The Pentagon must surely believe the old but very
foolish saying that what you don't know won't hurt
you. To prove it they nearly always go to great
lengths to conceal what they do know so we won't find
out. That's especially true when what they know is
bad news or hazardous to our health or that of our
troops. That's certainly the case regarding the real
and deadly threat from exposure to the toxic effects
of depleted uranium (DU) poisoning. The public has
precious little information about this crucial issue
because it's been willfully and deliberately
suppressed to conceal just how potentially great and
irreversible a threat it is.
Is it any wonder then that most of those people who've
heard about DU have been seduced by the Pentagon
cover-up and stream of lies and are taken in enough by
them to believe what little information they hear and
read in the mainstream. I know those individuals
never heard of one of the two greatest and most highly
esteemed US print journalists of the last century.
His name was I.F. Stone, and I've read nearly all his
important books. Stone once told a class of aspiring
journalists always to remember "All governments are
run by liars and nothing they say should be believed."
Another time he simply said "All governments lie."
If I were asked to address a group of students, I'd be
even more emphatic than Stone and say governments only
lie and never tell the public the truth, especially
about the most important issues affecting us all. I'd
also quote Stone and recommend the students paste his
maxim to their bathroom mirrors so they never forget
it.
Government propaganda, lies and deception are more
extreme and sophisticated now than in Stone's day.
Those unaware of it remind me of a poker player
looking around the table to assess the competition.
He doesn't realize when he can't find who the mark is
it's him. But in a real life game of high stakes
poker when it's you against the "power structure" and
their corporate media allies, unless you know how the
game is played, you surely are their mark and they'll
eat you alive.
I know of nothing more dangerous to a free society
than a deficit of real information on the most vital
issues affecting everyone. It's impossible getting it
from government sources or the dominant corporate
media in league with them because supplying us with it
would subvert their interests. It's true on all
important issues without exception. So, if the public
knew the full truth about the potentially nightmarish
effects of exposure to DU munitions that will only
likely get worse unless exposed and stopped, it would
be impossible for the Pentagon to continue using them.
Only their cover-up has allowed them to be able to
recklessly and criminally use them in four wars since
1991 including the two of them ongoing now. And they
couldn't possibly ever consider raising the stakes
further, as they now have claimed the exclusive right
to do, to fight future wars with industrial strength
nuclear weapons that could lead to a nuclear
holocaust.
What we already know about the deadly effects of DU
munitions use alone is clear and growing, unreported
in the dominant media, and thus largely concealed from
the public. Those unaware of it, taken in by Pentagon
propaganda, or choosing to ignore the few facts about
it they do know should welcome and praise the
impressive work done on this issue by Irving Wesley
Hall. He's a man I personally know and have had
contact with. I've also collaborated with him as he
was preparing his extremely important series of
articles on this growing menace that may eventually
affect everyone. Irving has made an important
contribution, and I respect and admire him greatly for
it. His articles should be widely read and those
doing it should encourage others to read them as well
for their own safety and welfare. Having written on
this subject myself, I know from my own research how
valuable Irving's work is to expanding the knowledge
base about DU and its harmful effects.
What Depleted Uranium Is and How It's Being Used
Depleted uranium is a derivative of the uranium
enrichment process required to produce fuel for
commercial reactors. This process is then followed by
gaseous diffusion in two streams - one is enriched and
the other depleted. Before a use was found for it, DU
was just stored in vast amounts as a byproduct. All
that changed when it was discovered that solid "dense
metal" DU projectiles (in all forms) greatly increased
their ability to penetrate and destroy a target. That
was irresistible to the Pentagon that wanted to use
them in bullets, bombs, shells and missiles and now
has done so freely in four wars since they were first
used in the Gulf war in 1991 (except for one test in
the 1973 Yom Kippur war).
There's a problem with these weapons, however - a
serious downside never discussed and which great pains
are taken to conceal. These weapons in all their
forms leave in their wake an irremediable irradiated
and chemically toxic landscape far more deadly than
the death and destruction to the targets struck. How
deadly and toxic the fallout is varies only with the
amount of these weapons used. Hundreds of tons of
them were used beginning for the first time in the
Gulf war in 1991. A likely similar amount was used
again in Yugoslavia in 1999 and up to 1,000 or more
tons so far in Afghanistan since 2001. Any use of
these weapons is reckless and was effectively banned
by common consent (and common sense) and never used
until 1991 in Iraq (except for that one test).
