Readings Between the Pipelines

Researched and written by Katah
Edited by Sam
A Dragon Dance Theatre collaborative project, March, 2003

They are calling it a “Decapitation Attack”…
According to what is publicly known, Iraq is ringed by 1,000 U.S. and British warplanes, five U.S. aircraft carriers, each with 70 fighter planes, each plane capable of launching guided bombs that can hit 700 targets in one day, regardless of weather conditions. There are 30 cruisers and destroyers equipped with satellite-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles. There are F-117 stealth fighters and B-1 stealth bombers, which will be part of the "shock and awe" blitzkrieg designed to deliver 3,000 missiles and bombs in the first 48 hours of the war. Washington has 800 computerized Abrams tanks and scores of Apache helicopters that can fire over the horizon. It has computer-guided artillery, bunker busters and a massive 21,000-pound terror bomb capable of mass destruction. Its troops have night goggles, heat sensors, high-tech portable bridges, amphibious assault vehicles that can emerge from the sea and travel at 25 miles per hour in the sand. All its forces are commanded by the latest computerized battle-control equipment.

While Fortune Magazine’s next issue hits the stands, with the feature article called AFTER WE WIN and Nelson D. Schwartz discusses “ why oil prices will fall” and that SUV drivers will save 228$/year …others are concerned about the fate of the Iraqi population…
24. The children under 5, pregnant and lactating women, and IDPs will be particularly vulnerable because of the likely absence of a functioning primary health care system in a post conflict situation. In the centre and south it is estimated that these groups represent a total caseload of 5.2 million people6, 4.2 million under 5, with one million pregnant and lactating women, plus a further two million IDPs. Using purely per capita ratios and "poverty and environmental patterns", 1.23 million of these will be in the southern governorates, to which the United Nations is more likely to have access, and accordingly will need immediate humanitarian interventions. This figure requires further refinement in order to take account of the infirm, the chronically ill, and the elderly.
http://www.casi.org.uk/info/undocs/war021210.html
http://www.casi.org.uk/info/undocs/war021210.html This "strictly confidential" UN document, dated 10 December 2002, examines "Likely Humanitarian Scenarios" in the event of a war in Iraq. It was written to assist with UN contingency planning for safeguarding the wellbeing of a population most of whom the document acknowledges are "highly dependent" upon a Government ration for their basic needs.

Earlier this week, news all essential services in Iraq were about to collapse. The war was about to begin. UN and nongovernmental organizations were pulling their relief workers out of Baghdad and admit they will be unable to address this magnitude of humanitarian crisis especially considering the all ready deprived state of the population. Top field commander, General Tommy Franks(who also headed the War in Afghanistan) stated over a month ago, that to full fill the president's demands of regime change in Iraq, sufficient ground troops are needed to quickly control the country. “Under new US war plans they will advance deep into Iraq, as far as Baghdad right away on the first day of fighting. Ground troops would be involved in the fighting on the same day as the air force or before”.

The iraqis are facing the grussom impact of another war taking its toll on the civilian population. Considering the state the country is in, and understanding that modern warfare causes 80% more deaths than conventional forms of warfare, (BMA, 2001 - British Medical Association The Medical Profession and Human Rights: Handbook for a changing agenda) …The onslaught is certain to overwhelm the population of Baghdad…expect the unimaginable after the destructon of roads, railways, homes, hospitals, factories and sewage plants …this will inevidably create conditions in which the environment is degraded and disease flourishes…But of course the Pentagon say they have all this covered, as Donald Rumsfield’s friend, Jay Garner is on track to be the de facto governor of the 23 million Iraq people…He will implement the plans as the head of Civil Authority under General Tommy Franks (also General commandor of the Afghanistan war). Jay Garner, a retired 3 star general in 1997 and soon after became president of SY Technologys, a division of L-3 Communications. This company is a systems manufacturer for space and missile defence technologies among other things. He took a leave of absence from Sy Technologies recently, and has been at the Pentagon since January, working 7 days a week, as he now heads the office of “Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance”, developing detailed post-Saddam scenarios as how he will run the country.

