-Caveat Lector-
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From: "Alden Bryant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: no more military action in other countries
Date: Friday, January 24, 2003 3:28 PM
Let us look at a number of life essental reasons why the U.S. must take care
of its people at home, and spend no more funds on military action in other
countries.
Gulf war vets' illnesses
---------------------------------
Consider the Kathleen Sullivan article, Chronical Staff Writer, San
Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2003. "More clues to Gulf War vets'
illnesses. Insecticides, anti-nerve gas drug linked to infertility in
soldiers."
She points out that "according to epidemiological studies, about 200,000
Gulf War veterans -- out of 700,000 deployed -- have suffered illnesses
since the war."
"During the war, troops were exposed to pesticides, chemical warfare agents,
vaccines, PB (pyridostigmine bromide), infectious diseases, depleted
uranium, oil well fires and smoke and petroleum products."
Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina has done research. "In a
study published last year, Abou-Donia and fellow researchers found that rats
exposed to the same trio of chemicals and stress suffered signicant damage
to the areas of the brain that control muscle strength and movement, balance
and coordination, and memory and emotions. Abou-Donia noted that veterans
had complained of problems in those very same functons for more than a
decade."
More in depth on depleted uranium (DU)
-----------------------------------------
Refer to the analyasis by Leuren Moret, "Depleted uranium: devastation at
home and abroad." San Francisco Bay View, November 7, 2001. Hunters Point,
referred to here, is within the City of San Francisco, California.
"The bombing of Afghanistan by U.S. government forces has direct ties to
Hunters Point. It was at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard that a
radioactive material called depleted uranium (DU), currently being used in
the bombing of Afghanistan, was first tested by the Navy.
"The United States now has hundreds of thousands of tons of depleted
uranium piled in heaps outdoors at DOE facilities. It is 99.5 percent of
what is left when the most fissionable isotope (one of three) is extracted
from naturally occurring uranium. The extracted uranium is used in nuclear
weapons or nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors."
"'Depleted uranium' does not mean it is not radioactive -- it is very
radioactive and very dangerous to all living things.
"The Department of Defense got the bright idea of using depleted uranium
in weapons because: it is very dense, which gives it greater penetrating
power to destroy tanks, etc.,; it is 'pyrophoric,' which means that upon
impact, it exlodes into fire and smoke, creating submicroscopic radioactive
particles which travel great distances and can remain suspended until it is
'rained out' of the atmosphere; it is cheap, and pases the responsibility
for disposal from DOE on to civilians (that means us) and the environment.
"Since depleted uranium is so radioactive, it will continue acting
internally on living things long after the battlefield has been cleared --
with delayed effects which impact soldiers and civilians for the rest of
their lives. The half life of uranium is 4 billion years -- in ten
half-lives redioactivity becomes an insignificant amount. In 45 billion
years it will no longer be a danger. In other words, it's 'fun' for the
DOD, it's 'cheap' for the arms manufacturers (who realize good profits by
making it), and 'good riddance' says DOE (with 480,000 tons on hand).
"The Navy first tested depleted uranium munitions in 1977 in Hunters
Point. From the US Bigelow, the Phalanx Weapons System fired 3,000 rounds
of depleted uranium penetrators per minute. The test exceeded expectations
and production started in 1978 to fill orders for 23 U.S. Navy and 14
foreign military systems.
"The Army A-10 Thunderbolt II, nicknamed 'the Warthog,' fired most of
the depleted uranium munitions in the Gulf War, betwen 300 and 800 tons.
The Abrams Tank, the Marines M-60, the U.S. F-16 and U.S. Apache helicopters
have been fitted to fire DU munitions. Many cruise missiles contain DU
balance weights.
"The use of DU is not being covered up, but the health hazards have
been. Gulf War Syndrome not only killed, maimed, and made soldiers sick,
they brought it home. In a study of 251 Gulf War veterans' families in
Mississippi, 67 percent of their children were born without eyes, ears or a
brain, had fused fingers, blood infections, respiratory problems or thyroid
and other organ malformations."
"For 40 years, the Sierra Army Depot in Northern California has burned
millions of tons of old munitions -- including 20 times more DU than was
used in the entire Gulf War. The radioactive smoke and ash, full of heavy
metals, phosgene gas and dioxins, contaminated local communities as well as
that of many Native Americans living downwind -- especially the Pyramid Lake
Paiute Reservation.
"The health problems in those communities have been horrendous. The
Sierra Army depot burned old munitions in open pits -- and was the single
largest contributor to air pollution in California -- 17-23 percent." ... A
month ago, Lassen County refused to renew the burn permit for the Sierra
Army Depot -- finally.
