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Editor, Index-Tribune:
One of the greatest tragedies of our era is that solid uranium, sometimes called depleted uranium, is considered the most effective metal for making bombs, bullets, artillery rounds and rockets. Hundreds or thousands of tons of uranium munitions have been used in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas by the United States military.
It is well-known that uranium munitions burn when used, generating breathable uranium oxides. These tiny particles, if breathed, lodge in the body, emitting alpha radiation that destroys DNA in adjoining cells. Breathed uranium oxides cause cancer and many other diseases, killing and disabling the troops that use them, as well as opposing soldiers and innocent civilians wherever they drift.
Soon the United Nations will be voting on a resolution to ban uranium munitions. Presently, all nations in the world are ready to ban the scourge of uranium munitions except the United States, France, Israel, and the United Kingdom.
Mendocino Veterans for Peace, Chapter 116, is sending 3,000 signatures on petitions calling for banning uranium munitions to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For the sake of the present and future health and survival of the human race, please consider signing the petition supporting a United Nations resolution banning uranium munitions at the web address change.org/petitions/change-the-us-un-vote-on-depleted-uranium-weapons-this-fall.
John Lewallen
Philo
Please note: Your full name will be published with your comment.
The Mendicino Veterans for Peace have been taken in by a campaign of lies about depleted uranium for years. Much of what Mr Lewallen says in his letter is not true. DU is naturally occuring U-238, something that has been in the environment forever and always will be and that every single reader of this posting and all of their relatives past and present from protohumanoid to spacefaring but still Earthbound will ingest, inhale and breathe in a fraction of a microgram of U-238 every single day of their life. If DU were the horrid substance that the petition maintains that it is, how has the human race survived this long? I welcome e-mail replies from anyone who wants to learn more. I have been studying DU for over seven years and am especially well versed in the lies and the liars who tell them. I wonder which ones have influenced Mr Lewallen. DUStory dash owner at yahoo groups dot com.
Depleted Uranium was used as kinetic energy penetrators fired by tank and aircraft cannon against target tanks in the Gulf War, only by the A10's cannon in the Balkans to stop Serbian genocide, and in Iraq in 2003. DU is not used in bombs or rockets. DU penetrators are not warheads. They do not explode, they convert high velocity from being fired out of a cannon to extreme heat when they are abruptly slowed down by armor plate. That heat, in turn, ignites the on-board ammunition and fuel stores of the target tank and those explode blowing off the target tank's turret. Saddam Hussein had one of the largest armored forces in the world. It also had an advantage, it was combat tested and hardened in the long war with Iran. The US used the DU "silver bullet" to destroy many of those tanks before they were close enough to fire their own main gun and that angered Saddam and his generals. They launched a very successful proaganda campaign that has easily taken in well meaning people like Mr Lewallen and that is why it still continues over 20 years after it started. There are many other false statements in Mr Lewallen's letter and I invite him to write me directly so that we can discuss them. I presume that he really does not want to spread lies that began with Saddam Hussein, but that is what he is doing. DUStory dash owner at yahoo groups dot com.
DU has probably never been used in Afghanistan. There have never been any tank to tank battles in Afghanistan. The US did not deploy the M1 Abrams tank until a year or two ago and the Taliban government's tanks were destroyed by conventional bombs dropped by B1 bombers in 2001. The A10 has been deployed to Afghanistan, but its 30mm cannon does not just fire DU penetrator rounds. It also fires 30mm High Explosive Incendiary rounds and those are the only rounds that are effective against dug in fighters, buildings, barricades, etc. for which the A10 might still be called for close air support.
Just because someone sends around a petition does not really mean anything if the petition is based on lies. The anti-DU petitions are based on a series of lies that date back to Saddam Hussein in about 1992. Write me to learn more. I do not live that far away and I would be more than willing to meet people face to face if they want to come see me. DUStory dash owner at yahoo groups dot com.