Over 40% of the population of Iraq is under 15 years of age…

Here is a brief history and discussion of the geographical area as the cradle of civilization: Most of present day Iraq, is what we call Mesopotamia, which means: the land between the rivers. For centuries, the centre, not only of the middle east but of the civilized world. The people of the Tigris and the Euphrates basin, the Ancient Sumerians, used the fertile land and abundant
water supply of the area and developed sophisticated irrigation systems and created what was probably the first cereal agriculture, and they were the first
people known to have devised a scheme of written representation as a means of communication, the cuniform...
The Babylonians came after them, and devised the most complete legal system of the period (about 1750 BC). The Babylonians were followed by the Assyrians.
Baghdad is the still-beating heart of a former cradle of civilization, a country as historically dramatic as Ancient Greece or the Nile Valley.

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq (since 1921) with almost 4 million inhabitants. It is situated in the interior of the country on the river Tigris at the point where land transportation meets river transportation... it is the centre of air, road and railroad transportation of Iraq. It is the leading manufacturing city of the country, with oil refineries, food processing plants, tanneries and textile mills...
The Bazaar, consisting of rows of small shops or stalls of hand crafted wares produced locally, has long been a feature of the city.
Baghdad is the most important centre of learning in Iraq. Educational institutions in the city include the University of Baghdad (1957), al-Mustansiriyah
University (1963) and the University of Technology (1974).
Among the noteworthy historical structures of Baghdad we find the ruins of Bab al-Wastani, the last remaining gates of the city, as well as the Abbasid Palace, which probably dates from 1179, and a few miles north of Baghdad is Kazimayn, the notable, magnificent, gold domed mosque.




On Friday, March 14, 2003, I read the news again, thinking I was finally going to find some indication that the threat of war was decreasing… As a matter of fact, there was no sign of any thing of the sort. CNN described what new deployment had been going on during the past few days ... “A wave of B-2 stealth Bombers has left for the Persian Gulf”... With my non military background, I found, thanks to “google.com”, a fine description of exactly what is a B-2 Stealth Bomber ( www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/bomber/b-2.htm ) , which also lead me to many other web sites describing the state of the nuclear weapons arsenal in the US and abroad along with various articles about the subject.
I have been reading and doing research in the past few weeks to try and familiarize myself with the situation in view of a better understanding of how and why the Bush administration is still threatening the world with a third world war for the benefit of a very few individual players... ???... I don't understand how as humans, as a species, those very few individuals , including the higher ranking members of the administration and most of those in the industrial-military-complex can do this unto others...how can they not take into consideration the humanitarian impact of the repercussions of their actions?
Clearly the war will impact the people and the land which has been described as the cradle of civilization. The damage will occur to the visiting armies also, and not only the Iraqi population. Considering the clear links between the what is known as the Gulf War Syndrome which has plagued so many of the US, Canadian, and British vets. It is estimated that more than a hundred thousand have been effected.

It is breathtakingly sickening that the orders are coming from a government that Lincoln once claimed was, “...of the people, by the people, and for the people”. But then again, is it really that surprising? I guess we can’t really think of the Bush family as “of the people”. Was the election results of November 2000 really “by the people” ? If the few that will/ may benefit form this war is just a few individuals in the military-industrial-corporation complex, considering the state of the current United States economy, and how much the government spends on military contracts /year (according to Helen Caldicott, this amounts to half a trillion dollars a year??!!! http://guerrillanews.com/war_on_terrorism/doc746.html ) and still is one of the only countries in the west without a free public health plan…I don’t think we can say “for the people” anymore…

On the CNN web site, there is a section called: Showdown on Iraq. This is an interactive site where you can follow the US military deployments in and
around the Gulf area, the middle east .
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/iraq/deployment.map/
This site lists most of the types of ships, and planes, and describes some of the ammunition they are planning to use.

