The real legacy of liberation

By Libby

I've always thought the most dangerously ignored issue in any military conflict our country has engaged in has been the toxic weaponry that modern technology provided to more efficiently kill 'our enemies.' In Vietnam, it was Agent Orange, whose effects are still being felt in that country today. In contemporary military operations, we have even deadlier weapons of mass destruction at our disposal and as always, the toxins don't discriminate between the innocent and those who truly wish to do us harm.

FALLUJAH, Jun 12 (IPS) - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say. The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.

After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah. In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tonnes of DU in Iraq thus far. [...]

"Many babies were born with major congenital malformations," a paediatric doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "These infants include many with heart defects, cleft lip or palate, Down's syndrome, and limb defects."

The doctor added, "I can say all kinds of problems related to toxic pollution took place in Fallujah after the November 2004 massacre."

The evidence is all anecdotal since no studies have been conducted and medical records aren't allowed to be released but the numbers suggest this not mere conjecture. Even worse, the weapons don't exempt our own troops from the toxic fallout.

Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.

Again, there have been few studies and the Pentagon has done its best to suppress and deny what evidence exists that our own troops pay this long range cost that is not visible to the naked eye. But again, the anecdotal evidence is strong.

For myself, I've known veterans of both Vietnam and the first Gulf War, both as friends and as patrons of the VFW where I tended bar for two years. I watched many of them deteriorate before my eyes and attended far too many funerals of once robust men who died untimely deaths from mysterious maladies beyond the drug and alcohol abuse fueled by PTSD.

It's a sorry legacy and when we tally up the cost of war, it seems to me to be very wrong not to include these souls among the war dead, even though they died far from the battlefields and long after the fighting was over.