Up until recently, the United States government stonewalled nearly every discussion of Gulf War Syndrome and even denied its existence. Other guilty parties include Great Britain, where there is at least a controversy brewing unlike the eerie silence on the subject here in the United States. On 9 January, Britain's Defense Minister reported that the conclusion of many years of research demonstrated there is no evidence linking DU to cancers or to the more general ill health being experienced by some Gulf veterans. This is in complete contradiction to the credible and extensive data available dating back to the development of the atomic bomb in 1943, when the head of the Manhattan Project cautioned that particles of uranium used in ammunition could cause permanent lung damage. In 1991, the UK Atomic Energy Authority warned that, if particles from merely 8 per cent of the DU used in the Gulf were inhaled, there could be 300,000 potential deaths.
Several physicists agree with the consequences of depleted uranium.
We now shoot nuclear wastes into other people's backyards. We're talking about laying the groundwork for an investigation into war crimes against ordinary people. The UN has called for an investigation into the military use of DU by NATO and the United States. Both refuse to comply. NATO says it will do its own investigations.