WAR
'Be the Change You Want to See in the World'
(Gandhi)
Introduction
On reflection about war I am
intrigued by the fact that in the 21st Century war still exists.
Given our knowledge about conflict resolution - that is solving the
problem not hating the person, we still create change through power
over
each other.
I have spoken with children and asked them about how
violence happens. It becomes clear that when people, particularly
boys are told or encouraged to not show their emotions, they suppress
them. It is increasingly becoming clear to me that
suppression can result in violence. Children are shown directly
and indirectly that violence is strength. Violent videos
reinforce
this.
Seldom do we see non-violence used as an example of strength
(inner power). It is important that we learn to express ourselves
non-violently. We also need to learn that we can solve problems
and
not hate (or indeed hurt) others.
It is evident to me that the
power over paradigm is destroying ourselves and our planet. Power
over is simply using force or fear to get your own way. We are
using increasingly destructive weapons and in this nuclear age it is a
risk we cannot accept if we desire survival. We have to move from
a fear based paradigm of 'survival of the fittest' to a love based
paradigm of 'survival based on collective security and inner
security'.
It is vital that we see each others interests as our own, therefore
moving from
'self interest' to 'best interest'.
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Quotes
What do other great thinkers or
leaders have to say about war?
President Kennedy:
"Mankind must put an end to
war or war will put an end to mankind."
Mohandas Gandhi:
"If the mad race for armaments continues it is bound to result in a
slaughter such as never occurred in history. If there is a victor left
the very victory will be a living death for the nation that emerges
victorious."
A Course In Miracles:
"Peace is stronger than war because it heals. War is division, not
increase. No one gains from strife."
Martin Luther King:
"Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile
tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our world. They are
ill-housed, they are ill-nourished, they are shabbily clad ... There is
nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the
techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question
is
whether we have the will. . .
Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this
world a neighbourhood and yet. . . we have not had the ethical
commitment
to make it a brotherhood (family). But somehow, and in some way, we
have
got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers
(family).
Or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the
single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality."
(Note: my brackets for inclusivity of language).
In 1964, at the age of 35, King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his
unyielding efforts. In his address, King spoke of war and nuclear
destruction:
"I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must
spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear
annihilation... I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and
whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow... I still
believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be
crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed."
In his speech "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,"
delivered at
the National Cathedral, Washington, DC, on March 31, 1968, King stated:
"It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and
non-violence. It is either non-violence or non-existence. And the
alternative to disarmament, the alternative to a greater suspension of
nuclear tests, the alternative to strengthening the United Nations and
thereby disarming the whole world, may well be a civilization plunged
into the abyss of annihilation, and our earthly habitat would be
transformed into an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not
imagine."
King was assassinated four days later on April 4, 1968.
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War ... What is it Good For?
According to Global Action for the Prevention of War there have been
over 200 million people killed in 250 wars and genocidal onslaughts,
more people than were killed in warfare in the past two thousand years
(GAPW,
Program Statement, 2003). Three times more people have been
killed in the last 90 years then in the previous 500 years. Current
global military spending is approximately $800 billion per year or a
million dollars per minute. This is more than the total annual income
of
the poorest 45% of the global population (refer
www.worldrevolution.org
for more detailed information).
It is evident that violence does not bring lasting peace and harmony.
More often then not it may stop a behaviour through fear, but the
message it sends is that violence works. According to CDI (
www.cdi.org
)
there are an estimated 21,899 nuclear weapons on the planet. In the
short term the very existence of these weapons threatens nuclear winter
and the end of life on the planet. These days information about nuclear
weapons manufacture can be found and weapons can be bought on the black
market.
The Legality of Nuclear
Weapons
The legality of nuclear weapons has already been challenged and by
subtle implication, war. In 1992 the World Court Project (WCP) was
launched by a coalition of three citizens' organisations. The
International Peace Bureau, International Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War and the International Association of Lawyers against
Nuclear Arms (IALANA). This group lobbied the World Health Organisation
and The United Nations General Assembly to request an Advisory Opinion
from the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The question posed by the WCP was:
"the threat or threat of nuclear weapons in any circumstances is
permitted under international law"
The ICJ decided that:
"a threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to
the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in
particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law. Moreover, it
agreed that there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and
bring
to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its
aspects under strict international control".
