Scientists for Global Responsibility
9th Febuary 1998

by Felicity Arbuthnot

IRAQ - With the U.S. and Britain poised to begin an intense aerial bombardment of Iraq, there has been little mention of the consequences it would have for the health and environment of the Iraqi people and for the region as a whole. Recently, Russian President Boris Yeltsin expressed concern that an overly aggressive US posture at a time of high tensions is extremely dangerous, with possible wider ramifications beyond the region.

Once again, we are seeing a vast buildup of weaponry in the region, with some new additions that set a dangerous precedent. There has been mention in recent media reports of 'bunker busting' weapons and 'deep-penetration' bombs that the US has spent huge sums in perfecting. The US tested new weapons in warfare before, and specifically against Iraq in 1991 when hundreds of tons of U-238 so-called depleted uranium bullets and shells were fired from A-10 aircraft, attack helicopters and tanks, littering the landscape with radioactive debris.

There exists the possibility that the US forces will once again test their latest military technologies on Iraq. On November 15, 1995, at a meeting of the Nuclear Weapons Council Standing Safety Committee in the US, a request was made to accelerate the completion date of the B61-11 to December 1996. The B 61-11 is the nuclear version of the deep-penetrating bomb, destroying its intended target underground by means of a nuclear explosion. it was developed and deployed without congressional approval despite assurances that no new nuclear weapons were being developed in the US.

There are other tactical nuclear weapons in the B-61 seies, for example, the B-61 models 3,4,and 10 that are already deployed in NATO countries and at bases in Turkey, the country of closest proximity to Iraq. According to Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University, the B61-11 was specifically designed to destroy the deepest and most hardened of underground bunkers, which the conventional bunker-busting bombs mentioned recently in the press are incapable of destroying. The dangers of such a weapon include shock waves leading to seismic activity and the release of high level radioactive elements.

There is a tradition of covering up the use of radioactive weapons. The public did not find out about the use of U-238 'depleted uranium' weapons until after the Gulf War. Their use was discovered because of 'friendly fire' incidents, when allied tanks mistakenly fired U-238 projectiles at other allied tanks. Presently, the US military is monitoring the radioactive breakdown of depleted uranium shrapnel lodged inside the bodies of US troops. Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. There is now a fivefold increase of cancers in Iraq. Depleted uranium weaponry have been condemned as weapons of mass destruction by the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. (SC 1997-36).

The US has not ruled out the possibility of using the new earth penetrating B61-11 bomb that can be attached to a B2 bomber or is light enough to be carried on F16 aircraft. Recent history has shown that previously unheard-of weapon systems have been used, and in the confusion and immediacy of warfare, circumstances lead to uncontrolled excalation and accidents.

THE PUBLIC HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW WHETHER THESE TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS, DESIGNED TO EXPLODE AT ONLY 100 FEET UNDERGROUND, WILL BE DEPLOYED.

It is not the right of powerful countries to test their new weapons systems on Third World Countries, or on those countries that are considered 'rogue' states today, but that were economic and strategic partners in the recent past. And it is clear that civilians - men, women, and children - will be killed, despite claims of new, 'accurate' weapons being used.

It is not the right of powerful countries to use their military might to apply pressure on the timetable of negotiations when so much is at stake. The Iraqi people are desperate; 1.2 million children, according to UNICEF, have died as a result of sanctions.

Disseminated on behalf of Gulf War II Information Network by Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR)

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