By Carol Dudek
Iraq was the fertile crescent of antiquity, the vast area that fed the entire Middle East and Mediterranean, and
introduced grains to the world. It was Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, that propelled us forward with its
invention of writing, domestication of animals and settled life. Now its groundwater and soil store the radioactivity
of 630 tons of depleted uranium weapons. The waste that has been thrown onto civilian targets has permanent
consequences. It pollutes southern Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia with uranium oxide dust that spreads as far as 26
miles, blowing with sand, weathering into water. Uranium 238, with a half-life 4 ½ billion years, lies on the region
in the scattered tons of wreckage. Contamination is permanent. Its radiological and chemical toxicity exposes the
population to continuous alpha radiation that is breathed into lungs, absorbed through the skin, touched by the
unwashed hands of kids who roam the scrap metal yards for parts to sell to help their families.
Depleted uranium is a waste product of the process used to make nuclear power reactors. A heavy radiological
metal of high density, it is used as the core of armor piercing munitions, and is incorporated into vehicles that
become almost impervious to penetration by conventional rounds. Tanks, attack jets, helicopters and missiles
routinely use DU rounds. DU is self-burning, and when it hits a hard target, aerosolized particles are released in
high concentrations as toxic smoke. In the 1970s, DU was given free to arms manufacturers and governments for
study, eliminating the high costs of long-term storage and monitoring. Most DU research is performed by military,
industrial and government organizations with a vested interest in its continued use.
A UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights has condemned depleted uranium munitions as weapons of indiscriminate
destruction. Its effects continue after war ends and beyond military objectives; particles travel to noncombatant
countries, polluting soil, water and food. In 1996, the UN passed a resolution to ban the use of DUs. The US voted
no and all abstentions were from Europe.
1991 witnessed the first firing of depleted uranium weapons by the US and Britain. 87,500 tons of bombs were
dropped on Iraq and Kuwait, more than the atomic bomb that incinerated Hiroshima. Tons of armor piercing
weapons were fired from 14,000 tanks, 50,000 missiles and rockets. The Air Force fired a million rounds. Seventy
percent of the munitions did not hit military targets, and indiscriminate force resulted in civilian deaths, 90% who
were noncombatants. 50,000 children died in Iraq from DU weapons early in the Gulf War. Battle sites that were
overwhelmingly residential and urban continue to emit disproportionately high concentrations of radioactive
elements.
In 2002, the US fired between 300 and 800 tons of DU ammunition on Iraq. In three weeks of the 2003
bombardment, 1000-2000 tons of DU weapons were fired. The US GAO estimates six billion DU bullets were fired
between 2003-05. The Persian Gulf has been left with 300 tons of wreckage on the ground, polluting the land and
water for decades.
Uranium has an affinity within the body for DNA, chemically bonding to it. When human bone cells are exposed to
depleted uranium they fragment, breaking away from chromosomes and reforming abnormally, and the mutations
are passed from parent to child. Iraq is experiencing an epidemic of birth defects, sometimes multiple defects in one
baby. Leuren Moret, a nuclear authority at Livermore National Laboratory, reveals that so much DU has been fired
that the genetic future of the Iraqi people is destroyed. For every defect now, we will see thousands in future
generations. Fifty percent of children are born with malformations, and in a few years it can be every one. Iraq is
seeing conditions for which there are no medical terms.
Birth defects in Basra increased 17 times between 2003-2011. It saw a 7% increase between 1994-2003, six times
higher than the rate in the United States. Childhood cancers rose 384% in the ten years between 1990-2000.
Fallujah is 40 miles from Baghdad, and after massive sieges, it experiences the highest rate of genetic damage in any
population ever studied. Birth defects are 14 times higher than those in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Between 2007-10,
half of the babies were born with birth defects. A 2010 study found birth defects 33 times higher than in Europe.
Congenital malformations have mushroomed, including nervous system and heart defects. Severe birth defects in
newborns appear as multiple disfiguring tumors, overgrown or missing limbs, fused legs. Babies are born with
spina bifida, some are missing genitalia, some are born with their intestines outside their little bellies. The photos
are shocking and very painful to look at: newborns with two heads, or no head, scaly bodies, missing eyes or one
eye in the center of the face, malformed ears, noses, bones and rib cages rendering the infants unable to live. In
September of 2009, of the 170 babies born, 24% died in a week, and 75% of them were deformed. In 2011, doctors
reported two babies born with birth defects every day, which is 11 times the world average. During the crisis,
hospitals reported new mothers in shock, apologizing for their deformed newborns. Fallujah has suffered an
increase in sterility and infertility, and one of every six pregnancies miscarried between 2009-10. Today women in
Fallujah are too scared to conceive and hospital officials are quietly telling them to avoid pregnancy. Cancer rates