However, their usage ballooned in successive wars to
over 3,000 tons so far since the US introduced them on
a large and sustained scale again in Iraq in March,
2003.
Put in perspective, since first used in 1991, the US
military has willfully and criminally spread deadly
toxic radiation across a vast area of three countries
as well as everywhere else affected by the fallout.
It's caused permanent irremediable contamination with
a half-life of 4.5 billion years or forever by my
reckoning.
One more important fact is these numbers increase
daily as since last December US forces have been
conducting four to six daily bombings of target sites
in Iraq alone that we know about using DU munitions
and an unknown likely less frequent number in
Afghanistan. We also have a new terror weapon we
claim the right to use routinely called "bunker-buster
mini nukes" that aren't mini but sure are nukes.
These are industrial strength nuclear bombs that can
be produced to any desired potency but are likely to
be used in strengths of between one-third to
two-thirds the destructive force of a Hiroshima bomb.
Pentagon propaganda falsely says these are little more
than king-sized hand grenades that are perfectly safe
when used as designed. They're supposed to penetrate a
target site deeply before exploding on the false
theory that their radiation will be contained
underground and thus are environmentally safe.
Testing of these bombs are planned in the Nevada
desert and may be now underway, but at least one
already carried out and observed proves otherwise.
What was seen on explosion is hardly reassuring that
the toxic fallout will be contained when used in
combat. Clearly visible was a huge black
mushroom-shaped cloud (sound familiar) that rose
thousands of feet in the air and was shown to be
deadly and toxic when ground radiation measurements
were taken following at least this one test. There
may have been others as well we haven't heard about.
The Pentagon always deliberately spreads false and
misleading information on its controversial
activities, but especially something as outrageous as
the lingering, spreading and deadly effects from DU
contamination which never end. Those exposed to it and
their loved ones with whom they have intimate contact
and their offspring are henceforth vulnerable to a
vast menu of virtually any illness, disease or
disability imaginable often leading to early death or
at the least a lifetime of pain, suffering and great
expense. It's no exaggeration to say that DU is the
deadly and unwelcome gift that keeps on giving,
disabling and killing.
DU weapons aren't just toxic and deadly, they're
illegal according to the standards and binding
international law under the Hague Convention of 1907
and 1925 Geneva Protocol and other succeeding Geneva
Weapons Conventions that specifically outlaw the use
of any chemical and biological agents in any form for
any reason in war as well as any poison or poisoned
weapons. DU weapons in all their forms are
radioactive and chemically toxic and clearly fit the
definition of poisonous weapons banned under these
binding international laws to which we are
signatories. As such, the US, having used them in
four wars, has violated our sacred treaty obligations
which are the supreme law of the land and is guilty of
repeated war crimes. That minor detail doesn't bother
the Bush administration that considers the Geneva
Conventions and all other international laws
inconvenient to its plans just "quaint" and
"obsolete."
The Public Is Largely Unaware of the DU Threat Or
Prefers to Believe Pentagon Propaganda Instead of
Known Scientific Fact
Most people get their so-called news and information
from the dominant corporate media mostly on TV which,
as everyone by now should know, never gives them what
they tune in for. Instead they get state approved
propaganda, lies and deception cleverly disguised as
the real thing. It's almost always true that what
they don't report is lots more important than what
they do. Of course, the reason this goes on is that
if the public knew and understood what our government
was up to, they'd never stand for it. So it's all
kept under wraps, and most people are never the wiser.
It's very easy to be influenced by the slick state
and corporate-friendly messages because they're
transmitted effectively ad nauseam round the clock on
air and in print. The repetition has a powerful
effect. It clouds the mind, blocks out the truth and
distracts enough to prevent those mesmerized by it
from seeking it. Why would you not want to believe
the friendly news anchors you've grown to know and
love over the years. Would they ever lie to you?
Darned right they would if they want to keep their
high-paying jobs.
I comment on this often for one reason. It's the most
important of all issues I know. Unless people know
and understand the truth about what's happening around
them on the vital issues affecting their lives,
they're defenseless against the onslaught of fraud and
deceit delivered through the dominant media. It
allows government to get away with the most egregious
acts as agents for giant corporations and the "money
changers" who buy and pay for their services. This
alliance is hostile to the public interest as it
allows these corporations and financial institutions
(including the US Federal Reserve which is a private
for-profit entity and not a government run one as
commonly believed) free reign to pursue their
predatory quest for greater profits and world
dominance and do it at our expense.