"The United States has used DU weaponry in the Gulf War, Kosovo,
Serbia, Vieques Island, and Torishima Island near Okinawa, Japan; and sold
DU to at least 23 countries at great profits. As mentioned earlier, DU is
part of the arsenal the U.S. and British military forces are using against
Afghanistan."
"The true patriots in this country are two women: Barbara Lee for
saying 'no' to needless further devastation of an already war-torn country,
and Dona Spring, who brought the issue to the table in Berkeley City
Council. Berkeley is the only city in the United States to pass a
resolution calling for an end to the bombing of Afghanistan."
"War is how our 'leaders' bleed us, too. It is economically,
radiologically and chemically devastating at home as well as abroad."
Note the information about Leuren Moret at the end, plus a number of email
and web addresses. "Leuren Moret, an environmental geologist and
independent scientist, is president of Scientists for Indigenous People.
Moret wrote the foreward to Akira Tashiro's new book,'Discounted Casualties,
The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium.' Tashiro, a Japanese journalist from
Hiroshima, includes in this work over 40 interviews and color photos
depicting the devastation caused by uranium in the U.S., the United Kingdom,
the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, and Japan."
Depleted uranium destructive effects
-------------------------------------------
Another look at the use and effects of depleted uranium has been provided by
Helen Caldecott in the San Francisco Chronicle, dated October 10, 2002.
"Medical consequences of attack on Iraq."
She says: "As the Bush administration prepares to make war on the Iraqi
people -- and make no mistake, it is the ciivilian population of that
country and not Saddam Hussein who will bear the brunt of the hostilities --
it is important that we recall the medical consequences of the last Gulf
War. That conflict was, in effect, a nuclear war.
"During the 1991 Gulf War, the United States deployed hundreds of tons
of weapons, many of them anti-tank shells made of depleted uranium 238.
This material is 1.7 times more dense than lead, and hence when incorporated
into an anti-tank shell and fired, it achieves great momentum, cutting
through tank armor like a hot knife through butter.
"What other properties does uranium 238 possess? First, it is
pyrophoric. When it hits a tank at high speed it bursts into flames,
producing tiny aerosolized particles less than 5 microns in diameter that
are easily inhaled into the terminal air passages of the lungs. Second, it
is a potent radioactive carcinogen, emitting a relatively heavy alpha
particle composed of 2 protons and 2 neutrons. Once inside the body --
either in the lungs if it has been inhaled, or in a wound if it penetrates
flesh, or ingested since it concentrates in the food chain and contaminates
water -- it can produce cancer in the lungs, bones, blood, or kidneys.
Third, it has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, meanng areas in which this
ammunition was used in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War will remain
radioactive for the rest of time.
"Children are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to the effects of radiation
than adults. My fellow pediatricians in the Iraqui town of Basra, for
example, are reporting an increase of 6 to 12 times in the incidence of
childhood leukemia and cancer. Yet because of the sanctions imposed upon
Iraq by the United States and United Nations, they have no access to drugs
or effective radiation machines to treat their patients.
"The incidence of congenital malformations has doubled in the exposed
populations in Iraq where these weapons were used.
"The fact that almost one-third of the American tanks used in Desert
Storm were themselves made of uranium 238 is another story, for their crews
were thereby exposed to whole-body gamma radiation.
"Would these effects have surprised the U.S. authorities? No, for
incredible as it may seem, the American military's own studies prior to
Desert Storm warned that aerosol uranium exposure under battlefield
conditions could lead to cancers of the lung and bone, kidney damage,
non-malignant lung disease, neurocognitive disorders, chromosomal damage and
birth defects.
"Do George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and
Donald Rumsfeld understand the medical consequences of the 1991 war and the
likely health effects of the next one they are now planning? If they do
not, their ignorance is breathtaking; even more incredible though -- and
alas, much more likely -- is that they do understand, but do not care."
Nuclear technology, background
--------------------------------------------
Before the dupleted uranium outbreak in our world's history, is the nuclear
and nuclear weapon history leading up to 1945. Leuren Moret contributes to
this understanding in her article "Guided missiles and misguided men", San
Francisco Bay View, January 23, 2002.
"Moral bankruptcy in nuclear science."
"After 1945, the roots of the Nazi missile program merged with the
madness to develop a nuclear weapons program. Nuclear scientists, military
and political -- misguided men -- were encouraged by the horrendous events
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman had deceived the American
public into believing that those cities were military targets, but he failed
to mention the hundreds of thousands of civilians who were 'nuked.'
"The Atomic Energy Commission developed a culture of extreme secrecy
that threatened our democratic process, and the billions spent on nuclear
weapons development drove much of the population into poverty. That spending
continues to escalate at a time when there is no longer a need for such
extreme measures."
