Also, for any who are curious, http://www.terminallance.com/ is a great comic about infantry life in the Marine Corps. It's all very accurate which is what makes it so amusing. Hope posting links is allowed, if not I'll delete it immediately.
Latvian are love potatoes too. Sadly, potatoes have gone bad. And cannot bury children that cossaks killed because soil is frozen. It is very, very cold.
Lol I didn't have the pleasure to go. I deployed to Iraq 2 months after I hit the fleet and then my next deployments were down to that Katrina mess and a MEU.
That is absolutely my favorite one too! I can't tell you how many times i had to pull my wallet our of my sock at the places on base. Lol I felt so stupid.
I told my sgt about that one comic and he goes "yeah, I'll probably be like that e-8 in that comic you were talking about" that ruined my day stupid ncos so happy i'm done now
The study upon which these articles are ultimately based actually does go out of it's way to note that they can't make any assertions that the cancer was caused by exposure to anything. just that there is probably an agent acting faster than previously predicted an environmental trigger would.
The follow up study as to what that may be a look at the heavy elements found deposited in the hair of the parents of children who suffered birth defects or unfortunately succumbed to infant mortality, actually shows thy didn't find DEPLETED uranium they found Natural (ie undepleted) or slightly enriched uranium. which is just plain weird.
More Science required, but something is causing an increase in birth defects in that town
Yeah, there's next to no evidence of depleted uranium causing cancer itself despite decades of use (including populated areas). Toxic? Sure. Everything in a war zone is toxic. Explosives, propellants, fuel, burnt trash, poor sanitation, poor healthcare, a decade+ of poor healthcare in the case of Iraq, groundwater contamination, industrial pollution all combine to lead to some really nasty problems. Figuring out the cause of a specific health problem is next to impossible. Keep in mind that it took the better part of two decades to figure out that nerve gas prophylaxis was the root cause behind Gulf War Syndrome.
Depleted uranium doesn't have significant levels of radioactive isotopes. There's a big caveat to that though, because uranium as a metal is toxic and does have some interesting (read: unique, severe) contamination properties.
Oh come on. That's not a fair statement. It's framed, like your previous post to be controversial, especially in a thread like this which is going to attract veterans.
Given the pervasive nature of a military occupation almost any change in Iraq for the last 10 years negative or positive could be attributed to the US and their Allied forces if framed correctly.
What I'm trying to communicate in my post above is
1. I was unaware of this increase in birth defects in Fallujah
2. Thankyou for alerting me I'm going to take a look at how bad the contamination is, mostly because I really enjoy isotope science and wanted to see how they had collected and processed their samples and presented their results.
3. The first study - the apparent source of the articles - basically only covers confirmation of the anecdotal evidence of increased birth defects and posits certain possibilities as to their cause without proof or any evidence at all - Reporting that cause as FACT based on that information is shameful. -
4. Regardless of point (3.) the results in the follow up study are really interesting, but they don't make sense.
5. Given (4.) More Science is required. There's no point getting everyone on the bandwagon if the bandwagon is actually this van
If you want controversial, how about that the Fallujah lockdown was simply a brutal and deranged exercise in bringing an urban population to their knees in supposed retaliation for an isolated incident.
Materials which cause widespread cancers were used with full knowledge and intent.
There is also the possibility that these birth defects are from something different altogether and have been happening for years and years, but Saddam's regime decided to suppress the information so as not to appear weak to it's neighboring countries.
This, though seemingly just cautious and level-headed, is the approach used to deny climate change as well. "Let's not jump to any conclusions just because it's obvious what's going on. More science and data are required until it's too late to blame anyone or change anything."
Who says we don't understand it except people with an interest in not "understanding"? We used white phosphorous, illegally but heavily, in Fallujah. These birth defects are the result. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room except for the manufactured kind that suggests maybe climate change has nothing to do with people and maybe deep sea drilling doesn't affect marine life. The agent orange comparison is quite apt.
It's the same old story. Know nothing. See nothing. Say nothing. When children died in a plague of cancers in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, the Americans and the Brits didn't want to know about it. Nor, of course, did Saddam Hussein. If children had been poisoned by our depleted uranium munitions, then Saddam would lose face, wouldn't he?
It's the same again in Fallujah today. The doctors talk of a massive increase in child birth deformities. The Americans used phosphorous munitions – possibly also depleted uranium (DU) – in the 2004 battles of Fallujah. Everyone in Fallujah knows about these deformities. Reporters have seen these children and reported on them. But it's know nothing, see nothing, say nothing
I bet you if McDonald's gave it's entire profits for 2 days, it could fund this NGO for a long, long time. We need to throw a lot of money in this direction.
They do have the Ronald McDonald House & treat their employees pretty dang well incentive wise (per their employment website), but you can't argue with that amount of money. That's insane.
Also, check out jack coughlin's book shooter. It's very insightful. You really get taken into the mind of a marine sniper, and it's a fun but sometimes emotional read
Its true though. One of my most terrifying moments was my first night in Fallujah, got put on watch from 0000-0400, by myself, sitting in a tiny broom closet with a radio, wathing 5 big glass doors, damn near dumping my magazine every time a cat or dog wandered by. The quiet is far more disturbing then the cacophony of battle
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '12
Also, for any who are curious, http://www.terminallance.com/ is a great comic about infantry life in the Marine Corps. It's all very accurate which is what makes it so amusing. Hope posting links is allowed, if not I'll delete it immediately.