Early in our war with Iraq, we leveled Fallujah, a city of 300,000. There is now a spike in birth defects in that city. What is our culpability?
Fallujah cancer spike linked to US raid
Sat Jan 1, 2011 9:5AM
Yousif Hamed and his sister Inas who suffer from birth defects in Fallujah.A new study concludes that the high rate of birth defects and cancer diagnoses in the Iraqi city of Fallujah is caused by weapons used by US and UK forces six years ago.
The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, confirmed the reports that US and British forces used depleted uranium ammunitions during the US invasion of Iraq in 2004.
The findings indicate that the defects in newborns in Fallujah are 11 times higher than the normal average and rose to unprecedented levels in 2010.
"The high prevalence of birth defects in Fallujah is impairing the population's health and its capacity to care for the surviving children," the research said.
"These defects could be due to environmental contaminants which are known components of modern weaponry," the Guardian newspaper quoted the report as saying.
The report shows that 15 percent of the 547 babies born had defects, while 14 percent were spontaneous abortions and 11 percent were born at less than 30 weeks in May of 2010 alone.
"Many known war contaminants have the potential to interfere with normal embryonic and fetal development," the findings say. "The devastating effect of dioxins on the reproductive health of the Vietnamese people is well-known."
The study, which was conducted between May and August, examined 55 families with seriously deformed newborns.
A July joint study by the Environmental Health and Science Ministry in Iraq also found that there are communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects since 2004.
The use of uranium ammunition is widely controversial because of potential long term health effects. The United States and Britain used up to 2,000 tons of this type of ammunition during the Iraq war.
Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights is preparing to file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq.
Anti-war activists and human rights campaigners condemned the use of white phosphorous and depleted uranium ammunition by US and British forces in war-ravaged Iraq.
"It is unclear whether its radiation-derived mutational effects or its chemical toxic effects are more relevant," the Friday report said, referring to depleted uranium used in Fallujah.
Depending on how much we sent into Fallujah, Id say that the breakdown products of the decay of U238 is the culprit. More than half of the breakdown products of U238 are ALPHA emitters , and alpha particles have the quickest environmental responses, coming into active effects based upon inhalation and/or digestion via dust particles.
but they may be alive longer than from leukemia, brain cancer, congenital damages.
We never had any business in there in the first place . It was all conceived on a fuckin lie that all of us swallowed hook line and sinker.
K, since you seem to have bought the propaganda fully, it may interest you to know that the taliban and al quaida were not in Iraq when the USA and others stormed into the country. Saddam had an iron rule on those bastards. Since then however, under the care of the USA and others... the taliban now have some influence in the country but have done nowhere near the damage that the USA and others have done to the general public of Iraq.
Consider yourself told.
The Second Battle of Fallujah was fought November 7 to 16, 2004, during the Iraq War
The fighting in Fallujah cost US forces 51 killed and 425 seriously wounded, while Iraqi forces lost 8 killed and 43 wounded. Insurgent losses are estimated at between 1,200 to 1,350 killed. Though Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was not captured during the operation, the victory severely damaged the momentum the insurgency had gained by holding the city. Residents were allowed to return in December and slowly began rebuilding the badly damaged city.
Having suffered badly in Fallujah, the insurgents began to avoid open battles and the number of attacks again began to rise. By 2006 they controlled much of Al-Anbar province, necessitating another sweep through Fallujah in September and lasting until January 2007. In fall 2007, the city was turned over to the Iraqi Provincial Authority.
I'll never forget seeing the American officer saying to his men just before they attacked,
"God is on our side, inside these walls is the devil" stomach churning stuff.
Just another massacre in a illegal war.
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Insurgent losses are estimated at between 1,200 to 1,350 killed
I'd say you'd be lucky if even a quarter of them were Insurgents, The rest being innocent civilians.
How would you like this to happen in America, how would you feel if some other nation thought
your people were being oppressed by your government & said lets go in and liberate them and it led to this.
I'm a white Christian (or at least raised Christian, me & god have since gone our own ways)
Irish American & I for one am disgusted & sickened
at what America did in Iraq.
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slowly began rebuilding the badly damaged city.
What a joke, would you bring your family over & live there.