The Disturbing Truths about DU the Pentagon and VA Are Taking Great Pains to Conceal
Those truths are emerging slowly and convincingly, but
emerging they are. It's quite true we don't have all
the answers yet, and there's still much more to be
learned before we know for certain just how harmful DU
is in all respects and how widespread its
contamination has spread. However, all the new
evidence coming out points in one direction and leads
to an increasingly clear conclusion. It's the same
one I first heard told me by an eminent man in a
required college natural science course I took in
1953. The man was George Wald, distinguished
professor of biology and later a nobel laureate in
1967. Dr. Wald had many admirable qualities I admired
greatly, but I still remember verbatim the dramatic
statement he made one day in class. He told his young
students that "there is no such thing as a safe amount
of radiation." He understood what Albert Einstein did
even earlier, and both these men spoke out forcefully
against the genie out of the bottle that emerged once
the atom was first split in 1938 in a Berlin
laboratory. From that time to now, it's been known
beyond dispute how dangerous and deadly radiation is
in all its forms and in any amount to all those coming
in contact with it even for short periods of time.
However, for those exposed to it daily like our troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan where it's contaminated a vast
area, it's a possible death sentence or at the least a
lifetime of likely misery from the poisoning that
increases each day.
Some Documented Facts On the Effects of DU Poisoning
The greatest damage from DU comes from the radiation
residue after its use. When a DU weapon strikes a
target, it penetrates deeply and aerosolizes into a
fine spray which then contaminates the air, soil and
water around the target area. The residue is
permanent, and its microscopic and submicroscopic
particles are then swept into the air from the tainted
soil and are carried by winds to distant areas as a
radioactive component of atmospheric dust. That dust
falls indiscriminately everywhere over the area it
reaches. It causes radiation contamination that
affects every living thing and cannot be remediated.
As mentioned above, the poisoning from the
contamination causes every imaginable illness and
disease from severe headaches, muscle pain and general
fatigue, to major birth defects, infection,
depression, cardiovascular disease, many types of
cancer and brain tumors. It also causes permanent
disability and death. Months ago I personally alerted
my own medical providers to be on the lookout for any
unexplainable symptoms in their patients, especially
if they had served in the military in the Middle East,
Afghanistan or Yugoslavia.
I reported all this in a major, detailed article I
wrote on this subject a few months ago and available
on my blog site - sjlendman.blogspot.com. In it I
went on to explain that all military and civilian
personnel at or near target areas were and are most
adversely affected by DU contamination, especially if
they remained in those areas for an extended time.
During the six week Gulf war about 150 of our forces
were killed and 467 were reported injured. However,
the real effects of that war weren't apparent until
years later. We're beginning to get lots of
information on it now but not without great difficulty
to make it as complete and accurate as possible.
Because of that problem, there's great variance in the
numbers I've seen. But somewhere between about 30 -
75% of the 696,841 military personnel who served in
the Gulf from August 2, 1990 to end of July, 1991 have
filed claims for or have been reported by the
Veteran's Administration (VA) to be on some form of
disability in 2004. It's likely the true number is
closer to the lower percentage, but I've chosen to
report the range in case later on we learn things were
far worse than we now can imagine. We do know an
additional 11,910 vets have died as of early this
year. There's a problem compiling accurate data
because the VA has been complicit with the Pentagon in
the cover-up about DU and has said very little about
the true number disabled or how many of the disability
total were the result of DU poisoning. They could
easily find out by administering blood tests and doing
other proper examinations. Instead they've done as
little as possible just as for years in the 1990s they
denied the existence of "Gulf war" syndrome (most
likely from DU poisoning) and told suffering vets it
was all in their heads. They certainly were there if
any of those heads were afflicted with brain tumors or
their early stages.
We can only speculate about how many of our military
personnel post 2001 are now the victims of DU
poisoning, but it's likely the number is large and
growing with more coming down with disturbing symptoms
daily. We know many returning vets are already
seeking treatment for health problems, and that
medical professionals in hospitals and other
facilities providing it have been threatened with
$10,000 fines and even jail if they speak out about
what those problems are. Think how outrageous this is
- that a nation that sent hundreds of thousands of its
young men and women to fight in two illegal wars of
aggression, then turns its back on them when they
return home with serious illnesses they may never
recover from or that may kill them. And making
matters even worse, the Pentagon and VA are complicit
in a cover-up and denial a problem even exists. They
might as well be saying "let 'em suffer and die." So
think of it. This is the "model democracy" we hold up
to the world to emulate. In fact, it's a deadly and
sinister model all nations should reject and condemn.
