- These members of the 369th transportation battalion from
New York City fought in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. They walked into
the "test tube" - they were the "experiment" - that
tested the effects, including the genetic effects, of the 300 tons of uranium
used by the U.S. military on that battlefield. Now half a million of them
are sick, and many of their babies have birth defects. Far more uranium
is being used in Iraq.
-
- When I was in eighth grade science class, Mr. Wadley,
who reminded us more of an ice cream truck driver than a teacher, taught
the pupils one thing with an incredible amount of emphasis: If the test
tube paradigm does not reflect the real world paradigm, then there is absolutely
no reason to ever do scientific experiments. Wadley further explained that
if you monitor the results of a laboratory experiment and allow this information
to be a basis for your intelligence in real world applications, you should
see results that are nearly identical.
-
- If the results are not nearly identical, then your departure
point was faulty. That is the only safe conclusion. Again, if the results
are not similar in scope or comparable in nature, then the departure point
was wrong and the test tube lacked something that the real world provides
to the equation.
-
- This makes my inquiry most important: "Why does
the United States Army violate the very simplest of scientific requirements
when it determines the validity of using uranium weapons on the battlefield?
What test tube did the military explode hundreds of tons of uranium in
and then walk hundreds of thousands of humans into?" We live in a
real world result of the use of uranium that you could never put into a
test tube to study.
-
- Recently, while in New York, I had the opportunity to
discuss the implications of uranium use with Dr. Thomas Fasy, associate
professor of pathology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Fasy casually
informed GNN's Anthony Lappe and me that the most damaging research regarding
uranium is coming out of government laboratories in Bethesda, Md.
-
- Lappe, author of the recent "True Lies," with
an entire chapter dedicated to uranium, was on the lookout for this evidence.
Not only does it prove uranium is horrific to the human experience, it
illustrates the military knows just how pathetic it is to denounce us who
have been exposed to this microwave wasteland.
-
- In 1994, Lt. Gen. Calvin Waller said in a "Dateline"
television interview with Storm Phillips that he had never been informed
this uranium could be deadly. He appeared disgusted by memorandums which
stated exposure to uranium used in weaponry could leave a residual effect
which might cause death, sickness and, worst of all, genetic mutations.
-
- Calvin Waller was the second in command, behind Norman
Schwarzkopf, during Operation Desert Storm. Waller has since passed away,
and over a decade after his interview, Bethesda is busy burning through
test tubes to come up with conclusions that are late by any standard of
science.
-
- Tests should have been done before the military dumped
a minimum of 300 tons of uranium in the Middle East in 1991. One ton is
equal to 2,600 pounds. Studies should have been conclusive after they stuffed
returning veterans into a slew of study groups.
-
- I was in one that tested for ionizing radiation, and
in 1995 I was compensated for undiagnosed illnesses. The results should
have been solid by the time they dumped bombs in Somalia and Yugoslavia.
-
- What are they going to tell the people living in Vieques,
Puerto Rico? Sorry, they didn't have a test tube that resembled your city,
so we will just go with the studies from Bethesda. Whatever happened to
the test tube paradigm? Maybe Vieques is the test tube.
-
- Pandora's box was opened by the mining of uranium from
the cradle it rested passively in. It has killed millions of indigenous
humans and altered millions of others genetically.
-
- Modern medicine calls it cancer; I call it radiation
exposure. Both express themselves as ruptured cells and altered organs.
-
- With hundreds of thousands of veterans from Operation
Desert Storm filing for disability compensation, it is alarming how many
of us cannot be diagnosed. How many years will it be before they can diagnose
a human being with radiation sickness? Sounds like the half million veterans
who stood on the front line of Desert Storm got tossed in the test tube
as well.
-
- While we know the test tube was broken, we are sure that
other problems were ignored. There was no test tube that included the results
of uranium's 21 phases of oxidation, all deathly. There was no test tube
that had metallurgical particles cooking down to become smaller than bacteria
and viruses.
-
- There was no study of the implications of walking into
these gaseous oxides or these particulates so small that even a standard
military issue protective mask could not keep them from lodging in lungs.
There was no study of the short term, long term or genetic effects of walking
into low level radioactive particulate.