(refer
www.ialana.org/site/affairs/wcp_index.html
)
Civilians are the Main Victims of Modern Warfare
Apart from the obvious morality and humanitarian impacts of war, it has
not been able to create sustainable peace on the planet. War in truth
is
killing and most (90%) who die or are injured are innocent civilians
(refer
www.worldrevolution.org
).
Statistics can hide the fact that it could be you or me that dies in a
war which is happening increasingly in urban areas. Moreover,
there is clear
evidence that warfare is becoming highly toxic. In recent times
radioactive uranium munitions have been used in conventional warfare.
Major Doug Rokke's discusses (below) how uranium munitions were
actively
used by the United States in the War in Iraq in both 1991 and 2003 and
the horrific consequences.
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Depleted Uranium:
Interview with Major Doug Rokke
Uranium Munitions Used in War on Iraq
Interview on Plenty Valley 88.6FM, Melbourne Australia, on 26 June
2003.
The transcript record may have some errors in respect to spelling or
omissions due to sound quality. It is based on listening and
recording an interview.
Credentials:
* Major Douglas Rokke he has served in the US military for 35 years;
* He is a US Army expert on Uranium Munitions in war;
* Has a PHD in Health Physics;
* Trained as a Forensic Scientist;
* Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering;
* Served in Vietnam as a bombardier, still in the US Army Reserves,
flew
B52 bombers;
* Director of Depleted Uranium Project;
* University of Illinois Physics Department;
* Gulf War - the U.S. Army health physicist assigned to 12th Preventive
Medicine AM Theatre command staff and the 3rd U.S. Army Medical Command
headquarters;
* Involved in the war in Iraq;
* The Pentagon sacked for blowing the whistle on depleted uranium.
Q. Can you tell us briefly about your background?
Little bit of background during Gulf War I. I was a US Army Health
Physicist and I was specifically assigned to clean up the uranium
munitions mass contamination friendly fire contamination from Gulf War
I, that death with the United States Military personnel that were
wounded or injured during friendly fire using uranium munitions. In
1994-95 I was the Director of the United States Army in the US
Department of Defence Depleted Uranium Project. My specific task as
Director was to develop the education and training necessary to ensure
safe operations of everything around uranium munitions when used,
before
their used or after their used and also specifically tasked how to
clean
up uranium munitions contamination. What I have learned from first hand
experience both from cleaning and doing the research and putting the
program together and my own adverse health effects from uranium
exposure
is uranium munitions are a catastrophe they leave a trail of health and
environmental effects that very simply rule out their use forever.
Q What is the state of play at the moment?
The United States has deliberately used uranium munitions during Gulf
War I through Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. That was in 1990-91. The
first use of uranium munitions was by Israel against the Egyptians in
the Sinai desert during the 1973 war again the medical evidence the
photographic evidence absolutely confirms that. Then what happened is
that in 1993 the United States was going to use them in Somalia on the
Horn of Africa. We got it stopped issued specific medical directives
requiring full radio bio analysis for anyone exposed to uranium
contamination. That is within a building, structure, vehicle anything
that is struck, work in contaminated areas or being downwind where the
contamination arises from. Issued in October 1993. Then in 1994, 1995
we
used uranium munitions in the Balkans for the first time in Serbia,
1995-96 they shot Iraq ... Okinawa. Then in 1999 despite all of our
best
efforts, up in the White House in Washington DC trying to stop it, they
used uranium munitions again in the Balkans and then we turn around and
then in this last year we deliberately used uranium munitions, and
Vieques, Puerto Rico and then we deliberately used them in Afghanistan
and now we have littered Baghdad and most of Iraq in the cities with
uranium munitions again now in Gulf war II.
Q What impact is that going to have on the people actually using it, the
people exposed to it and the land after all this is finished?
