Blogcritics: Comments on Iraq - It's Not So Good After All

Comment by J.B. STONE

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 12:47:39 EDT

It's just a TEENSY bit more involved than you imagine.... link

Comment by SeanMan

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 04:31:18 EST

I highly doubt 4,000,000 pounds were used. Thats an awful lot. I bet that's also too expensive to even concieve of using. Also the reason that more people have died of cancer in Iraq, is probably because they have better hospitals now that can actually diagnose cancer as before people just died for whatever reason.

Comment by Hal Pawluk

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 10:36:26 EST

Rick, the point about using DU weapons is that they increase cancer and birth defects virtually forever. In one portion of Iraq, the number of deaths went from 34 to 603 annually. That's an increase of 1,674%. Your sympathies are noted.

Comment by rick

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 01:06:21 EST

I wish only 603 people died of Cancer in this country.

Comment by Natalie Davis

Sun, 28 Mar 2004 23:25:43 EST

Whoopee. We're all going to die.

Comment by Lisa

Sun, 28 Mar 2004 23:06:39 EST

...and it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for?, don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is????

Comment by Hal Pawluk

Sun, 28 Mar 2004 22:48:52 EST

It's definitely a problem, so here's a less inflammatory reference from last year for readers: "Although there is no firm consensus, nuclear experts and laymen alike generally agree that depleted uranium, which is toxic as well as radioactive, is at the very least a potential cause of cancers and birth defects. Some Iraqi physicians and others blame depleted uranium weapons used in the 1991 Gulf War for a major increase of cancers and birth defects that occurred a few years later. It is also a prime suspect for the Gulf War Syndrome that has sickened and killed thousands of U.S. veterans. "After NATO's use of DU weapons in Kosovo in 1999, the Council of Europe parliamentarians called for a worldwide ban on the manufacture, testing, use and sale of weapons using depleted uranium, asserting that NATO's use of DU weapons would have "long term effects on health and quality of life in South-East Europe, affecting future generations." The call went unheeded. "The U.S. and British use of DU during the latest conflict, also alarms doctors in Iraq. Cancer had already increased dramatically in southern Iraq. In 1988, 34 people died of cancer; in 1998, 450 died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. The rate of birth defects also had risen sharply, according to doctors in Iraq."