Terrifying

[Dauphin]

Whenever I clear up after someone it usually goes unappreciated. I doubt the US admin cares who is doing the clearing up.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Arrian, how long would you be wanting to wear that mask?

I've heard they are quite uncomfortable, but if it was a potential lifesaver, I'd put up with it. The idea being that the site gets cleaned up. Problem with that, I would guess, would be the dust being dispersed by wind and then it's impossible to just "clean up" after the fight. Nasty.

Sava: exactly, it's like pollution. Bad? Yeah. WMD? No. IMO, of course

-Arrian

[Japher]

I thought DU was used only for armor plating?

[Az]

Personally, I think there is much much more lead particles in the air than DU to be worried about, esp. in such a warzone that is iraq. just imagine thousands of fires around the country...

[Arrian]

Begs the question- who pushed it, Nuclear Industry?

Entirely possible, but I'd guess it was a faction in the military that decided that the armor-piercing capability of DU was so great that it outweighed the health concerns. No doubt people who would be interested in unloading a bunch of otherwise useless (right?) DU would agree. The military doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to properly testing health effects of weapons (agent orange, anyone?).

My question is this: did adding DU munitions to our arsenel require any sort of Congressional approval, and, if so, how did it get through without a major fight?

-Arrian

[chequita guevara]

Almost every study of DU says the stuff is dangerous as hell. If it's not radioactive (and it is) it is seriously toxic.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Arrian
So the DU issue rides again. As for the article, well, I stopped reading there. Not because I think DU is harmless (I actually think the long-term health effects require serious study), but rather due to the clear slant of the article. I couldn't take it seriously.

-Arrian

DU is not a WMD as defined by the Geneve & Hague Conventions or by the UN. It's funny how lefties just love international organizations and agreements until they get into the way of their silly little politics and then the UN and international treaties are just ignored.

[Az]

Of course it's seriously toxic! It's a heavy metal!

My question is: how much of it there is in a single tank shell? (and I hear there are DU shells for 20mm as well, so for those, too)

[Dinner]

The choice with depleted Uranium is much like the choice with Agent Orange 40 years ago. Either you use this in combat at the cost of possible health effects in the future or you don't use it in combat and face the certain deaths of soldiers in the field.

The question is simple. Either certain deaths now or possible health effects sometime in the distant future. Protect the soldiers now and deal with the other possibilities if and when they come up.

[Az]

Generally, WTH does the US Army need kinetic penetrator shells in Iraq?

[Dinner]

They are hardly used at all here. I do imagine DU is used to destroy buildings (like what happened in Fallujah) but I'm just guessing. In any event this entire thing has been blow out of proportion by Aljazeera but that's no surprise.

[Geronimo]

If we are worried because breathing DU dust is as dangerous as breathing lead dust, then how is DU a special villian in warfare? Would not the zillions and zillions of ordinary lead bullets also be expected to produce large quantities of a dust called lead dust which would also be as dangerous as breathing in lead dust?

[problem_child]

It's radiologicaly dangerous (radioactive) as well as chemicaly poisonous. This isn't about Whacko Leftists Lunatics and their evil Liberal allies verses Good Sensible Rightists and their Just Plain Common Sense arguments.

Radioactive dust being blown about a populated region, and blown further afield by winds is an issue that is outside of politics in my opinion. I don't think it's so much like Agent Orange either. Thousands of British and US soldiers are experiencing serious and often fatal health effects as a result of this. You may as well make the argument that nuking a nation now is just a matter of causing a big explosion, because radioactive fallout is just a fuzzy theoretical maybe who-knows sure-there-was-that-film-Planet-of-the-Apes-but-taht-was-just-a-movie far in the future type issue, so why not use nukes more? Exact same thing.

[Dinner]

It's called depleted because there is almost no radioactivity left in it. Plus we are talking about very, very small quantities.

This is a red herring.

[Kuciwalker]

Re: Terrifying

Originally posted by problem_child
I really hope Aljazeera is being biased and totally propagandist on this one.

Bullets now count as nuclear weapons? Fascinating.