Uranium munitions and the amount that we used were looking at from Gulf
War I alone over 350 tonnes of solid uranium waste was spread all over
and ignored and deliberately left there. The estimates right now form
the British Royal Society Dr Bryants, Brad and myself both concurred on
in his estimates and when we did Late Night Live on the ABC radio
network
here in Australia is 500 tonnes in Iraq now with Gulf War II and the
estimates are over 1,000 tonnes in Afghanistan. What happened to us
personally and again this goes back and concurs with the known medical
and health effects that go back as far as documenting US documents to
1943 is that we got sick within 24 to 72 hours with respiratory
problems
and rashes. That is being reported today on the news here in Australia
that the residents of Iraq are having those same problems. And it has
been known that the US troops have had those problems. Everybody is
having those problems. So your seeing those that are immediate and
those
kidney and cancer problems that come about from this and remember that
unless you physically clean up all of this solid uranium waste it will
remain there and cause health effects for 4.5 billion years, that is
the
current age of the earth.
Q Can you explain to us what is depleted uranium?
Depleted uranium there is nothing depleted about it. It is actually the
radioactive isotope 238 its contaminated with neptunium, americium and
the most toxic radioactive substance known to man, plutonium. It also
has uranium 236 from reactor fuel recycling and that it also has a very
small component of uranium 234 and 235. Uranium 238 is the by-product
of
the uranium enrichment process or the recycling of reactor fuel for
every 100 grams of solid uranium that goes into this process you have 3
primary isotopes. You have over 99.2 grams is your uranium 238 and .8
grams the fissionable component of uranium 234 and 235 during the
enrichment process you remove .6 grams out of every 100 and that is the
fissionable component that is uranium 234 and 235 that is used to make
nuclear bombs and reactor fuel and as a consequence for every 100 grams
that you have you have 99.4 grams is just radioactive waste which needs
to be disposed of. They call that depleted uranium. They have found the
best way to dispose that and get it out of the sites at Kentucky or
Oakridge Tennessee .... in the US. Is put it in munitions because it is
fantastic. It destroys everything that it hits, they can also put it in
commercial aircraft as ballast and actually put it in the back of
forklifts to keep forklifts from turning over. Then they put it in
concrete called… in other words any place that can take the waste
and
dispose of it they are going to hide it and dispose of it. As a
munition
it is awesome because individually the uranium munition fired by the
Abrahams tank, the individual missile is over 4,700 grams of solid
uranium it is a giant uranium dart. The A10 fires a round that is
over... solid uranium each over 4,000 rounds per minute. Then we got a
whole host of others including landmines and sub-munitions, the cluster
bombs … That are causing so much devastation on the children that
pick
them up that didn’t go bomb originally.
Q Isn’t using depleted uranium isn’t that against all the rules of
the
United Nations?
Absolutely the United Nations ruled in 1996 that the use of uranium
munitions is illegal. But it is common sense, what right does any
nation
have to take even 1 kg of solid uranium and throw it in anyone’s
backyard ... the school yard, their neighbourhood, much less the
hundreds of tonnes that they have thrown and they have walked away.
Even
though the United States own medical treatment requirements require
medical care within 24 hours for depleted uranium exposures. That
medical care has been denied for the majority of US casualties in Gulf
War I. And it is absolutely not provided for any of the non-combatants.
Any place in the world where uranium munitions have been used.
Q What impact will it have on their health?
Their sick and dying just like all my staff and my friends are. You
can’t get heavy metal or uranium into your body and not get sick.
Think
about this, we know from Vietnam that Agent Orange had a devastating
consequence. The US and other nations deliberately used Agent Orange.
We
know today that asbestos has a terrible consequence. And everybody and
their brother knows that you can’t eat lead paint. In uranium
munitions
it is far worse then any of these, far worse than lead paint even. It
is
not only a heavy metal like lead it is radioactive heavy metal. Nobody
would advocate that you would get a few micrograms of lead paint or a
few grams of lead paint in there but we are going to spread the world
with depleted uranium, hundreds and hundreds of tonnes, refuse to clean
it up. Refuse to provide medical care and then claim that we
don’t have
to. That is a crime against god that is a crime against humanity.
Q If the US Government was gong to clean up it up how would they do it?
