Good Morning Iraq: Have you put your sperm in the bank?

By David M. Boje, Ph.D. and Vietnam War Veteran, February 13, 2003. This is a talk to be given to the ROTC in the New Mexico State University March for Peace.

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“Good Morning Vietnam!” – I am a Vietnam War veteran. I had a job like Radar in the movie, M.A.S.H. I was a company clerk in Saigon, a sergeant in USHAC, US Army, MACV. My barracks was such that I could see the helicopters landing at Tan Son Nhut airbase. From April 1968 to April 1969, I saw the runways stacked with body bags. 58,000 dead soldiers silently shouted, “Good Bye Vietnam!” I ask myself 'why did this happen?'

I support you soldiers. I want you to be safe, to come home safe. I also am Vietnam Veteran For Peace. I run the www.PeaceAware.com site, attend two weekly Peace Vigils, and organize for peace. I want this war to stop.

When I was 22 years old, I believed the government never told a lie.

The White House and the Pentagon told me Agent Orange in Vietnam was safe; 19 million gallons of Agent Orange were dropped on South Vietnam[1]. Is Dioxin Safe? – TCDD found in Agent Orange is harmful to man, all kinds of disease -- bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, nervous disorders, thyroid disorders, immune-deficiency diseases, liver and prostate cancers, and reproductive abnormalities.  

I want to make the point that war is a business. Dow, Monsanto, Diamond Shamrock Corporation, Hercules Inc., Uniroyal Inc., T-H Agricultural & Nutrition Company, and Thompson Chemicals Corporation manufactured and sold Agent Orange, Agent Blue and Agent White (Agent Orange FAQ). These companies were subjects of a class action lawsuit filed originally in 1979 and settled out of court in 1987 for $180 million. How many billions did these American war corporations make? People are still being contaminated 30 years after Vietnam.

The White House and Pentagon also told me that Vietnam was a just war. At 22, I was suspicious of the claim, but I went overseas and served my country. Now we all know that Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 was a staged bit of theatre, something to convince congress to pass a war resolution, something to get young people to enlist. President Lyndon Johnson admitted in 1965 "for all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there." And I recall King George the First told us that Iraqi troops were massing on the Saudi Arabian border, that they had satellite photos. The American public believed them, as did the Saudi government. But there were no such photos; it’s been a tall tale. General Colin Powell failed to produce a smoking gun on Feb 5^th.  I have no doubt that the White House and Pentagon will produce and stage a bit of Tonkin theatre, another tall tale, to persuade the American public to go to war.

Today, I am here to talk to the service men and women. The White House and the Pentagon tell us that Depleted Uranium is safe. As a Patriot for Peace, I believe, it is my duty to speak-out. This is not a time for silence.

“Good Morning Iraq!” Our service men and women will soon hear this cry on Arm Forces radio. But, will you hear about the cover-up, the death tool of USA service men and women, and the death of Iraqi civilians. Will anyone tell you, according to Title 38 of the United States Code, veterans are prohibited from suing the government for injuries suffered while in the military?

In Vietnam I learned that civilian casualties outnumber GI casualties. I learned there were lots of good reasons for veterans to sue their government. Number one on my list is not telling us Vietnam was about corporate profit for arms dealers, instead telling us tall tales about the Domino Theory, that Vietnam was a threat to the American Homeland if the Dominoes fell. 

I believe the Pentagon and White House are covering up the deaths of USA service men and women, dead from exposure to “Depleted Uranium” in the first Gulf War.

That word, “Depleted” now there is a bit of rhetorical magic. Are we supposed to believe that “Depleted” is less toxic radiation because the uranium is all used up? Or, that there is a gradual using up of the nuclear toxicity, and our troops have nothing to fear. The Pentagon tells us that "Depleted Uranium" is so safe we would have to swallow pounds of it to be affected, that it is no more toxic than beach sand or dessert sand, that Gulf War vets are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, not from any effects of USA weapons of depleted uranium. 

There is a cover-up, right here in the USA. Our U.S. service men and women were not told they were using weapons containing depleted uranium until two weeks after the Gulf War ended.[2] That meant no training and no protective gear for our troops.

Depleted Uranium was used in 1991 Gulf War, 1998 Dessert Fox War, as well as Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo. In Gulf War I, 230 tons of Deplete Uranium was used in USA arms and another 800 tons of uranium waste for USA nuclear program was dropped onto Iraq.  The 'Highway of Death" in Iraq, is where military vehicle carcasses, riddled with depleted uranium are on exhibit as a permanent health hazard. The Highway of Death has 2,000 vehicles and tens of thousands of charred and dismembered bodies littered the sixty miles of highway. Children play with the spent uranium rounds, civilians breath in the cancerous agents (Clark Report, War Crime).

