Senator Hillary Clinton has "blasted" Pentagon officials "for not properly screening soldiers returning from Iraq" for exposure to Depleted Uranium: "We can't have people coming back with undiagnosed illnesses. We have to have a before-and-after testing program for our soldiers," noting that, "One of the issues we raised [during meetings with Pentagon officials last year] was exposure to the Depleted Uranium that was in the weapons, and how they were going to handle it."
Clinton, of course, voted "with convction" to authorise the Bush Administration's war, on the grounds that, "It is...clear that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
Nowhere in Clinton's speech endorsing the war did she admonish the Bush Administration not to deploy Depleted Uranium weapons -- even though she was surely aware that it was planning to do so (indeed, that it had done so in Afghanistan, and that her husband's Administration had done so in Yugoslavia).
So her "blasting" of the Pentagon amounts to this: go ahead and send the troops over there to be exposed (along with the Iraqi citizenry, which doesn't, apparently, even warrant testing) to DU, just make sure you diagnose them when they return. While that's surely better than the treatment veterans can expect from the chicken-hawks -- not testing upon return, and then telling veterans suffering from the effects of exposure that it's all in their heads -- it's got to feel more than a little underwhelming to those returning from the toxic battlefields.
Fuck your paritsan politics, Hillary. If your concern is genuine, then you will call for the United States to adhere to the UN's ban on DU (and cluster bombs, and napalm), for it to clean up its mess, and to administer the best treatment possible to those exposed to its radiological munitions -- both "coalition" personnel and Iraqi citizens.
Well of course we are more worried with diagnosing DU related illness than preventing it. Because as long as we diagnose them, and provide treatment, their barking will not get loud enough to wake the American people.
Soldiers are considered to be second class citizens...we treat them as expendable, pay them shit, and then don't even give them the same discount we give snot-nosed high-school and college students at the movies.
The American people, in general, only pretend to really care about soldiers. Trust me, I know. You tell them what they don't want to hear, they shut off...they don't want to think about it.
Posted by: Carl on April 7, 2004 11:16 PMonly read part of your shit, youconstipated dickhead! Fack your paritsan politics, enquirer! Square traitor. Bush was Awol. fORTUNATE SON
Posted by: IMNPAINE on April 10, 2004 09:38 AMWell of course we are more worried with diagnosing DU related illness than preventing it. Because as long as we diagnose them, and provide treatment, their barking will not get loud enough to wake the American people. - CARL
eNQUIRER CARES NOT FOR TRUTH!
That was almost English. Not quite, but almost.
Posted by: Carl on April 10, 2004 06:01 PMdon`t worry.by august we will be moving the sand around in syria or iran just in time for george`s second term.you should welcome opportunity to have something to continue to gripe about.
we could always do the caring thing and ignore the fact that these people will,unless checked,walk onto a bus in downtown manhatten in rush hour and blow themselves up.but thats o.k.i`m sure there is a provision in the constitution under freedom of expression that could be found to justify such actions.if you are liberal enough.
And of course military action against foreign nations is just what we need to prevent further terrorism. Any military action not aimed at extermination of every Muslim in the middle east will not prevent terrorism. We have two options: increase out security at home (which we have done, at least to an extent...we need to be more effective about this), and make those fuckers so poor that they can't even afford the explosives and plane tickets.
Unfortunately, we have a love affair with middle eastern oil (hint: it's connected with our love affair with big trucks), so the second won't happen. Where do you think the guys who blow themselves up get the cash for the bombs (or the materials to make the bombs)? Wealthy Arabs, most of whom are wealthy from oil.
Using military action against Muslim nations in the war on terrorism is like a giant game of Whack-A-Mole...only in this game soldiers such as myself get killed on a daily basis.
Posted by: Carl on April 11, 2004 10:43 AM