I was in the individual responsible in the US Department of Defence in
the Army that developed the procedures to clean it up. Physically what
you have to do, this is what I tested and verified and did in Gulf War
I, you have to physically pick up the destroyed building, bunker,
tanker
package for disposal. The only way you can do that is to dig a massive
big hole and put it in that big hole. Then you have to collect all of
the spent uranium penetrators. In Gulf War I there was well over 1
million of them spread all over. I don’t how many in Gulf War II
but I
can guarantee just from the video and photographic evidence and first
hand discussions, Baghdad is littered with them. I mean video footage
that I have seen shows just a half of a block, hundreds of them. Laying
there. Yet to physically pick up every spent penetrator then you have
to
take a bulldozer and remove all of the dirt to about 100 metres to at
least 12 cm and put that into a big hole. Once you put this in the big
hole how do you mark this big hole for eternity. Because in the future
maybe someone is going to build a school or a hospital or a church on
that big hole with that radioactive waste is buried, they will unearth
it and then everybody will get sick again. You have to understand
uranium munitions are solid uranium 238 contaminated with with
plutonium, neptunium, americium and they still have a remaining visible
uranium 234 and 235. It is not in a small concentration. It is 100%
uranium and god knows probably close to 1,000 tonnes in Iraq alone now.
You can’t clean it up. That was the reason why after I had the
responsibility to do this I made this strong recommendation to the
United States Department of Defence in the world, do not use uranium
munitions ever again.
Q That was ignored?
Deliberately and wilfully but more importantly the individuals that are
responsible for this in the United States point blank refuse, your
press
release on your ABC news network said the other day ‘none of
us’ repeat
‘none of us that were involved in friendly fire and depleted
uranium
were ... or did the clean up, were sick.’ It was an absolute lie.
Deliberate and wilful lie in order to comply with the Los Almos
Memorandum. To sustain the use of uranium munitions even though there
are known adverse health and environmental effects.
Q What is the Los Alamos Memorandum?
The Los Alamos Memorandum was written by Michael Zeem who was sent to
me
in March 1991. And it very specifically said that when we prepare our
reports on what we found on the use of uranium munitions that we lie so
that we make sure we can always use them. Ignore the health and
environmental effects. But more importantly and yet another thing in
1992 the Assistant Secretary of the Army Walker by directive of the
United States Senate in DC sent a memorandum to the United States Army
Environmental Policy Institute directed a study on the environmental
effects. In one of the very specific directives was to figure out ways
to reduce the toxicity of the munitions. One of the conclusions of our
study was that you can not reduce the toxicity of uranium munitions.
That is common sense. Who wants even 1kg of solid uranium waste put in
your backyard. I don’t. What right does any nations have to take
their
radioactive waste that they can’t dispose of in their nation and
throw
it in someone else’s backyard.
Q Are you saying that because they have no where to keep it in America
they have too much radioactive waste from the nuclear power plants etc.
that this is one way of using it?
Absolutely. This is deliberate you can go and read the Environmental
Impact Statement from the United States of Energy for Uranium
Hexafluoride which is the actual chemical name for DU. Yeah it says
point
blank take radioactive waste from the United States and throw it in
someone else’s backyard. We don’t have it anymore and we
don’t care what
happens to them.
Q But there are American troops there at the moment who are walking
around I all that. Even if you forget about the Iraqi people you have
thousands of troops there.
Absolutely and the actual country, America’s finest sons and
daughters
from Gulf War 1 as recorded by the United States Department of Veterans
Affairs in a report released in September 2002, that right now over
221,000 of America’s finest sons and daughters are permanently
disabled
as a result of duty from Gulf War I in the first Gulf region from
August
of 1990 through May of 2002. Over 221,000 are permanently disabled and
over 10,000 have died. That proportion is the same all over the world.
If you look at the adverse health effects from Iraq and all of these
exposures not just uranium but all the environmental contaminants of
war
and you look at those reports or look at the photographic and medical
records called the Children of the Gulf War its all there.
Q So you are saying that most of the problems for the Iraqi Children is
a result of this depleted uranium.
