In These New Times

PressTV

31st January, 2012

The United States has perpetually contaminated the world, particularly the Middle East, by using massive amounts of depleted uranium (DU) in its wars, an analyst tellsPress TV.

Vietnamese-American writer and journalist Linh Dinh described the US use of depleted uranium as a “tremendous crime against humanity,” reiterating that it will affect innocent people and new-born infants “for generations to come and literally, for billions of years to come.”

“Once depleted uranium gets into the environment, into the water, into the soil, into the air, it remains there for billions of years and it doesn’t just stay in these (Middle Eastern) countries, although these populations are the ones who are most affected immediately, because once airborne it will spread all over across the globe,” he said.

The Philadelphia-based writer noted that the use of DU, the destructiveness of which the US denies, is ‘frankly genocidal.’

“During the Vietnam War, a vast amount of Agent Orange was used and the US also denied it was toxic, just as it is denying that depleted uranium is harmful.”

His comments come as a recent report shows that US forces have used huge amounts of depleted uranium in Afghanistan — causing a huge number of congenital deformities and cancers.

Numerous UN human rights commissions have prohibited the use of depleted uranium on humans, including during military conflicts.

However, the US government has notoriously used weaponized depleted uranium on humans, including in the following instances: 340 tons during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991; in every missile used during the 1998 Yugoslavian invasion; at least 1,000 tons in Afghanistan in 2001; and 2,400 tons in Iraq in 2003.

Depleted uranium is radioactive and extremely destructive to humans. It takes 4.5 billion years for one kilogram of depleted uranium to reduce to a half a kilogram.