I do not know if you know this. Depleted Uranium is quite toxic. It has a toxic life of 4.5 billion years. U-238 (a waste product of the Plutonium used in Nuclear Power plants) has been found in the Depleted Uranium, in the dust settled on vehicles left on the Highway of Death; when the wind blows, the dust takes flight. Please put your future in a sperm bank.

There is also a cover-up, right here in New Mexico.  Damacio Lopez, a resident of Socorro, is quite persuasive. He investigated why his grandfather died, and why Socorro residents are dying of cancer and encephalitis.

Mr. Lopez told me, our government is not studying the Depleted Uranium effects on Socorro, New Mexico citizens. "Since the 1950s weapons containing DU have been tested and developed near communities across the U.S.. One such community is Socorro, New Mexico where DU open air testing began in 1972 and ended in 1993 after pressure from a local citizens group called "Save our Mountain" (International Depleted Uranium Study Team). They breathed in the dust, they ate the dust, they passed along the effects to their unborn children. On 20 February at 7 PM there will be an important PeaceAware-hosted presentation by Damacio Lopez. The topic is Depleted Uranium in the Gulf War and in Socorro, New Mexico. It will take place at the Southwest Environmental Center in downtown  Las Cruces.  

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, and Damacio Lopez of Socorro, New Mexico checked the soil along the Highway of Death in Iraq. They found a Geiger counter reading of 2400 counts per minutes in the soil, in entry holes in tanks it was 800 to 1200 counts.  Now the normal count is a reading of 8 to 10. The dust from the “Depleted Uranium” is toxic; it floats in the air, and has settled across much of Iraq, including Baghdad, which has a reading of 40 to 52 counts per minute. The civilians breathe in the dust, they eat the dust, and they pass along the effects to their unborn children. 

Radiation weakens the immune system of our service men and women as well as that of the Iraqi civilian population. Those exposed to ionizing radiation do get Leukemia. In the civilian population of Iraq, 9% would die if they had medicine. The USA sanction increases the death rate to 70%. In 12 years of sanctions, 1.7 million civilians have dead; 500 thousand are children under that age of five years. They die of Leukemia and a long list of birth defects.

What about USA service men and women? Did you know? Of the 696,778 troops who served during the recognized conflict phase (1990-1991) of the Gulf War, 250,000 USA Gulf War vets have reported to the VA to get treatment for Gulf War Syndrome (code for exposure to USA weapons of Depleted Uranium). 161,000 USA Gulf War vets are getting VA medical benefits, but little serious treatment for exposure to Depleted Uranium.[3]  The White House and Pentagon did not tell us that, as of Feb 2003, 9,600 USA Gulf War vets (1990-1991) have died from Gulf War exposure to USA weapons that fired rounds tipped with Depleted Uranium.

They breathed in the dust, they ate the dust, and they passed along the effects to their unborn children.  Please do not pick up souvenirs, those dis-guarded uranium tipped rounds. Do not kick up the sand. Remember the Gulf War vets; they breathed in the dust, they ate the dust, they passed along the effects to their unborn children. 

I ask myself why would Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. tell us tall tales about the health effects of depleted uranium tipped munitions? I'm from the Business College. I see it this way.

War is a business - I believe this Iraq war has to do with the One Trillion Dollar international arms business. What about the $396.1 billion (FY 2003) military budget that is six times that of any other nations, and equals that of the top military budgets of 27 nations? (Militarism and Middle School). 

War is a business. The USA spends $1 billion of hard-earned taxpayer money each day on this Iraq war. Much of it going to corporations, while the needs of citizens for jobs paying a fair wage, health care, retirement pensions, social security, and education go unmet (Veterans for Peace - Info Leaflet). As Lieutenant Colonel Eric Daxon candidly affirmed at a National Institutes of Health workshop, "Desert Storm was great advertisement for the DU penetrator" (Daxon, 1994).  Like oil, the international arms industry has a profit motive.

I believe there is a cover-up of the business of war. Lieutenant Col Daxon (2001 Video "Invisible War") said "the science says it is very unlikely: that anyone would die from exposure to depleted uranium." Medical doctor, Naomi Harvey of NYU Medical School, does contract work for the Pentagon to prove that Depleted Uranium has no adverse health effects. For example, Dr Harvey reports (1999), "depleted uranium is less radioactive than the natural form and is about half as radioactive as the original natural uranium" (United Nations Panel discussion of Depleted Uranium - October 26, 1999). She concludes, "There are a tremendous number of people that have been followed for years to detect any health effects. I believe this is junk science, science results bought and paid for.

There is more credible research by international scientists. They reach different conclusions from Daxon and Harvey . A study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, "nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine" (Johnson, Nov 12 2002 Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium).

Thank you for serving our country. However, if I were you I would head for the sperm bank, wear a mask so you do not breath in the Depleted Uranium dust, and as our mom's told us, ‘wash your hands before you eat.’ Come home safe. As a Vietnam Veteran, I salute you.