Combination of depleted uranium deliberate destruction of Iraq’s
chemical and biological warfare materials beginning in December of 1990
until the present that the United States gave to them and they also
manufactured in all of the hazardous materials that were totally
released when that nations infrastructure was destroyed. You got to
remember that we used chemicals, biological and radiological materials
…
industry, education, manufacturing and medicine, correct. When you
destroy all of these companies … when you destroy the
infrastructure,
then all that material is released. War is a toxic wasteland. Because
we
can no longer deal with the adverse effects of war and all the releases
whether it be from DU munitions or any other munitions and conventional
munitions leave toxic waste. In all of the materials released during
warfare, war has become obsolete. We are poisoning our planet. We are
poisoning the future generations. And it is flat wrong.
Q Wanted to ask you a question in relation to the mindset of the people
who would send troops into an area and fire depleted uranium missiles.
What sort of mindset would you describe of the sort of people who would
do this type of thing?
It is real simple I have been a combat veteran of multiple wars and I
am
a warrior and still classify myself as a warrior and a patriot. The
reason or purpose of war is to kill period. You kill all living things
and you destroy everything that is not living. When you are a warrior
that is what you do. You don’t think twice about this, you
don’t even
give concerns. You know the term collateral damage that is used…
as if
it is nothing, collateral damage means destroying everything that is
not
military. That means killing, killing and wounding the children. It
means destroying schools, hospitals and churches. And everything else,
that is what collateral damage means. They don’t even count the
collateral damage in war. They just ignore it and say it is ok. It is
justified. There is no justification for killing and harming the
children of the world.
Q So what would you advise people in the community after hearing this
type of story, very disturbing for everyone.
What I recommend is that we ensure that all the citizens of the world
stand up, ensure, demand that medical care be provided for all of our
warriors, sons and daughters, military personnel. We have to give the
same medical care to the enemy whoever they are if we classify them as
an enemy of war, and we have. We have to give that medical care to all
the non combatants the woman and the children of the world. Then the
next thing we have to do is that we have to clean up the environment of
all the contaminants of war. You can’t continue to contaminate
god’s
earth and cause harm. And then finally what we have to do, we have to
ban. Uranium munitions have already been banned, we have to make sure
they are permanently banned and if anyone uses them hold them
individually responsible for the individual use of uranium munitions.
Think about it if somebody comes out and takes 10kg of solid
radioactive
waste and throws it into your local schoolyard they should go to jail
right? Same thing needs to apply every place in the world. It is as
simple as that.
Q But Doug your Government is just accepting no responsibility for any
of this?
How about that. And there is a lot of us who are warriors and patriots
who are speaking out because it is flat wrong.
Q Well it certainly is and your very courageous to speak out against it.
But is there any way of stopping this. You mentioned that in the first
Gulf War there are 221,000 sons and daughters who have been affected by
this depleted uranium.
And other contaminants of war. I’m just a school teacher
aren’t I.
Q I don’t think you are just a school teacher you are a fantastic
courageous individual.
Somebody said you can think of yourself as just a garbage man. That is
probably right I am trying to clean up the garbage of war. I am trying
to ensure people are taken care of. What it all comes down to. We have
to work together for peace. All nations and all peoples and all
governments and all religions and all cultures and all societies. We
can
no longer deal with the consequences of war. War has become obsolete.
And always in my lectures and to me it is very important, we say, let
their be peace on earth. Peace has to begin with each one we have to
take care of it, and ourselves, make a commitment and take action but
what is more important that prophesy of peace that comes about 1,000
years ago. And a child shall lead us to peace well if we continue to
contaminate god’s earth the flora the fauna and harm the children
I
don’t know where that child will come from that will be able to
lead
this world to peace. I don’t know but I am sure going to do
something
about it. One seed at a time.
Q What impact. That is a fantastic goal to have. Can I just ask
Australian soldiers were also out there what impact would that have on
their health?
The same as everybody else, it doesn’t matter who you are if you
inhale
radioactive materials, get it into your body you are going to get sick.