"Glen Seaborg received a telegram at the Nobel Prize ceremonies in
Stockholm from his grad students asking, 'Where is our share?' They died a
few years later from radiation poisoning, without recognition for their
contributions. They had literally given their lives for his Nobel Prize."
"Meanwhile, great profits are made by environmental cleanup contractors
such as the IT Group. The Navy has paid close to $200 million for Hunters
Point Shipyard cleanup to IT, a company partly owned by the Carlyle Group,
composed of George Bush Sr. and his cronies, among them the Bin Laden
family."
"The highest rate of breast cancer in the U.S. in women under 40 is
there in Hunters Point. Sixty years ago, before chemical and radioactive
pollution fouled their neighborhood, nearly all young women in Hunters Point
would have been cancer free."
"The case of Tom Olsen is just as revealing. In a telephone interview
I had with Olsen on Sept. 12, 2001, he described his efforts to get
assistance from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. A Shipyard whistleblower
diagnosed with lymphodema due to radiation exposure, he now weighs 700
punds. He contracted his illness from exposure to the 55 gallon barrels of
radioactive waste he used to carry and dump into the Shipyard landfill. Now
he is in a special group study conducted by military agents from the Agency
for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, a branch of the Centers for Disease
Control. Like Olsen, four other exposed workers have bcome grotesquely
obese."
"Today,12 percent of Russian children are born mentally retarded due to
exposure to chemicals, heavy metals and radiation -- mostly the trash from
their nuclear weapons programs. And since radiation respects no borders,
their neighbors cannot prevent the radiation from entering their countries.
Innocent bystanders, the radiation will continue to poison the future of
their children too.
"The children of the world are paying the price for the arrogance of a
few misguided men. The spiritual battle that we fight daily must never end.
Like Churchill, we must never give up and never give in. And like Martin
Luther King Jr., each of us must have a dream."
Making funds availabale at home
---------------------------------------------
Let us consider sources of federal income that are not being received
now, but were in the past and can be again in the future. Molly Ivins has
presented a broadly informative article on this subject. "Do call it
'patriotism'" Creators Syndicate Inc., San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday,
November 27, 2002. Austin, Texas. In part, it shows the following.
"The House leadership -- Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader
Dick Armey -- took the 'Wellstone Amendment,' sponsored by the late populist
senator, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., out of the Homeland Security bill.
It would have prevented runaway companies -- those that set up mail boxes in
Bermuda in order to avoid paying their taxes -- from getting government
contracts related to homeland security. They replaced the Wellstone
Amendment with a toothless provision that affects no campany.
"According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the offshore tax-shelter dodge
costs this country as much as $50 billion annually.
"The polite term for these corporate tax-dodgers is 'corporate
inversion' or 'corporate expatriates,' but they are tax cheaters, pure and
simple. They don't move anywhere, they just get a shell address so they
won't have to pay their share of the taxes. And guess who gets stuck paying
their share instead? And now we're going to reward these tax cheats with
government contracts.
"Here's Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., on how it works: 'Let's take Tyco,
formerly of New Hampshire, now of Bermuda, for example. Tyco avoids paying
$400 million a year in U.S. taxes by setting up a shell headquarters
offshore, but it was awarded $182 million in lucrative defense and homeland
security-related contracts in 2001 alone."
Where is veterans' care?
---------------------------------------------
Some veteran's care is excellent. The question before us is what is
the magnitude of lack of care, refusal to admit responsibility by government
bodies, and suffering and early death of veterans and their families.
Lawrence J. Korb describes parts of theses lacks in his article "Bush
should OK benefits for vets who served America." Oakland Tribune, November
30, 2002. Lawrence J. Korb is the director of National Security Studies at
the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Most Americans would be surprised, and possibly shocked or outraged,
to learn that even severely disabled military veterans, who receive a
disability pension because of a service-connected wound or injury, must
forfeit part of their retired pay.
"Americans would be more surprised to learn that President Bush and
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top lieutenants are actively
resisting congressional efforts to rectify this injustice. Unfortunately,
this is the case.
"In the fiscal year 2003 defense authorization bill, Congress
stipulated that disabled veterans would no longer rhave to give up part of
the retirement pay they have earned. In other words, they would receive
retired pay and disability pay concurrently.
"Rumsfeld and his undersecretaries have not only complained publicly
about this, but have said that they have recommended to Bush that he veto
the authorization bill if the offending provision, known as concurrent
receipt, is not removed.
"A reasonable person would have to conclude that in a near-$400 billion
defense budget -- which has increased by nearly $100 billion, or 25 percent,
in the past two years and exceeds Cold War levels even when adjusted for
inflation -- the Pentagon could afford to absorb the cost of giving the
disabled veterans their just compensation."
