Review by:  TOM CAHILL
August 30, 2005


America’s ship-of-state is sinking, torpedoed by the totally fraudulent and 
murderous war in Iraq.

And a second torpedo is about to strike the foundering vessel. When the 
full impact of the use of uranium munitions by US forces in Iraq reaches 
the public, this just might finish off the American Empire. And Democrats 
as well as Republicans are responsible. With such a major war crime in 
progress uncovered and with the economy teeter-tottering, what could follow 
is an economic collapse that could make the Great Depression of the 1930s 
seem like a mere, temporary “market adjustment.”

If Cindy Sheehan has an “accident” or is “suicided,” it wouldn’t even slow 
Washington’s demise. The Gold Star mother has already awakened enough 
Americans and given them a transfusion of enough courage to think and speak 
out louder and more clearly about the outrage that is the war on Iraq. The 
Armageddon that Christian fundamentalists seem to want so badly may come in 
a slightly different form but it’s on the way. You can bank on it.

The second “torpedo” running straight and true at the ship-of-state may be 
a film produced by the American Gulf War Veterans Association.  
It is a powerful expose of the absolute criminal insanity of the United States
military/industrial complex--not just during the Bush regime but going all the
way back to the Truman Administration. The film is an example of the highest
and best use of communications technology and is also a tremendous blow to
the credibility of the corporate media which has forever been the Ministry of 
Propaganda for the US government.

In a nutshell, America’s brilliant leaders long ago discovered radioactive 
waste from nuclear power plants can be used to harden steel. Since then 
they have been using it in munitions as well as armor claiming the finished 
product is only “slightly” radioactive.

“I grant ‘slightly,’ imagine having your head stuffed into a microwave and 
set on ‘slightly’…forever,” writes Dennis Kyne in his book “Support The 
Truth” (www.DennisKyne.com). Sgt. Kyne was a medic during Dessert 
Storm. He is now one “slightly” radioactive and greatly pissed-off combat vet.

I made the mistake of watching “Beyond Treason” early one recent 
morning. As a military veteran, a father and a grandfather, I was so 
appalled by the horrors depicted that I was deeply depressed the rest of the
day and went to bed with a sense of dread and hopelessness. But as an activist
for more than four decades, I’ve had to become resilient. And having been
already acquainted with much of the information presented in the film, I awoke
next morning in a fury of righteous indignation. Since 1968, I have felt thoroughly
betrayed by the US government. Now I’m so enraged, I feel like an enemy alien
in my own country. I want to help bring down the US government even if it’s on
my own head. And, indeed, the collapse probably will do in many of us, one 
way or another.

“Beware lest you become what you fight,” warn Buddhists. America fought 
the Nazis in WW II and now we have become them. The use of uranium 
munitions by US forces in Iraq may be a greater crime against humanity than 
the Holocaust. Far, far greater! America now is the world’s most Evil 
Empire. Got that, Ronnie Reagan!

I’ve known about uranium munitions for years but all this time I thought 
those of us like Dr. Doug Rokke, Leuren Moret and Dennis Kyne just might be 
exaggerating the menace. But no, we were right all along. “Beyond 
Treason” offers irrefutable proof the US has waged nuclear warfare against 
Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan and our own troops as well. In his book, Kyne 
writes, “My claim is this: Depleted Uranium is a Nuclear Weapon.”

What affected me most is the way the information was so skillfully presented
and--most of all--the color stills of horribly deformed babies born to American
veterans of Desert Storm 1991. They are all victims of the so-called “depleted”
uranium or “DU,” an obscene term coined by some very sick spin doctor deep
in the putrid bowels of the Pentagon.

While in Iraq as a human shield during the US-led invasion in 2003, I 
visited hospitals in Baghdad and Basra and saw children dying before my 
eyes. Hospital staff wouldn’t let us see the worst deformed children but 
showed us photos. Those images of Iraqi babies now reinforced by the 
photos presented in “Beyond Treason” of American infants will remain with 
me the rest of my life.

For more than a decade, many Americans have known about--even via the 
corporate media--the danger of uranium munitions. On Feb. 22, 1994, NBC 
Dateline aired “Deadly Fire” and showed, among other American casualties of 
Desert Storm, Darryl Clark and his daughter, Kennedy. If still alive 
today, Kennedy would be 13 and probably having a difficult time living with 
the purple welts on her face and body, not to mention internal physical 
problems including no thyroid.

A photo of Paul Hanson in uniform with beret holding his armless son, 
Jayce illustrates the cover story for the Nov. 1, 1995 issue of “Life” with 
the headline, “The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm. Has our country ABANDONED 
THEM?”

If you have read this far and are still not moved to action, you need to 
see some stats and facts.

* Desert Storm 1991 lasted little over four days and less than 150 
Americans were killed in action. It was touted by the Pentagon as the 
“greatest military victory in US history.”

* Since 1991, between ten thousand (10,000) and fifteen thousand (15,000) 
American veterans of that battle have died from the “depleted” uranium used 
to harden the steel in munitions and armor.

