by John Lewallen / Father of a US Soldier –

When my daughter Rebecca recently told me that many of her friends were about to go to Iraq, suddenly the dismal information I got about depleted uranium at the Mendocino Peace Action Group’s “Delight in Activism” event began screaming at me: Not my kid!

The fact is that depleted uranium has been found in the semen of returning Gulf War veterans, causing genetic mutation and a host of diseases in the sex partners of these innocent victims, our children….

Today, any woman or man catching a whiff of desert sand when getting off the plane in Iraq must wonder where the estimated 2,000 tons of depleted uranium blasted at urban Iraq by the United States and Great Britain during recent hostilities have gone — especially the large percentage of depleted uranium which burned and vaporized into breathable particles. Where is it?

There’s a very reliable urine test that can tell a person if they contain depleted uranium; but “sorry ’bout that” (as they used to say in the war I lived in for two years in Vietnam). “Sorry ’bout that, it’s too late, there’s no therapy, just live knowing that you may be carrying mutant semen.”

Toxicologists know full well that depleted uranium, while of low toxicity externally or even when ingested, is deadly toxic if breathed, with both a heavy metal chemical toxicity similar to lead or mercury, and a radioactive toxicity caused by long-term release of alpha radiation by insoluble depleted uranium particles trapped mostly in lungs, kidney and bone.

Depleted uranium vapor is a deadly mutagenic poison present on any battlefield when depleted uranium-tipped bombs, bullets and missiles are used. Combat troops using depleted uranium are the people most likely to be seriously affected by it. Mendocino County Health Department offers a urine test for depleted uranium for $110.

As I write this, the United States Army is steadfastly maintaining that depleted uranium weapons pose no toxic hazard to anyone. This gargantuan lie must crumble. Meanwhile, I’m not going anywhere near Baghdad until it is known where all those hundreds of tons of depleted uranium vaporized over the whole city went.

Do not force our children to breathe depleted uranium!