New emphasis on false information
---------------------------------------------
Now is as good a time as any to update our understanding of the type of
information the public is getting regarding military action and the handling
of the federal budget. Note the Los Angeles Times article, "The Military's
New War of Words," By William M. Arkin, who is a military affairs analayst
who writes regularly for Opinion. November 24, 2002.
"Increasingly, the administration's new policy -- along with the steps
senior commanders are taking to implement it -- blurs or even erases the
boundaries between factual information and news, on the one hand, and public
relations, propaganda and psychological warfare, on the other. And, while
the policy ostensibly targets foreign enemies, its most likely victim will
be the American electorate."
"The Navy, meanwhile, hsconsolidated its efforts in a newly formed
Naval Network Warfare Command. An the Joint strategic Capabilities Plan, or
JSPC, prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now declares information to be
just as imporant in ware as diplomataic, military or economic factors.
"The strategic capabilities plan is the central war-fighting directive
for the U.S. military. It establishes what are called 'Informational
Flexible Deterrent Options' for global wars, such as the war on terrorism,
and separate plans written for individual theaters of war, such as Iraq.
"But a summary of the strategic capabilities plan and a raft of other
Pentagon and armed forces documents made available to The Times make it
clear that the new approach now includes other elements as well: the
management of public information, efforts to control news media sources and
manipulation of public opinion."
"The new Air Force doctrine, for example, declres that thenews media
can be used not only toconvey 'the leadership's concern with [an] issue,'
but also to avoid 'the media going to other sources [such as an adversary or
critic of U.S. policy] for information.' In other words, information
warfare now includes controlling as much as possible what the Americans
public sees and reads."
"And when the information that military officers provide to the public
is part of a process that generates propaganda and places a high value on
deceit, deception and denial, then truth is indeed likely to be high on the
casualty list.
"That is bad news for the American public. In the end, it may be even
worse news for the Bush administration -- and for a U.S. military that has
spent more than 25 years climbing out of the credibility trap called
Vietnam."
Shift in major industry management
----------------------------------------------
The Economist, August 12th 2000, page 59. "Changing the climate of
opinion. Big business is finally starting to take the threat of global
warming seriously. Eileen Claussen deserves much of the credit."
If they can take a broader look at climate change, can they do the same
about massive aggression, slaughter of innocent people, and disruption of
life in the U.S.?
"The picture has changed dramatically in the past two years. Giant
firms such as United Technologies, Intel, American Electric Power (AEP),
DuPont and BP now openly accept that the evidence for climate change is
sufficient to take it seriously. Many of them, as a new report issued last
week by the Pew Centre points out, are conducting audits of the amount of
greenhouse gases emitted by their plants and are taking on voluntary targets
for emissions cuts. Some firms even think reducing emissions could be
profitable. Frank Loy, America's top negotiator on climate change, says
that big firms have 'shifted from being climate sceptics to climate
activists'. He gives much of the credit for this volte face to Ms Claussen.
"Until the Pew Centre began to challenge its line roughly two ytears
ago, the GCC (Global Climate Coalition) had a birtual monopoly as the public
face of corporte America in the climata debate. Ms Claussen, a long-time
bureaucrat who had often dealt withcorporations during international
environmental talks, suspected that attitudes in big busineww were not
quirte do uniform. After she resigned from government in mid-1997, she
crafted a set of principles that reflected a more progressive approach to
climatae change... she approached a handful of leading Amerrican industrial
firms thata whe thout mightbe open-minded.
"She was right. A number of companies agreed to band together under
the Pew Centre's umbrella. It was not easy for the early joiners: some,
such as AEP, a big coal-fired utility, and BP, a giant oil firm, were
berated by their peers for breaking ranks. However, the Pew's media skills
meant that they soon found strength in numbers and a powerful voice. Today,
the GCC is a spent force, while the Pew's blue-chip member companies have
annual sales of more than $500 billion."
Survival environment, 20 million jobs in the U.S.
--------------------------------------------------
Now to a discussion of the Climate Treaty by the United Nations.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alden-bryant-associates
See above url for more details and The Jeter Plan
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<666>
"But for added amusement, George W. Bush and his friends used to
tuck firecrackers into the mouths of frogs, throw them in the air, and
watch them explode." [Linda McQuaig, "Don't let Bush light Iraq fire"
(12-15-2002) - The Toronto Star - a story told by a childhood friend
described in a New York Times profile for the 2000 election
campaign.]
http://www.all-creatures.org/aip/nl-3nov2000-frogs.html
WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION
- Ethiopian Proverb
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