Killing Them Softly

You would think the civil war with U.S. troops mixed in the middle was enough killing for the war-torn country of Iraq. American soldiers have died by the thousands and Iraqi civilians are perishing by the tens of thousands. But there is another killer that is indirectly related to the conflict, cancer.

From Common Dreams:

CAIRO — Iraq’s environment minister blamed Monday the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces during the 2003 Operation Shock and Awe for the current surge in cancer cases across the country.

As a result of “at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing” with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year.

Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League, she also complained that many chemical plants and oil facilities had been destroyed during the two military campaigns since the 1990s, but the ecological consequences remain unclear.

In a nation of less than 25 million and dropping (due to death and refugees escaping the country) that is a lot of new cases. Not much is reported on what is done with depleted uranium shells, it is a problem that needs to be rectified. Of course, this is Iraq we are talking about, and there are a lot of problems that need remedies. Who knows when this one will be addressed, if ever.

Firebombing New Jersey

Usually our military wreaks havoc on other countries, but this week we did damage to our own. The "Shock and Awe" campaign on South Jersey unleashed an enormous forest fire, a result of flares dropped by F-16s onto a gunnery range. The fire has consumed 22 square miles of between Ocean and Burlington Counties. Some towns and developments have had to evacuate as firefighters struggled to get a handle on the blaze. Thankfully the rain from last night helped to turn the tide, creating hopes for the fire to be contained by today.

Attytood notes that there is something similar about all of this and what we do in other countries that we bomb.

From Attytood:

The kicker, which isn't in the article but I just heard reported by Alan Chernoff on CNN, is that the Air Force is now knocking on doors in the endangered neighborhood, giving people money. In fact, he reported, they'll likely pay to replace people's homes if and when any are destroyed. Does that sounds familiar? Yup -- it's the exact same thing that we now do in Iraq and Afghanistan when we accidentially target civilians.

Over there, we've paid out $32 million for bombings and raids that in many cases unintentionally killed civilians; here, we could pay a lot more, even though hopefully there won't be any loss of life. I guess for South Jersey, it is a small and highly regrettable taste of what life is like in a war zone.

It would be hypocritical of me to criticize the Air Force for training in New Jersey -- not after writing articles questioning the laggard response to 9/11. But there's got to be a better way than testing flares over a parched forest, isn't there? Maybe one of my military readers can make sense of this.

South Jersey may not be a warzone, but this is certainly a taste of life thrown out of whack by our military jets. Apparently there are some nasty terrorists hiding out in the dry woods of the Garden State. I thought Bush said we would be fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here. Oh well!