* Almost a half million (425,000) Desert Storm 1991 vets are chronically 
ill and dying from what US Army doctors call a “mystery disease” or “Gulf 
War Syndrome” which in reality is sickness primarily from radiation.

* More than two hundred thousand (209,100) Desert Storm 1991 veterans of 
the above listed half million are already receiving disability benefits 
from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is one of the hidden costs of 
the war covered up by the Department of Defense. Already the Iraq War is 
the fourth most financially costly (in 2005 dollars) conflict in US 
history, more expensive than WW I.

* The tons of uranium waste from US nuclear power plants used in uranium 
munitions and armor, still being used in Iraq during the occupation today, 
is the equivalent of almost a half million (400,000) atom bombs dropped on 
Nagasaki in 1945, according to Leuren Moret, a scientist and leading 
whistleblower on uranium munitions. It seems Dr. Stranglove is alive and 
well spreading his madness in America’s ruling class.

* Sandstorms are blowing the fine uranium dust all over the Mid East 
including Israel. If it gets into the jet stream, why couldn’t it spread 
all over the world like after Chernobyl blew up in 1986?

* I was in Iraq only six weeks and tested positive for radiation when I 
returned home. At the very least, cancer is knocking at my door. Imagine 
what the American soldiers in Iraq for six months and longer will have to 
deal with. In the near future casualties of Gulf War 2003 and the 
occupation could dwarf those of Desert Storm and could be a third torpedo 
if the second one doesn’t finally sink the country.

Knowledgeable about DU and responding to an earlier draft of this 
review, a friend e-mailed me, “If my assessment is correct, the use of 
uranium munitions is a bigger problem than the war itself.” I replied that 
if anything his “assessment” might be an understatement. We are talking 
about billions of years that the radioactive dust will be working its 
misery on the people of Bosnia, Afghanistan and especially Iraq.

I would have liked to have been Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey for 
just one moment. Had I her soapbox at Crawford, I would have yelled out 
past the gate toward Bush’s ranch home using language similar to her’s, 
“YOU MURDERING BASTARD. YOU’RE NUKING OUR OWN TROOPS AS WELL AS THE IRAQIS.”

But it’s not just George Bush and his close cohorts who should be 
indicted by some court they don’t already own or intimidate.

Dwight Eisenhower, former commanding general of US Army Forces in Europe in 
WW II, in his farewell address as president of the USA in January 1961, 
warned of the threat of the “military/industrial complex.” He even coined 
the term, a euphemism for fascism which in turn is a coalition of high 
ranking government officials, top military officers and CEOs of big 
corporations.

Pres. John Kennedy took Pres. Eisenhower’s warning seriously, and was 
assassinated, many of us believe, because JFK tried to control and downsize 
the “complex” which includes the vast US intelligence community of which 
the CIA and FBI are only mid-sized agencies.

For decades rubber stamp for “the complex” has been the US Senate 
Committee on Armed Services? Among the illustrious Republican senators are 
John McCain of Arizona and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. Among the 
Democrats are those star “liberals” (as the far Right calls them) Edward 
Kennedy of Massachusetts and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

It was Sen. Clinton--already campaigning for president 2008--who just a 
month ago suggested the US should send 100,000 more troops to Iraq. This 
was of course shortly before Cindy Sheehan cornered the master of the 
universe like a rat in his own home in Crawford, Texas. I couldn’t find an 
e-mail address on the web site of the Senate Armed Service Committee, but 
here is the committee’s postal address:

U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services
228 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, 20510

Please don’t let me be the only one to drop the Senators a fan 
letter. If you’ve seen “Beyond Treason” and trust it’s sources, 
demand--don’t request--that the senators see the film too. After all, 
aren’t they servants of the people? The film is available free to 
veterans (DD 214 necessary) and $25 for others from the web site mentioned 
above or:

American Gulf War Veterans Association
PO Box 85
Versailles, MA 65084


Every American should be forced to see “Beyond Treason” as German civilians 
were forced, by order of then Gen. Eisenhower, to visit the Nazi death 
camps immediately after liberation in 1945. Justice would be further 
served if the Americans responsible for the use of uranium munitions were 
tried for war crimes in the very same court in Nurenberg, Germany, in 
which Herman Goring and other Nazi bigwigs were judged. This should include 
former commanders-in-chief George H. W. Bush and William Clinton.


The essayist served in US Air Force intelligence in Germany in the 
Fifties. He has been an activist for peace, justice and the environment 
most of his adult life. A few months after returning from Iraq in 2003, he 
witnessed (along with Sen. Kennedy and others) Pres. Bush sign into law the 
Prison Rape Elimination Act. Memos from his FBI files indicate it may have 
been COINTELPRO that set him up to be beaten, gang-raped and otherwise 
tortured while jailed for civil disobedience because of his “anti-Vietnam 
(war) activities.” Recently he was nominated for the Agape Foundation 
Peace Prize for 2005. He is a member of Stop Prisoner Rape, Veterans For 
Peace, and other progressive organizations.