Documented Evidence On Recent DU Fallout
In February, 2006, after I wrote my article on DU,
Irving Wesley Hall wrote his carefully researched and
extremely important series on DU and its harmful
effects. His findings were widely posted, and all of
it is available on his web site - notinkansas.us.
Irving's work is so important, readers should visit
his site, review his series carefully and likely learn
for the first time how serious and deadly a threat DU
contamination is to everyone coming in contact with
it.
Here's a sample of the information included in the
series which needs as much resonance as possible.
I've added some of my own comments to it. Irving has
made an important contribution, and I'm proud to be
associated with him and his work. He wrote that Dr.
Chris Busby, scientific secretary of the European
Committee on Radiation Risk, reported on official UK
radiation levels in the wake of the "shock and awe"
assault against Iraq in 2003. Dr. Busby documented
that uranium particles traveled 2,400 miles in nine
days from Iraq to Aldermaston, England. The invisible
cloud quadrupled Europe's atmospheric radiation
clearly showing that despite Pentagon denials, DU
contamination spreads far beyond the target sites
struck. Once again the Pentagon's mendacity and
indifference to its forces and the rest of us is
revealed in plain sight for all to see if they'll
bother to look.
The widespread contamination is even more dangerous
and deadly than formerly believed. But apparently one
emailer in particular, with little knowledge to
support what he wrote, attacked Irving's findings and
shamed and embarrassed himself in the process. I read
his response and know the facts. They clearly
contradict virtually everything he said and his
conclusions overwhelmingly. The emailer not only put
his ignorance on public display, but he also
arrogantly and insolently attacked the honesty, honor
and integrity of a man of the highest stature.
His shameless act reminded me of a "show-stopping"
moment I saw on US TV in June, 1954. It was during
the so-called Army - McCarthy hearings when chief Army
counsel Joseph Welch gave his famous retort to the
soon to be disgraced US senator, who became infamous
from his witch-hunting, self-serving search for
communists in government without ever finding any.
Welch and his reply are still remembered to this day,
and I clearly recall him making it. In defense of his
client under McCarthy's malicious attack he asked the
senator on national TV: "Have you no sense of decency,
sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency." Not
long after that memorable moment the McCarthy hearings
ended inconclusively, the senator's reputation was
shattered, he was censured by the Senate, and he died
a disgraced man a few years later. We can only hope
for a similar denouement for the band of rogues in
charge of US policy today who are making so many
people around the world the worst for it.
I won't try to match Joe Welch, but I'll just ask the
emailer: aren't you ashamed enough to flaunt your
ignorance to a world audience without compounding it
by shamelessly attacking a distinguished man of the
highest integrity and honor. Like "Tail-Gunner" Joe
(a moniker referring to one more dark side of the
tainted senator), have you no sense of dignity, or
just plain no sense at all?
Additional Expert Scientific Commentary Reported by
Irving Wesley Hall
Here's more from Irving's articles on the DU threat.
He learned about the work of Leonard Dietz who's a
retired physicist from the Knolls Atomic Power
Laboratory in New York state. Dietz pioneered the
technology to measure uranium isotopes, and Irving
quoted what he said: "Anyone, civilian or soldier, who
breathes these particles has a permanent dose, and
it's not going to decrease very much over time....In
the long run....veterans exposed to ceramic uranium
oxide have a major problem."
Irving reported an even more dire assessment that came
from another study of the materials currently in the
DU munitions used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study
found that in addition to U-238, today's DU weapons
contain plutonium (the most toxic of all known
substances), neptunium, and the highly radioactive
uranium isotope U-236. According to a 1991 study by
the UK Atomic Energy Authority, these elements are
100,000 times more dangerous than the U-238 in DU. It
only takes the most minute, nearly unmeasurable amount
of this substance in one's body to be fatal.
