the gift that keeps on giving

Last night I saw a documentary on the use of depleted uranium in weapons used by the US and British Military in the Balkans and Iraq (twice). Without boring you with detail, depleted uranium tipped projectiles are great for penetrating armour and are particularly handy at stopping your regular everyday garden variety tanks. According to those in the know, our friends in the British and US military use depleted uranium because it gives them a significant advantage over the enemy*.

The problem is this. Depleted uranium is not as the name suggests depleted but is in actual fact a nasty and highly toxic heavy metal bi-product of nuclear power stations that when ingested has all sorts of nasty consequences. Most disturbing of all is it doesn't just make those that come in contact with it sick, it has long lasting affects which actually cause horrific and often non compatible with life birth defects and increased incidents of cancer (leukemia) in children and adults.

In both the Balkans and now in Iraq the legacy of war is no longer restricted to just missing limbs but will now and forever (4.5billion years) live on in the form of depleted uranium. The gift that keeps on giving. On behalf of us all, thank you Tony and most of all thank you GW*.