If you inhale, ingest or absorb all these other contaminants of war you
are going to get sick. Today in The Australian, reading the newspaper
they admitted that there are Australian troops all over Baghdad right
now. Gee Baghdad is littered with radioactive waste the whole area is
littered with the contaminants of war. Australians came back sick and
dying from Vietnam they came back sick from Gulf War I, the Balkans,
Afghanistan. No doubt it occurred already, because they called me, they
are sick already from Gulf War II.
Q The ones that have just returned?
Absolutely, I haven’t been in the country 24 hours before I got a
call
from veterans from some place called the Sunshine Coast.
Q Good heavens that is terrible. You yourself are affected by this?
Absolutely I have a 40% combat disability from the Department of
Veterans Affairs for uranium poisoning.
Q What impact does that have on veterans who turn around and father
children?
Well the children have all kinds of birth defects ok, and that is a
known thing. But when the veterans try to seek medical care within the
military for their children they lose, they are told if they speak out
you… won’t be taking care of you. …Me and my United
States Congressman
had to intervene it is because I have been speaking out, even though I
have a 40% disability which guarantees my medical care for combat
injuries, free medical care, the United States Department of Veterans
Affairs was billing me for my medical care. They went so far as to
garnish my wages to pay for medical care that is supposed to be free.
That is because I spoke out.
Q That is pretty frightening and this is the democracy that we are going
to bring to Iraq?
(Laugh) It was on the news again last night and this morning kids throw
rocks and the soldiers shoot them with machine guns.
Q that is a very equal sort of a battle reminds me of the Israeli’s and
the Palestinians.
Same thing is happening there.
Q Yes and we talk about terrorism. We are fighting terrorism.
No we are trying to do what is right for the citizens of the world,
live
together in peace. If there is a bad guy we take care of the bad guy ok
no doubt about that. I’ll defend my nation I’ll defend
Australia any
time I have to. I’ll definitely charge machine gun nests if I
have to
defend my nation and also defend Australians because you are an ally.
But I sure expect the medical care before I charge that machine gun
nest. And if I shoot the enemy and they live it is my obligation under
god to provide them medical care. And it sure is my obligation under
god
to provide medical care to the non combatants to the woman and children
that were affected by charging that machine gun nest. To me that is
right.
Q I believe you are off to Tasmania today?
To Hobart, and then from Hobart to Sydney and then to Perth, from Perth
to Adelaide and then back to Brisbane. I have the distinct pleasure of
going to Adelaide because a woman who helped to raise me that lived two
doors away from my parents she was a war bride from Adelaide and she
sure had a great influence on my life I think that is evident huh.
Q Sounds like providence to me. This is really fantastic. Doug I’d like
to thank you for your generosity for talking with us and spreading the
message even to this Plenty Valley Community Radio out here in Mill
Park.
I just try to help people I need people to help people, as Denise
Nichols said one of the true heroes of Vietnam and the Gulf War people
very sick, if we mobilise god’s army one by one we can achieve
peace on
earth.
Q That is your job for the future?
That is all of our jobs isn’t it?
Q I would say so I think you will have a lot of willing helpers. Thank
yo very much and god speed in the work that you do?
Thank you and have a good day.
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The War Against Ourselves: An Interview with Major Doug Rokke
The following interview was conducted by the director of the Traprock
Peace Centre, Sunny Miller, supplemented with questions from YES!
editors. Sunny Miller's interview was originally broadcast on WMFO
(Boston) in November 2002 and is available for re-broadcast at
www.traprockpeace.org
Doug Rokke has a PhD in health physics and was originally trained as a
forensic scientist. When the Gulf War started, he was assigned to
prepare soldiers to respond to nuclear, biological, and chemical
warfare, and sent to the Gulf. What he experienced has made him a
passionate voice for peace, travelling the country to speak out.
Q: Any viewer who saw the war on television had the impression
this was an easy war, fought from a distance and soldiers coming back
relatively unharmed. Is this an accurate picture?
ROKKE: At the completion of the Gulf War, when we came back to the
United States in the fall of 1991, we had a total casualty count of
760:
294 dead, a little over 400 wounded or ill. But the casualty rate now
for Gulf War veterans is approximately 30 percent. Of those stationed
in
the theatre, including after the conflict, 221,000 have been awarded
disability, according to a Veterans Affairs (VA) report issued
September
10, 2002.
