J.R. Part V.

This is coolbert:

Extracts taken from the original article of J.R. found here.

With regard to the weaponry of warfare and the danger from same:

"Even just developing, testing, and assembling things like nuclear and biochemical weapons is dangerous, generating huge numbers of fatalities, cancers, and injuries-- even if the weapons are never once used in anger.

virtually anyone who's lived in the US since 1951 has been exposed to radioactive fallout in varying amounts. 15,000 US citizens have died as one result, and at minimum another 80,000 will likely contract cancer from the effects in years to come. Some of the fallout from tests which took place decades ago continues to circle the globe."

[That figure of 15,000 deaths from fallout must be kept in the proper context. That number is of course deaths over a fifty year period. That averages out to about 250 deaths per year. That is about the same number of deaths that occur in the U.S. each year from all deaths associated with tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and lightning strikes COMBINED. I am not minimizing the effect of radioactive fallout, but keep things in a proper context!!]

Also keep this in mind. More [MORE!!!] radioactivity was released into the atmosphere by the single disaster at Chernobyl that was put into the atmosphere by all previous above-ground nuclear tests combined. We HAVE NOT see a magnum increase in the number of two headed babies in the Ukraine. Am I being sarcastic here? Yes!! But, my point is, CONTEXT!!

[Strangely enough, currently, one of the most popular recommended retirement communities in the U.S. is St. George, Utah!! St. George is directly downwind from the Nevada test site where a bunch of atomic bombs were detonated at ground level. St. George was repeatedly in the path of fallout from these detonations. The local populace of St. George is now in a mild uproar over what they believe is radioactive fallout induced illnesses and disease of a wide variety. For those retirees contemplating making St. George their home of choice, well, "happy trails to you!!"]. Click here to see the web site put out by the St. George chamber of commerce. They unabashedly state that St. George IS the number ONE place in the U.S. to retire to!!??



"For instance, radioactivity, unexploded bombs, and mines can continue to sicken, maim, and kill both war veterans and innocents (including children) years, decades, and even generations after the conflict in which they were deployed."

"Friendly fire accounted for 17.5 percent of the 615 dead and wounded U.S. troops in the gulf war. During World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict, about 2 percent of all U.S. casualties were from friendly fire"

This may not be correct! It may be that during the Vietnam War, indiscreet radio usage by U.S. forces was responsible for numerous deaths way beyond the two percent mentioned by J.R.

"tomorrow's adults will pay for disposal of dangerous war materials created in their parents' or grandparents' day, and many of the children and grandchildren of today's soldiers or civilians unlucky enough to be war participants will be plagued by various chronic diseases and forms of mental illness and other problems due to their ancestors' exposure to war-related training, toxins, and infections"

This is correct in several areas.

The use of poison gas on the Kurdish Halabja populace by Saddam has resulted in long-term genetic malformities among the newly born in that part of the world. This WAS NOT an anticipated result of the usage of poison gas.

Destruction of poison gas stocks in the U.S. proceeds with glacial slowness. Processes for destroying the poison gas stockpiles have been developed. Always seem to be in the pilot stage of development. NOT concluding the process. Part of the reason is that these depots where the gases are stored are NO LONGER located in remote areas. WERE in remote areas originally. NOW are surrounded by sub-divisions. The mere process of moving the poison gas munitions and the destruction of same places folks in the vicinity at greater risk than if the gas munitions were just left in place!!! Moving the poisons is also risky. NO easy way to deal with this stuff. Unlike nuclear munitions, poison gas munitions cannot be recycled and used in other ways. An informant tells me that the chemicals in the various chemical munitions can be reused in civilian applications. I would think the process of extracting those chemicals is too expensive to make this feasible!? My guess. Destruction is far preferable.

Click here to see a web site that gives a running tally of chemical weapons destroyed at this one specific arsenal, Umatilla. Chemical rockets in this case. This stuff, destruction of the chemical weapons, is going on.

"-- Centuries of work left for WWII bomb clearers"

"It will take nearly half a century to clear all the land mines lying in wait in onetime battlefields around the world"

You DO NOT NEED to clear all the bombs and mines. You DO NEED to clear areas where people live and work.

J.R. is correct here. It will take decades to just clean and store or destroy all the nuclear warheads and chemical weapons in American stockpiles. The designers of these weapons, especially the chemical weapons, DID NOT make any provision for their dismantling and destruction. This was NOT A consideration. It was assumed, at least in the case of chemical weapons, that the weaponry WOULD BE used. It was not! Nuclear warheads can be dismantled and the radioactive material extracted recycled for peaceful purposes or stored in a secure manner. Storage is a matter of will, not technology. The U.S., unfortunately, seems to lack the will concerning storage!

[I have personal knowledge of one area where radioactive materials were disposed of, it being decades later for the mess to be cleaned up!! In the aftermath of the original atomic bomb research, radioactive materials were buried hastily and without much, if any thought in a forest preserve area just outside Chicago. A hole was dug in the ground, the radioactive "stuff" thrown into the hole, the hole being filled in and covered by a small concrete slab in which was embedded a radioactive symbol. it was not until almost fifty years later that this radioactive debris pile was cleaned. In the decades prior to that, it was NOT uncommon to see people filling plastic jugs with well water taken from the preserve area just a few hundred yards, if that, from where the radioactive debris was buried. These folks were drinking the well water for it's healthy and therapeutic value, not realizing that a short distance away was this dangerous radioactive debris, probably leaching radioactivity into the ground water, water that they were drinking with the belief that IT WAS HEALTHY FOR THEM!!!???]

coolbert.