This campaign is about more than calling Blair to account for my personal bereavement
This campaign is about more than calling Blair to account for my personal bereavement and the deaths of over a thousand British and coalition troops - it is also about the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis and the laying to waste of the cradle of civilisation.
The imposition of democracy - if you can say that holding elections in a country under occupation is democracy - does not justify the countless tonnes of depleted uranium which now cover Iraq as a result of the previous war and the present invasion. We are already seeing the emergence of birth defects and high leukaemia rates. There will be a second Gulf War Syndrome among British and American troops - but how much greater will the effects be on those who have to live there?
DU is a by-product of the nuclear industry - what better way is there of getting rid of your nuclear waste than dumping it on someone else's country in the form of munitions?
When troops are sent into an area where DU has been used they are given a card by the MOD which says:
'DU is a weakly radioactive heavy metal which has the potential to cause ill-health. You may have been exposed to dust containing DU during your deployment. You are eligible for a urine test to measure uranium. If you wish to know more about having this test, you should consult your unit medical officer on return to your home base. Your medical officer can provide information about the health effects of DU.'
This is a barely adequate response - but what about the Iraqis who have to live with this for the rest of their lives? They have no medical support or testing procedures in place.
Within a few weeks of my son Tom landing in Iraq it became abundantly clear to him that Iraq did not pose the threat indicated by Blair. He said to me:
'Dad, this is a very poor country with its people on their knees after twelve years of sanctions. If they've got WMDs, why don't they use them, instead of home made improvised devices?'
When Tom was killed I started asking more questions and it soon became clear to me that Blair was backtracking and trying to move goal posts and that the war was for regime change and not because of WMDs.
This catastrophic political blunder has cost over 100,000 innocent Iraqi deaths, over a thousand coalition deaths and 85 British deaths as well as the billions of pounds which would have been better spent in any of a hundred different ways.
I have a second son still serving in the army, and I have deep concerns about the radioactive DU residue left in Iraq both for future troops deployed there and the Iraqis who have to live with it.
- ©Reg Keys, 2005 -