Many of the US casualties died as a direct result of uranium munitions
friendly fire. US forces killed and wounded US forces.
We recommended care for anybody downwind of any uranium dust, anybody
working in and around uranium contamination, and anyone within a
vehicle, structure, or building that's struck with uranium munitions.
That's thousands upon thousands of individuals, but not only US troops.
You should provide medical care not only for the enemy soldiers but for
the Iraqi women and children affected, and clean up all of the
contamination in Iraq.
And it's not just children in Iraq. It's children born to soldiers
after
they came back home. The military admitted that they were finding
uranium excreted in the semen of the soldiers. If you've got uranium in
the semen, the genetics are messed up. So when the children were
conceived the alpha particles cause such tremendous cell damage and
genetics damage that everything goes bad. Studies have found that male
soldiers who served in the Gulf War were almost twice as likely to have
a child with a birth defect and female soldiers almost three times as
likely.
Q: You have been a military man for over 35 years. You served in
Vietnam
as a bombardier and you are still in the US Army Reserves. Now you're
going around the country speaking about the dangers of depleted uranium
(DU). What made you decide you had to speak publicly about DU?
ROKKE: Everybody on my team was getting sick. My best friend John Sitton
was dying. The military refused him medical care, and he died. John set
up the medical evacuation communication system for the entire theatre.
Then he got contaminated doing the work.
John and Rolla Dolph and I were best friends in the civilian world, the
military world, forever. Rolla got sick. I personally got the order
that
sent him to war. We were both activated together. I was given the
assignment to teach nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare and make
sure soldiers came back alive and safe. I take it seriously. I was sent
to the Gulf with this instruction: Bring 'em back alive. Clear as could
be. But when I got all the training together, all the environmental
cleanup procedures together, all the medical directives, nothing
happened.
More than 100 American soldiers were exposed to DU in friendly fire
accidents, plus untold numbers of soldiers who climbed on and entered
tanks that had been hit with DU, taking photos and gathering souvenirs
to take home. They didn't know about the hazards.
DU is an extremely effective weapon. Each tank round is 10 pounds of
solid uranium-238 contaminated with plutonium, neptunium, americium. It
is pyrophoric, generating intense heat on impact, penetrating a tank
because of the heavy weight of its metal. When uranium munitions hit,
it's like a firestorm inside any vehicle or structure, and so we saw
tremendous burns, tremendous injuries. It was devastating.
The US military decided to blow up Saddam's chemical, biological, and
radiological stockpiles in place, which released the contamination back
on the US troops and on everybody in the whole region. The chemical
agent detectors and radiological monitors were going off all over the
place. We had all of the various nerve agents. We think there were
biological agents, and there were destroyed nuclear reactor facilities.
It was a toxic wasteland. And we had DU added to this whole mess.
When we first got assigned to clean up the DU and arrived in northern
Saudi Arabia, we started getting sick within 72 hours. Respiratory
problems, rashes, bleeding, open sores started almost immediately.
When you have a mass dose of radioactive particulates and you start
breathing that in, the deposit sits in the back of the pharynx, where
the cancer started initially on the first guy. It doesn't take a lot of
time. I had a father and son working with me. The father is already
dead
from lung cancer, and the sick son is still denied medical care.
Q: Did you suspect what was happening?
ROKKE: We didn't know anything about DU when the Gulf War started. As a
warrior, you're listening to your leaders, and they're saying there are
no health effects from the DU. But, as we started to study this, to go
back to what we learned in physics and our engineering – I was a
professor of environmental science and engineering – you learn
rapidly
that what they're telling you doesn't agree with what you know and
observe.
In June of 1991, when I got back to the States, I was sick. Respiratory
problems and the rashes and neurological things were starting to show
up.
Q: Why didn't you go to the Veteran's Affairs with a medical complaint?
ROKKE: Because I was still in the Army, and I was told I couldn't file.
You have to have the information that connects your exposure to your
service before you go to the VA. The VA obviously wasn't going to take
care of me, so I went to my private physician. We had no idea what it
was, but so many good people were coming back sick.
