US Military Causes Infant Deformities, Robs Fallujah of Future Generation

There was a time when the women of Fallujah, Iraq could have children without much concern for their baby's health. Now, according to the BBC, some officials are simply telling women not to have kids. Fallujah, a city roughly 40 miles from Baghdad, is reporting high rates of infant mortality and deformities. In November, the U.K.'s Guardian reported that Fallujah doctors were "dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants, compared to a year ago, and a spike in early life cancers."

There are reports of babies with multiple tumors, nervous system problems, missing limbs, paralysis and even multiple heads. BBC journalist John Simpson reported he saw a "girl with a spinal condition so bad [he] asked [his] cameraman not to film her."

Cases like Fallujah's are not new. They go as far back as the 1991 Gulf War, and it has everything to do with depleted uranium (DU).

DU is used on armor-piercing shells, bullets and missiles. It vaporizes upon impact and forms a radioactive dust cloud that contaminates the air, water and soil.

Nine days after the 2003 "Shock and Awe" campaign, the U.S. used so much DU that a radioactive cloud was recorded over England by the European Committee on Radiation Risk. It increased Europe's atmospheric radiation four times over. As of 2006, the United States had dumped 3,000 tons of DU in Iraq.

Though the Pentagon denies it, independent researchers have been documenting DU's connection to birth defects, cancer and a host of other physical maladies for years.

To make matters worse for the people of Fallujah, the U.S. military used white phosphorus munitions on Fullujah in 2004. White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon. It is highly toxic and when it comes in contact with skin it melts flesh away, down to the bone.

"I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus," Fallujah resident Ali Sarhan said to the Inter Press Service News Agency.

According to the U.K.'s Sunday Mercury, white phosphorus has been used as a rat poison, can kill a human being with an amount comparable to "10 to 20 granules of white sugar," and is responsible for making a hazardous waste site out of Rattlechain Lagoon in England.

In short, Fallujah is a crime scene with Uncle Sam's fingerprints all over it.

Italy's La Repubblica reported in 2005 on the U.S. military's use of phosphorus. "The Americans are responsible for a massacre using unconventional weapons, the same charge of which must meet the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein," the report stated.

According to La Repubblica, the use of phosphorus on civilians was banned under the U.N. Convention of 1980 and chemical weapons were banned by a 1997 agreement that was signed by the United States.

It is immoral, underhanded and deplorable to release nuclear waste and toxic chemicals into the lives of an unsuspecting population who may harbor the effects for years to come. It is unforgivable to condemn a generation to disease and ghastly mutations. In a just world we would see our generals and politicos answering to war crimes charges in the Hague. Unfortunately, the world is not so.

DU and white phosphorous are weapons that target not only military personnel and civilians, but the unborn as well. To use these weapons is simply a crime against humanity.

No decent society would use such things, but we do.