Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent, has just started a series of articles on Iraq, including a piece on the attack by Americans on Fallujah during the Iraq war. All too sadly the piece will most likely not even be read in America.
"After at first denying the use of phosphorous shells during the second battle of Fallujah, US forces later admitted that they had fired the munitions against buildings in the city. Independent reports have spoken of a birth-defect rate in Fallujah far higher than other areas of Iraq, let alone other Arab countries. No one, of course, can produce cast-iron evidence that American munitions have caused the tragedy of Fallujah's children."
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"Studies since the 2004 Fallujah battles have recorded profound increases in infant mortality and cancer in Fallujah; the latest report, whose authors include a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, says that congenital malformations account for 15 per cent of all births in Fallujah."
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"Fallujah: A history
The first battle of Fallujah, in April 2004, was a month-long siege, during which US forces failed to take the city, said to be an insurgent stronghold. The second battle, in November, flattened the city. Controversy raged over claims US troops had deployed white phosphorus shells. A 2010 study said increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in Fallujah exceeded those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Read the full piece here.
Coincidentally, truthdig also has a piece (together with a video) on the same topic:
"The U.S. government used depleted uranium, a known carcinogen and cause of birth defects, during strikes on Fallujah during the 2003 Iraq War, and generations of Iraqis and the families of American servicemen are living with the devastating consequences.
“Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.7 billion years—that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come,” said Dr. Ahmad Hardan, a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, in a 2006 article in The American Chronicle. “This is what I call terrorism.”
Hardan documented the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
Below, Chris Busby, a British scientist known for his research on the human health effects of radiation, introduces a short film by Iraqi investigative journalist Feurat Alani on the longstanding impact on the Iraqi population of the U.S. military’s use of depleted uranium and the incendiary chemical white phosphorous. That film, “Fallujah: A Lost Generation,” immediately follows."
Go here to view the video.
"After at first denying the use of phosphorous shells during the second battle of Fallujah, US forces later admitted that they had fired the munitions against buildings in the city. Independent reports have spoken of a birth-defect rate in Fallujah far higher than other areas of Iraq, let alone other Arab countries. No one, of course, can produce cast-iron evidence that American munitions have caused the tragedy of Fallujah's children."
***
"Studies since the 2004 Fallujah battles have recorded profound increases in infant mortality and cancer in Fallujah; the latest report, whose authors include a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, says that congenital malformations account for 15 per cent of all births in Fallujah."
***
"Fallujah: A history
The first battle of Fallujah, in April 2004, was a month-long siege, during which US forces failed to take the city, said to be an insurgent stronghold. The second battle, in November, flattened the city. Controversy raged over claims US troops had deployed white phosphorus shells. A 2010 study said increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in Fallujah exceeded those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Read the full piece here.
Coincidentally, truthdig also has a piece (together with a video) on the same topic:
"The U.S. government used depleted uranium, a known carcinogen and cause of birth defects, during strikes on Fallujah during the 2003 Iraq War, and generations of Iraqis and the families of American servicemen are living with the devastating consequences.
“Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.7 billion years—that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come,” said Dr. Ahmad Hardan, a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, in a 2006 article in The American Chronicle. “This is what I call terrorism.”
Hardan documented the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
Below, Chris Busby, a British scientist known for his research on the human health effects of radiation, introduces a short film by Iraqi investigative journalist Feurat Alani on the longstanding impact on the Iraqi population of the U.S. military’s use of depleted uranium and the incendiary chemical white phosphorous. That film, “Fallujah: A Lost Generation,” immediately follows."
Go here to view the video.
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