One other expert must be mentioned as well. His name
is Dr. Doug Rokke who was the director of the
Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project. He was assigned
by the US Army to be their chief biological, chemical
and nuclear weapons safety officer and expert in the
Gulf war. Irving interviewed Doug, and I, too, spoke
to and corresponded with him. Doug's extensive work
as director of the project led him to conclude that
"Uranium munitions must be banned from the planet, for
eternity, and medical care must be provided for
everyone - those on the firing end and those on the
receiving end." Rokke understands the problem well
from his extensive study of it and his own personal
and tragic experience. He and his staff of 100 were
all devastated by exposure to DU contaminated dust.
Thirty of them have since died, and Rokke now suffers
from serious health problems including brain lesions,
lung and kidney damage, reactive airway disease,
permanent skin rashes, neurological damage and
cataracts. It's quite clear Dr. Rokke didn't contract
this nightmarish stew of mostly very serious health
problems from an unhealthy life style, bad diet or
lack of exercise.
A Grim Assessment the Evidence Points To
So what can we make from all this. From the Gulf war
in 1991, at a minimum many tens of thousands of the US
military forces sent there for a short period of time
have had health problems or are now on some form of
disability. But the worst is yet to come. In the
Afghanistan war beginning in late 2001 and the Iraq
war from March, 2003, about 1.3 million US military
forces have served in combat and occupation in these
countries. They were all assigned long tours of duty
and most of them have served two or three deployments
to what are beyond question the most dangerous and
toxic environments on earth. Somewhere between 30 -
75% of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm are
now on some kind of disability or have died. If those
percentages are applied to the 1.3 million of our
military now serving or having served in Iraq and
Afghanistan since 2001, between 390,000 - to 975,000
vets may end up on disability or die from exposure to
the far more toxic DU munitions used in these wars,
the many other poisonous pollutants they've been
exposed to, and the much longer and multiple tours of
duty they've had to undergo.
In simple terms, it's likely we can expect an eventual
catastrophic human disaster of epic proportions and
one being covered up because of its enormity. And
it's in addition to the far greater one we've
inflicted on 26 million innocent Iraqis discussed
below. Should the truth about all this come out
fully, what sane young men and women would ever
volunteer for military service knowing they were
either signing their death warrants or at the least
likely assuring themselves a lifetime of devastating
and/or debilitating health problems. And add to that
the mass outrage by the US public and the people of
other nations that joined with the US in sending
contingents of their military to be part of an illegal
occupying force.
The effect of all this has finally reached the US
Congress, but it's unlikely anything meaningful will
emerge there to reveal how dangerous and deadly
exposure to DU contamination really is. Still on May
11, the House passed legislation that includes an
amendment by Rep. Jim McDermott (himself an MD and
once a practicing psychiatrist) ordering a
comprehensive study of possible health effects from DU
exposure on US military forces and their children.
It's almost certain this amendment will never get
through the Senate or certainly won't ever be signed
into law by George Bush. Still kudos and an A for
effort to Rep. McDermott even though it's almost
certain it will all be for naught.
The Devastating Toll on Iraqis Since 1991
As bad as it's been and still is for our troops and
their families, try to imagine the nightmare 26
million innocent Iraqis have been living through since
January, 1991. The Gulf war began the malicious
destruction of a once modern state. It caused 100,000
or more Iraqi deaths in just weeks and destroyed
essential infrastructure like electricity and clean
water facilities vital to the health, welfare and the
safety of the people. It also began the spread of
deadly toxic radiation across the country from the
first use of DU munitions in combat as well as a
harmful stew of other pollutants responsible for
rampant illness and disease. This living hell is what
US illegal aggression based on lies and deceit brought
to this most highly developed and well-functioning of
all states in the Middle East now unable to cope
against a brutal occupier determined to destroy and
control it for its own imperial purpose and gain.
The sacking and plunder of Iraq began in January,
1991. But although the war formally ended after six
weeks of one-sided fighting, the bombing and brutality
against the people never did. Air attacks continued
sporadically throughout the 1990s (ordered by Bill "I
feel your pain" Clinton) destroying more
infrastructure, causing more deaths and adding to the
spread of deadly pollutants including the toxic
radiation from the DU weapons used. What also
followed the formal end to hostilities was a dozen
years of brutal economic sanctions that ravaged a
population helpless to cope with their horrific
effects. The result was a humanitarian disaster of
epic proportions that never ended. Besides the
physical and human toll, the economy was destroyed as
is evident from the following data. The per capita
annual income of Iraqis declined from a 1979 level of
$2,313 to $255 in 2003 and $144 in 2004. Further, the
college of economics at Baghdad University estimated
that unemployment rose to a level of 70%. Even the
so-called "oil for food" program did little to relieve
the crisis prior to the 2003 invasion. In fact, it
was never intended to as the US planned all along to
inflict the greatest possible hardship on the people
hoping their misery would encourage them to rise up
and topple Saddam. It turned out it had the opposite
effect despite the severity of the toll. Instead of
blaming Saddam, Iraqis relied on him for whatever
relief they could get. It wasn't much or nearly
enough because the US allowed him little to give.
