ICONOCLAST EDITORIAL:

Texas Legislature
Should Take Immediate Action To Protect Soldiers From DU

The Texas Legislature has its hands full dealing with issues ranging from school finance to appropriate attire for cheerleaders. Lobbyists are twisting arms and calling in chips to make money for their corporate buddies. In many ways, it’s politics as usual in Austin.

But this year, Texas lawmakers have a unique opportunity to stand taller than lawmakers in other states, to go beyond what is expected, to make a global statement while at the same time providing an added degree of service to Texas soldiers and their families.

This opportunity involves passing a bill to screen returning soldiers for exposure to depleted uranium at no cost to our troops.

Depleted uranium or U-238 is created as a waste product during the uranium enrichment process that fuels nuclear reactors. U-238 is at least 60 percent as radioactive as the raw uranium. DU’s military use is to more effectively enhance armor and armor piercing weapons.

The states of Connecticut and Louisiana are already considering such legislation since the Federal government has, essentially, chosen to ignore the DU problem. In fact, Louisiana’s House recently approved such a measure with a 101-0 vote.

These two states are picking upthe ball that the Pentagon refuses to carry by implimenting the U.S. military’s own DU clean-up and testing regulations requiring U.S. soldiers to be routinely screened and treated for DU contamination.

Much of the world is not aware of the tide of radioactivity that is being unleashed with the use of nuclear weapons in the Middle East conflicts. Scientists are concerned, as are military commanders and soldiers whose health is deteriorating from exposure to depleted uranium weaponry. Their exposure is up close and the threat of cancer and other life-threatening ailments is beginning to sink in.

Scientists are learning that this radioactivity from our weapons in Iraq does not stay in Iraq. Billions of minute radioactive dust particles are being transported around the world, to remain permanently suspended in the air, ultimately to end up in human lungs. The particles rest only after they are rained upon to become ground cover on roofs, in fields, in yards, and in water supplies, creating a web of radioactive land mines stretching across the planet.

Soldiers who are in close contact with DU or who breathe the vapors are, by growing numbers, coming home afflicted. They then, with close interaction, pass this on to their families, with the possibility of conveying the affliction to their children in the form of grotesque birth defects.

The bill in Louisiana is a start, but really does not go far enough. Yet first steps are important to eliminating a threat to generations who have yet to draw their first breath.

Basically, Louisiana lawmakers give returning soldiers the right to have a body fluid screening test for exposure to depleted uranium and require that adequate training related to DU exposure dangers is provided prior to redeployment.

Actually this is only a partial overall test, for both soluble and insoluble depleted uranium tests are needed for a full evaluation, but this is at least a start and will provide some screening advantages.

Usually in arguments pitting politics against science, politics wins; but the world cannot pause for politicians to get up to speed on the deadly endeavor of nuclear proliferation through the use of depleted uranium. DU is not a soldier-to-soldier combat ingredient. It is soldier-to-civilization, and both lose in the long run, as does our environment and this planet.

On behalf of Texas soldiers, our legislature has the power to initiate testing to learn the degree of the proliferation in the Lone Star State, to use its clout to begin to educate Texans about the dire consequences of DU, and to lead the way in providing an added degree of protection for families who have already sacrificed.

It is time to put our hearts where our bumper stickers are. All of us with yellow ribbons on our autos should call our legislators and demand that this testing be made available to our soldiers. Even if the threat should turn out to be not as serious as the evidence suggests — and the proof is overwhelming that it is — are we willing to risk the lives of our soldiers and their families over a few dollars? Is that what supporting our troops is all about?

The Iconoclast encourages both houses of the Texas Legislature to adopt a DU bill similar to that in Louisiana during this session. This isn’t about politics. It’s about survival and doing the right thing.

— Written By W. Leon Smith, Don M. Fisher, and Nathan Diebenow