They didn't do tests on me or my team members. According to the
Department of Defence's own guidelines put out in 1992, any excretion
level in the urine above 15 micrograms of uranium per day should result
in immediate medical testing, and when you get up to 250 micrograms of
total uranium excreted per day, you're supposed to be under continuous
medical care.
Finally the US Department of Energy performed a radio bioassay on me in
November 1994, while I was director of the Depleted Uranium Project for
the Department of Defence. My excretion rate was approximately 1500
micrograms per day. My level was 5 to 6 times beyond the level that
requires continuous medical care.
But they didn't tell me for two and a half years.
Q: What are the symptoms of exposure to DU?
ROKKE: Fibro myalgia. Eye cataracts from the radiation. When uranium
impacts any type of vehicle or structure, uranium oxide dust and pieces
of uranium explode all over the place. This can be breathed in or go
into a wound. Once it gets in the body, a portion of this stuff is
soluble, which means it goes into the blood stream and all of your
organs. The insoluble fraction stays – in the lungs, for example.
The
radiation damage and the particulates destroy the lungs.
Q: What kind of training have the troops had, who are getting called up
right now – the ones being shipped to the vicinity of what may be
the
next Gulf War?
ROKKE: As the director of the Depleted Uranium Project, I developed a
40-hour block of training. All that curriculum has been shelved. They
turned what I wrote into a 20-minute program that's full of
distortions.
It doesn't deal with the reality of uranium munitions.
The equipment is defective. The General Accounting Office verified that
the gas masks leak, the chemical protective suits leak. Unbelievably,
Defence Department officials recently said the defects can be fixed
with
duct tape.
Q: If my neighbours are being sent off to combat with equipment and
training that is inadequate, and into battle with a toxic weapon, DU,
who can speak up?
ROKKE: Every husband and wife, son and daughter, grandparent, aunt and
uncle, needs to call their congressmen and cite these official
government reports and force the military to ensure that our troops
have
adequate equipment and adequate training. If we don't take care of our
American veterans after a war, as happened with the Gulf War, and now
we're about ready to send them into a war again – we can't do it.
We
can't do it. It's a crime against God. It's a crime against humanity to
use uranium munitions in a war, and it's devastating to ignore the
consequences of war.
These consequences last for eternity. The half life of uranium 238 is
4.5 billion years. And we left over 320 tons all over the place in Iraq.
We also bombarded Vieques, Puerto Rico, with DU in preparation for the
war in Kosovo. That's affecting American citizens on American
territory.
When I tried to activate our team from the Department of Defence
responsible for radiological safety and DU cleanup in Vieques, I was
told no. When I tried to activate medical care, I was told no.
The US Army made me their expert. I went into the project with the
total
intent to ensure they could use uranium munitions in war, because I'm a
warrior. What I saw as director of the project, doing the research and
working with my own medical conditions and everybody else's, led me to
one conclusion: uranium munitions must be banned from the planet, for
eternity, and medical care must be provided for everyone, not just the
US or the Canadians or the British or the Germans or the French but for
the American citizens of Vieques, for the residents of Iraq, of
Okinawa,
of Scotland, of Indiana, of Maryland, and now Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Q: If your information got out widely, do you think there's a
possibility that the families of those soldiers would beg them to
refuse?
ROKKE: If you're going to be sent into a toxic wasteland, and you know
you're going to wear gas masks and chemical protective suits that leak,
and you're not going to get any medical care after you're exposed to
all
of these things, would you go? Suppose they gave a war and nobody came.
You've got to start peace sometime.
Q: It does sound remarkable for someone who has been in the military
for
35 years to be talking about when peace should begin.
ROKKE: When I do these talks, especially in churches, I'm reminded that
these religions say, "And a child will lead us to peace." But
if we
contaminate the environment, where will the child come from? The
children won't be there. War has become obsolete, because we can't deal
with the consequences on our warriors or the environment, but more
important, on the non-combatants. When you reach a point in war when
the
contamination and the health effects of war can't be cleaned up because
of the weapons you use, and medical care can't be given to the soldiers
who participated in the war on either side or to the civilians
affected,
then it's time for peace.
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