-
- I say was, and now there is us. Us being the 500,000
men and women sent to the front who walked into this madness remembered
as Operation Desert Storm. Sadly, the 10,000 dead troops and half a million
sick and dying veterans are left wondering what happened.
-
- What happened to the daughter of Sgt. Daryl Clark, who
was on the front line and drowned in uranium dust from the tank buster
rounds that were pelted at his feet? In the same "Dateline" episode,
Phillips asks Clark how he feels. Clark responds, "When America called,
we were there. Now that we are calling, America isn't answering."
-
- This cry has been echoed in the hospitals, psych wards,
prison cells and gutters of America for the past decade, and it is an indicator
of what the returning veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom can expect.
-
- Later in this same "Dateline" episode, a goofy
looking general by the name of Blank admits to the viewers that the Army
dropped the ball. Storm asks him, "Who dropped the ball?" Blank
can't provide a name. This is the military way: field grade officers promise
to take care of the soldiers and can't seem to figure out who is dropping
the ball.
-
- A general sat in the television monitor and said the
buck stops somewhere else, but I can't tell you where. The ball dropped
so hard that Clark's daughter Kennedy was born without a thyroid and with
expressions of radiation exposure. Looks like Kennedy got stuffed down
the test tube also.
-
- Middle East experts state that there is an incredible
amount of pesticides and herbicides being used in the current war, and
this is confirmed by the Department of Defense as well. What does that
do in the test tube of 25 million Iraqi citizens? Pesticides, uranium,
herbicides, fires, plastics, gases and a list of potential hazards, from
rifle cleaner fluid to brake fluid, are being spilled all over the place
by gallons.
-
- Science hijacked the battlefield, and supporters say
the uranium is necessary because we can pierce the armor of a tank with
it. They did the studies, it is conclusive, the stuff pierced armor. Testing
officers would fire uranium tipped rounds and watch them pierce tanks.
-
- While we can't dispute these occurrences, surely we would
never call it science. Surely it isn't scientific enough to base conclusions
that put life as we know it in jeopardy.
-
- Mr. Wadley, my science teacher, would have failed the
experiment. He'd have stamped a big "F" on the report entitled
"Saving the Middle East with a history of good solid scientific research."
He'd say, "There is not one bit of scientific support to substantiate
the use of uranium. First of all, everyone knows that most military troops
couldn't hit the broad side of a barn when firing any weapon. So, how many
of these rounds hit innocent people? Churches, tin shacks, people on motor
scooters?"
-
- Wadley was sharp. I know this is where he would lead
us: "To fire a round in a piece of steal such as a tank that contains
the explosion and say it is safe to fire at a wedding somewhere off the
battlefield in Afghanistan is ridiculous."
-
- His style was such he might throw in: "You won't
be getting out of junior high school bringing projects like this in. Do
you know why?"
-
- "Class, do you know why this fails?" Wadley
wasn't afraid of a little embarrassment for the kids either. The class
loved it when they spotted one as easy as this, though, and got to yell
as loud as their voices could bellow, "It doesn't meet the test tube
paradigm."
-
- If the test tube paradigm does not reflect the real world
paradigm, then there is absolutely no reason to ever do scientific experiments.
It doesn't matter if you are an ice cream truck driver or a teacher, an
eighth grade student or a four star general; firing a round into a tank
as the test tube paradigm is not even close to the real world paradigm.
-
- We have been tossed in the tube together on this one.
Are you going to rely on Gen. Blank telling the world someone dropped the
ball here, and we don't know who?
-
- We can slip back into junior high with Wadley for a moment,
though, and accept the fact that this is not science they provide us. It
is a military misdirection, one that has cost thousands of lives and untold
environmental consequences. It is a crime against all living species. Worst
of all, it doesn't meet the test tube paradigm.
-
- Dennis Kyne is a combat veteran with 15 years in the
U.S. Army. He holds a degree in political science cum laude from San Jose
State University with an emphasis on nuclear proliferation. Email him at
d_kyne@hotmail.com and visit his website, http://www.denniskyne.com.
-
- Originally published in SF Bayview
- http://www.sfbayview.com/020905/whathappened020905.shtml
|
