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Full Version: Is DU not in the news because of "balance"?
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I just wrote a brief thing on this in my introduction post and posted a link. But I think it is worth reposting here.

The Guardian ran an essay entitled, Truth and lies blend in the name of 'balance'. It actually mentions DU, not as a focal point, but as an example of the author's exasperation with media distortion of the world, which he suspects is often achieved (not that he thinks it's any conspiracy) by using the notion of balance as an excuse to not deliver a realistic portrayal of our world.

Here are the last two paragraphs, wherein DU is mentioned:

Quote:
And grown-up discussions about anything nuclear are off limits. So recent UK coverage of the Chernobyl disaster concentrated on how wildlife is thriving in the post-leak wasteland, while skipping the possibility that up to 600,000 people died as a result of the accident. And you won't have heard that amounts of uranium in UK air samples increased in 2003, when it was dumping tonnes of depleted uranium (DU) on Iraq, because weather travels. Or too much about the fact that living with DU in Iraq (or Afghanistan, or the former Yugoslavia) can make you very sick, if not dead.

This is because our governments like DU, so they don't want to hear about any unfortunate repercussions. And, according to many reputable sources, death, misery, pain, radiation and the consequences of any action will all go away, perhaps quite quickly, if we only ignore them hard enough.

A.L. Kennedy is the author of Paradise, Original Bliss and Everything You Need.


I think Mr. Kennedy has identified a very crucial facet here, of the ugly machine that is the modern, Western world. Citizens of the West like to see themselves as having access to a more rational world than outsiders. This is readily illustrated by the notion so many of us have that people in the Moslem world are muddled in their thinking because their religion and culture are not built on rationalism as ours is. But if our culture is so rational, why has it created the nuclear arms race, the dysfunctional UN, and now depleted uranium?

The lynchpin of our believe in our own rationalism is the media. Most of us feel, implicitly, despite our occasional protests otherwise, that the basic truth of the world is discernable by keeping in touch through the major media, which, after all, are the product of a free market and therefore basically trustworthy. They serve the people, right?

Well, I agree with Mr. Kennedy, that the falacy begins there; the media are beholden to people much more powerful than the public. Unfortunately, those people seem to not want to see DU in the news. Just consider this:

Quote:
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY.

Source: http://vitaltruths.blogsource.com/ Now, that's an accusation!

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Just testing unregistered reply.
DU is not only a weapon - it is Big Business & Money! Consider Canada produces 17% of the Worlds DU - and its regulations are held by DND only. There is no other Board - the fox guarding the henhouse? Is it poitically correct to ignore DU - heck yes! Money, money and money demand that Government try to stay away from DU and DU issues. We can't detoxify, we can not clean up and morally, well we can't repair the birth defects or the loss of life or transmission of heavy metals to Partners. However there is one strong point we each have, our power to make Government clean up and take care of those whom are toxic and emotionally & financially raped by this - our vote, our access to M.P.'s and unrelenting contact with Government. Public opinion will prevail - if we force it. DU is low level radiation & heavy metal toxicity - and DND knows all of this - in fact note that DND and Associates have stopped using the term "DU" - its now called "uranium" ( meant to be more friendly sounding and natural). Hold Government accountaable - email M.P.s!
Why, in the Canadian National Defence documentation under "Safe on the Battlefield", does it say in the last sentence "...perspective, we in the United States have.."?  Was this quote pasted in seperately or does the CND only use info presented from the USND?

Sould we not, as a sovereign country, provide our own independent study of the effects of DU?  
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