Last week, they proudly announced that “10 MORE warships and 2 submarines arrived in the Red Sea after passing through the Suez Canal. These cruisers, destroyers and submarines can all fire satellite guided Tomahawk land attack missiles or TLAMS precision weapons with a range of about 1600km”.
In general, A cruise missile is basically a small, pilotless airplane. Cruise missiles have an 8.5-foot (2.61-meter) wingspan, are powered by turbofan engines and can fly 500 to 1,000 miles (805 to 1,610 km) depending on the configuration. A cruise-missile’s job to deliver a 1,000-pound (450-kg) high-explosive bomb to a precise location -- the target. The missile is destroyed when the bomb explodes.
But more specifically, you can read more about Tomahawks on the Raytheon web site. Raytheon manufactures these particular cruise-missiles. Raytheon Company is an industry leader in defence, government and commercial electronics, space information technology, technical services and business and special mission aircraft. 2002 sales amounted to 16.8 billion. Their operating cash follow has increased from 50 million in 1999 to almost 300 million in 2002. This is public information available on their web site. The site includes a “product data sheet” where you will find all the parameters describing the Tomahawk weapons which are said to be,” the weapon of choice” for the US military. Tomahawks are worth up to 1, 000, 000 US$ each.

Tomahawks were used in Operation Desert Storm in 1991
(288 cruise-missiles were launched).
Tomahawks were used again in Iraq in 1993 (78 cruise-missiles were lauched ). Tomahawks were used again in Iraq in 1996 (only 31 this time).
Tomahawks were used in Iraq again during Operation Desert Fox , in Decemer 1998 ( at least 330 tomahawks were launched this time).
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/desert_fox/

Dessert Fox also saw the use of a number of AGM 86B /C Missiles which are conventional air-launched cruise missiles, that were developed to increase the
effectiveness of B-52H bombers, mentioned above which you may have all ready read about.
http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/AGM_86B_C_Missiles.html .

If you want more discussion about various defence devices, history current program and costs you can find it on this web site:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/

More specifically on Tomahawks:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/bgm-109.htm
On this web site, you are also invited to give a tax deductible donation.

On this web page, http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/ you can order your own paper or card-stock models of the above mentioned missiles and other weapons of “Mass Distraction”