The combination of war and economic sanctions caused
widespread illness and disease that was devastating
and still is. Even by conservative estimates, it
likely caused the death of at least one million Iraqis
including 500,000 children. Some estimates put the
number as high as 1.5 million and some others far
higher still. When Denis Halliday resigned in 1998 as
UN head of Iraqi humanitarian relief he said he did so
because he believed he'd been instructed to implement
a policy of genocide and refused to do it. He added
that 5,000 Iraqi children were dying needlessly every
month. Hans Von Sponek, who took on the UN relief job
after Halliday, also resigned in frustration and
disgust in 2000 voicing similar sentiments when he
left.
But bad as conditions were then, they got far worse
following the US illegal aggression beginning in
March, 2003. The daily toll of death and destruction
since then is unknown precisely, but even conservative
estimates are appalling and shocking. The British
Lancet earlier reported by their "conservative
assumptions" an Iraqi toll of about 100,000 "excess
deaths" post March, 2003. They recently updated their
initial estimate (three years later) to a now likely
300,000 and rising daily as we all should know. Other
estimates place the number far higher, up to 500,000
in one estimate I saw a few months ago. Whatever the
true number is, the US inflicted disaster on Iraq and
its people for over the past 15 years is truly of epic
proportions. It clearly warrants the label genocide
and makes all those in the US at the highest levels of
three administrations responsible for it guilty of
egregious war crimes and crimes against humanity.
What May Lie Ahead
Iraq and Afghanistan are in ruins, and the US is
hopelessly embroiled in two wars it has no possibility
of winning. Both of them will go on without end as
long as we remain occupiers in countries where we're
not wanted and will never be tolerated. Further, both
countries have a long history of expelling invaders
regardless of how long it took them to do it. It will
be no different this time, but it's shocking to
imagine the human toll that will result on all sides
before they finally do end, the final tally is
estimated years later, and the many years it will then
take to rebuild these shattered countries.
So with two out-of-control wars ongoing, it would seem
unthinkable the US would now be planning one or two
more. How can that be possible, and what sane
planners would ever contemplate such an irrational
course? We don't have the troop strength, and our
military budget (on and off the books) is off the
charts and running up huge deficits even the new Fed
chairman is alarmed about. Logic and fiscal sanity
should indicate it would be folly to compound the
current mess with a still greater mess. But that's
exactly what appears to be in the works, and the
preliminary and softening up stage of a planned attack
against Iran is already underway just as it was
leading up to the March, 2003 "shock and awe" assault
against Iraq.
For many months, Iran has known the US has been flying
unmanned aerial surveillance drones to help select
target sites. There have been some scattered but
unconfirmed reports that one or more of these
intruders have been shot down. It's also a not so
hidden secret we've sent special forces or combat
personnel into Iran under cover along with
reconnaissance teams to collect similar information on
the ground as well as link up with anti-government
elements we hope will help our efforts. The Iranians
know all this, and you can bet they're trying to snare
a few of them, but if they have neither side is
letting on. I wouldn't want to be one of the illegal
infiltrators and get caught in the act. I don't think
the Iranians will be very hospitable or understanding
nor should they be. So what's likely to happen next
and when.
I have no timetable, but it's been responsibly
reported, and I believe the reports, that George Bush
has signed off on a "shock and awe" attack against
Iran and is intending to do it using industrial
strength nuclear weapons. They're deceptively called
"bunker-buster mini-nukes" which I explained above are
nukes but not mini ones - they're likely to be from
one-third to two-thirds as powerful as a Hiroshima
bomb. But they can be produced to any potency and
some likely will be and used. I also explained that
the Pentagon has lied (do they ever do anything else)
that the radiation emitted from these
earth-penetrating munitions will be contained below
ground and thus are safe to use. Not so, and the
Pentagon knows it.
