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Depleted Uranium Deaths
What Happened To The Test Tube Paradigm?
By Dennis Kyne
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 US
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 US 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, www.denniskyne.com.
originally published in SF Bayview
http://www.sfbayview.com/020905/whathappened020905.shtml