What they don't mention on these web sites though is the following:
All Tomahawk, cruise missiles are filled with powerful fuels. However, the combustion products of initial fuels in the missiles are much more damaging and more cancerous than the fuel you use in your car...
They don't mention that the initial powder fuel of the missiles is comprised of highly toxic substances whose combustion products are toxic and cancerous. The missile fuels are composed of the following: ammonium-perchlorat, nitroglycerine, nitro-cellulose, organic compounds as unifying elements (polybutadien, polyurethane, polyvinyl-chloride, polystyrene, polyacrylate, etc) organic leaden salts - lead-salycilate, lead-ethylhexoat, lead-stearate, metal
nitrate (alkali and soil-alkali), metal perchlorate, fluoro compounds especially fluoroformals as energy components etc.
As a consequence of combustion of these substances, highly damaging acid nitrogen oxides and hydrochloride acids, which destroy the forests and vegetation, are released. The ammoniac, highly poisonous hydrocyanic
acid, hydrocyanic acid compounds, nitrogen oxides and fluorides (the compounds which are an essential component of very poisonous pesticides) and cancerous compounds as a consequence of fuel stabilizers combustion, which consist of ring-structured compounds medically proved to be cancerous, together with lead compounds and fluor compounds (as a consequences of
combustion of fluor nitroformulas) release radicals with fluor which get attached to everything in nature causing very painful and almost incurable wounds and
burns on humans and animals (Branka Jovanovic, 1999).
Also... lets not omit the bomb loads of the A10 Warthogs, Ågthe anti tank weapon of choiceÅh, these payloads contain ammunition made from depleted uranium (DU). The book: Metal of Dishonor describes how and why the Pentagon uses DU, a waste product of the Uranium enrichment process used for making atomic bombs and nuclear fuel, because it is extremily dense, actually, 1.7 times as dense as lead.
DU is used in alloy forms in shells to make them penetrate targets better. As the shell hits its target, it burns and releases uranium oxide into the air. Depleted Uranium (Uranium 238) is the main by-product of refining Uranium ore for nuclear fuel. It emits high energy but very short range Alpha radiation. In its pure metallic state it is relatively stable and safe to handle (e.g. if ammunition is handled with gloves). However it presents two main health hazards:
DU ignites at high temperature and burns into DU Oxide - a fine, Alpha-radioactive, toxic dust, easily inhaled, widely dispersed by wind and water, very hard to detect and to remove from the environment or the lungs.
Military DU is not pure. It includes small quantities of highly radioactive and toxic isotopes including U236 and Plutonium due to recycling nuclear fuel rods in DU processing. It was probably these other elements that enabled the UNEP survey team to trace DU in Balkans target zones.
This release of Uranium Oxide caused an immediate increase in leukemia, cancers, and birth defects in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. Uranium Oxides are also the suspected cause of Gulf War sickness, the symptoms are identical with radiation sickness.
Depleted uranium (DU) is used primarily because it is effective against tanks. When DU bombs detonate, uranium oxide is formed in particulate of between 0.5 and 5 microns. These can be windborn several hundred miles or suspended electrostatically in the atmosphere.
The half life of Uranium is 10 9 (ten to the ninth) years, so they do not decay. One "hot particle" of this DU material in the lungs is equivalent to one chest X-ray per hour, for life. It is impossible to remove the particle from the lung , so the contaminated lung gradually irradiates the victim until death ensues. The US military is well aware of this and they are on record as confirming 2.5mGy/hr at the surface of a DU shell, a dose equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour. Note that each A-10 Thunderbolt 30mm cannon anti tank shell contains some 275g (10.1 Bq). A single 120mm Abrams tank DU shell contains 3kg of U-238 (111 MBq) of activity . (CRL, 1999). Excerpted from Metal of Dishonour : How Depleted Uranium Penetrates Steel, Radiates People and Contaminates the Environment by Ramsey Clark, Helen Caldicott, Michio Kaku, and Jay Gould. Copyright © 1997.


John Catalinotto and Sara Flounders of the New York City based International Action Center have also done extensive research on this issue.

What can the consequences/health effects for people be? Polluting substances endanger the population directly through several mediums: air, water and food, but one should not neglect the indirect influence stemming from the chemical transformation of pollutants (which can result in the increase or in the reduction of their toxicity), as well as from the fact that they tend to accumulate (most often in geological formations or in the biosphere) (P. Polic, 1999)

Collateral Damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq was issued in London on 12 November 2002 by the global health organisation Medact, the UK affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cahier/irak/IMG/pdf/medact_iraq_report_final3.pdf
is an analysis, from a public health perspective, of the health and environmental impact of the previous, on going and any future conflict in Iraq. It is easy to read and gives interesting background information.

Helen Caldicott wrote a brief and interesting article about the Medical consequences of attacking Iraq, stating that it is not Saddam Hussein who will
bear the brunt of the hostilities, but rather the civilian population of Iraq. She describes what have been the medical consequences of the Gulf War which she states, as being, in effect, a nuclear war. This is because of the use of the ammunition containing the DU, which is described above. With the half life of DU set in billions of years… that the areas in which this ammunition was used in Iraq repeatedly for the last 12 years will remain radioactive, effectively for the rest of time...

Depleted Uranium was used for the first time in history by the US Military in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1991. It constitutes the first ntroduction of a nuclear weapon into the "conventional battlefield," and is a technical breach of all the non-proliferation treaties that the US has signed. Its March 2003…an international war has officially started with out the consent of the UN security council. With the ammunition available…this is essentially a nuclear war where an unimaginable amount of civilians will be victimized along with over 250 000 American very young servicemen.


Katah….Tehuantapec, Mexico…March 2003