Our apparent intentions toward Iran are also based on
more lies and deception as we accuse that country of
violating international law by having a secret nuclear
weapons program. There's no evidence whatever Iran
has one, but they'd be irresponsible not to be taking
every measure possible to defend itself against a
hostile US intending to bring down its government by
any means including nuclear war. Iran is a signatory
to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and so
far as known is in full compliance with it. As such
it has every legal right to enrich uranium for its
commercial nuclear industry as does every other
country following NPT rules.
US hostility to Iran has nothing to do with its
enrichment policy or even its form of government.
It's the result of Iran's intent to remain independent
of US dominance and go its own way. It's been that
way since the uprising that overthrew the repressive
and US installed and supported Shah in 1979 after
which Iran no longer was willing to continue
relinquishing its sovereignty and remain subservient
to US interests. The result has been continued
hostility between the two countries that may now be
culminating with a US planned attempt to oust the
country's leadership forcibly since we've given up
trying to achieve that goal by other means short of
war. The strategy won't be any more successful in
Iran than it's been in Iraq. What US planners may
succeed in doing is engulfing the whole Middle East in
flames without a realistic notion of what the outcome
of that may be. It certainly won't be a good one, but
that never before deterred an administration that's
often wrong but never in doubt.
The US way of doing things is to engage other nations
like a schoolyard bully. It's especially true in our
dealings with the developing world where we generally
treat the countries in it on the basis of an "our way
or the highway" policy. We can't unleash our full
force bullying against most developed ones in the
Global North, but we do that freely and often,
directly or through proxies, against all others that
forget "who's boss." When that happens, that
"highway" is usually strewn with unwarranted economic
sanctions, coup attempts, political assassinations, or
death and destruction from war. The US follows this
hostile course to bring "outlier" nations in line with
our policies, but also to deter others from deviating
from them as well. It's a bloodstained legacy that
puts to rest the myth that the US is a peace loving,
benevolent democracy only wanting to spread those
principles to other nations that don't practice them.
But let me state clearly something I haven't said
elsewhere before but should have. By the US I don't
mean the people. I mean the leadership of both major
political parties and their corporate and elitist
allies all of whom work against the public interest
everywhere and only for their own.
The US and Iranian public interest won't be served by
what our present leadership apparently has in mind for
that country - regime change the hard way. It looks
like the plan is to make it extra hard by upping the
ante to send a clear and decisive message to the
Iranians and all other nations going their own way
that we will nuke you into submission unless you come
around willingly. So far we've only used nuclear
weapons below the radar with DU munitions that alone
have caused unspeakable harm. But should the US go
further and attack Iran with industrial strength
nuclear bombs, we will have crossed an inviolable
threshold, moved the nation one step closer to tyranny
and brought the world a lot closer to a possible
eventual nuclear holocaust. In my judgment, that's
what's now at stake unless a way is found to stop this
aggressive juggernaut before it goes further and it's
too late to act.
Iran is First in the US Target Queue Followed by
Venezuela
Unimaginable as it may seem, high-level leadership and
planners in Washington may have in mind not just a
third conflict but a fourth one as well. I've written
about this several times, and recently wrote a feature
article titled "The US Now Planning A Fourth Attempt
to Oust Hugo Chavez." Based on my knowledge and ear
to the ground observing and listening to the steady
and intensifying drumbeat of anti-Chavez rhetoric
coming from top US officials through the corporate
media (all of it the usual litany of lies and
deception only), I have no doubt whatever a fourth
attempt to oust President Chavez and his government is
planned and likely now being implemented under the
radar. Precisely how and what will be unleashed won't
be known until the fireworks begin. But make no
mistake about it, they will begin, and this time they
may include attempted assassinations and open conflict
with DU munitions or even full-scale nuclear bombs if
that's part of the plan. If that happens, the nuclear
nightmare will have arrived in the Americas and come
ever closer to the US Southern border.
By whatever means the US has in mind in its latest
attempt to unseat Hugo Chavez, its intentions toward
him and his government are clear, unmistakable and
written in stone. The US will settle for nothing less
than full control of his country's vast hydrocarbon
reserves and a government willing to hand them over to
us. Those reserves are far more vast than once
thought as the best estimates of the country's oil
reserves (including the extra-heavy kind more
expensive to refine) are thought to be about 350
billion barrels or even higher. That compares to
Saudi Arabia's estimated reserves of about 262 billion
barrels of (at least mostly) the preferred and more
easily refined "light sweet" crude. It takes no
mental exertion to see the two countries at the head
of the US target queue have vast amounts of the
essential commodity the US wants most and is willing
to go to war if necessary to secure control over
everywhere it feels it's worth the cost and effort.
