vast majority is ill
because of a complex of debilities known as the
Gulf War Syndrome.
“These vets were exposed to toxic material
from both sides, including numerous chemicals,
fumes, and weird experimental vaccines. But the
largest number of the more than half a million
troops eligible for VA benefits – 436,000 – lived for
months in areas of the Middle Eastern desert that
had been contaminated with depleted uranium.”
“We kicked the crap out of them”
TOMDISPATCH.COM writes on this issue, too: “It
182
is worth remembering that the army of 100,000plus
young men and women who will occupy
Iraq for who knows how long – and of course the
Iraqis who have nowhere else to go – will all be
putting their health on the line so that we can
create a certain degree of greater target penetration
with our weaponry. As the LA Times
piece suggests, the famed epitaph for the Punic
Wars might apply: “They made a desolation and
called it Peace.”
Our response? According to Col. James
Naughton, director of munitions for the U.S.
Army Material Command, as quoted in a recent
Article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The
Iraqis tell us terrible things happened to our people
because you used it last time . . . They want it
to go away because we kicked the crap out of
them – OK? There’s no doubt that DU gave us a
huge advantage over their tanks.”
You can check in,
but you can’t check out
SOME embeds want out, as Joe Strupp reports
in Editor and Publisher: “At least 10 embedded
journalists have left their assigned slots with U.S.
military units in Iraq, according to a Pentagon
spokesman, who said twice as many people have
requested to leave but chose to stay after being
told their news organizations would lose the
slots for good if they departed. Meanwhile, the
Pentagon says they ‘won’t change the rules that
bar news organizations from replacing embeds
who leave or switching them from one military
unit to another.’
“Col. Jay DeFrank, director of press operations
for the Department of Defense, said he understood
that some newspapers may need to move