Stop using depleted uranimum

To the editor:

The following information is from "Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War"" by Leuren Moret.

The U.S. has been waging wars in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan using depleted uranium weaponry since 1991. These weapons are illegal under international law and violate the U.N. Convention on Human Rights, as they do not meet the four legality tests:

1. Temporal test: Weapons must not continue to act after the battle is over.

2. Environmental test: Weapons must not be unduly harmful to the environment.

3. Territorial test: Weapons must not act off of the battlefield.

4. Humaneness test: Weapons must not kill or wound inhumanely.

The depleted uranium weapons are in violation of U.S. military law. They affect our soldiers. Many soldiers who served in Bradley fighting vehicles where they often sat on ammunition boxes containing depleted uranium are experiencing rectal cancer. In a U.S. government study of post-Gulf War babies, 67 percent of the babies were born with serious illnesses or birth defects as being born without eyes, ears, having missing organs, fused fingers, thyroid and other malfunctions. Depleted uranium contaminated the semen. Thousands of gulf war soldiers are now dead, although fewer than 200 died during the six-week battle.

We will not accept the attitude Henry Kissinger had when he stated, "Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." We demand of our Congress and president to stop the use of depleted uranium and demand immediate withdrawal from contaminated areas.

BERNIE DIRNBERGER, Cape Girardeau