There's no doubt the US feels that way about Iran and
Venezuela just as it did about Iraq.
The US decided Saddam had to go not because of his
oppressive rule or his "now you see 'em, now you
don't" WMDs. It was because of his unwillingness to
surrender his nation's sovereignty to the US. Same
old story, and it's the same again in Iran and most of
all in Venezuela that has to be the greatest prize of
the three. It's especially tricky for the US there as
that nation happens to have a democratic leader loved
by the great majority of his people. It's because
Hugo Chavez is fiercely and proudly independent, as he
has every right to be, and puts the needs of his
people ahead of the US and its Big Oil interests.
Chavez was twice democratically elected and then
prevailed in an August, 2004 recall referendum (the
third coup attempt by ballot box means) that was a
contrived act of desperation cooked up by his right
wing opposition in league with US corporate interests.
It was a flop as Chavez's supporters flocked to the
polls giving him a decisive victory. He deserved and
earned it and his other electoral victories as he
proved he's the rarest of political leaders who
actually delivers on his promises to the people. Try
finding a US politician who's done that, especially
one with any power to follow through. You'll need a
high-powered version of that lamp Diogenes once used
used looking for an honest man.
It's Hugo Chavez's intention to serve the interests
and needs of his own people and not those of his
dominant Northern neighbor that has him once again
high on its target list for elimination. Hugo Chavez
will remain there until the US finds a way to remove
him which it certainly will keep trying to do. Chavez
is well aware of it and so are the Venezuelan people
who love and support him and are likely to fight to
keep him in office. They know what their lives were
like before he became their president and what a vast
difference he made once he came into office. He
promised to serve the people and proved it by
instituting a vast array of social programs the
majority of the US public might only dream about if
they knew what's available now to the Venezuelan
people.
They include free, comprehensive and high-quality
health and dental care for all as well as free
education through the university level to all those
who wish it and can qualify. Compare that to what's
available in the US - a health care system available
only to those who can afford its high and fast-rising
cost and a deliberately degraded inner-city public
education system as well as a costly one at the
university level unavailable to lower income families
that can't afford it for their children. Now try to
imagine what the US has in mind for Venezuelans. It
won't tolerate a developing nation's leader who'll
institute such essential social services for the
people and will try to end them even if it takes
nuclear war to do it. Try to think of appropriate
language to describe the leader of a nation who would
unleash such an attack and do it for power and profit.
Do the words tyrant and war criminal come to mind?
Get Ready for the Long Knives, the Marines Again in
Action to Go Along with A Little Or Maybe A Lot of
"Shock and Awe."
The plans for two "outlier" countries are set, the
wheels are in motion, and we now must wait and see
what will unfold in the next chapter of the ongoing
drama of an aggressor and imperial US against the
world with Iran and Venezuela numbers one and two in
the US target queue.
Several times before I spelled out in some detail what
I feels lies ahead unless a way is found to stop it.
I fear two more conflicts are ahead for starters to
add to the ones now ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Still others will follow against other countries to be
named later and by whatever timetable and means we
have in mind. The result may be that the US is near
to crossing an inviolable Rubicon in two deadly and
dangerous ways - first by unleashing the nuclear genie
in an industrial strength way, and second by
suspending the Constitution and declaring martial law
at home in the wake of a likely inevitable second
major terror attack that may be as much an inside job
as was the first one on September 11.
Unless the US public awakens to these very real
threats, we face the same fate as did the Germans who
lost their model democratic state after the ascension
of Adolph Hitler. Good German people let him steal it
from them while they weren't paying attention or
bought into his false rhetoric that he was serving
their interests and protecting them from an outside
threat - that never existed. We also have no outside
threat from any other nation, but we've been
effectively scared to death and conned by the false
rhetoric that's made us feel we do. The result is
we're getting too close for comfort to the point of no
return. There's still time to act if we're bold
enough to do it. Think of the choice I think we face.
Act together in our collective self-interest or do
nothing and see us pass from a once proud but now
tattered republic to tyranny. It can happen here as it has elsewhere unless we act to prevent it.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog
site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
