http://www.aljazeera.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=334512
Cities in Iraq and Afghanistan that had been subjected to heavy bombings from the US and UK are now facing fast rising rates in both cancer and birth defects. The city of Falluja was heavily bombed in 2004, and now 25 percent of the babies being born have serious birth abnormalities including brain tumors and neural tube defects in the spinal cord. In the city of Babil 500 cases of diagnosed cancer rose to 9000 in 2008. A direct causal link between the depleted uranium from US and British bombs and increased cancer in Iraqis has not formally been made. However doctors have used karyotyping and chromosomal studies to show the harmful effects of depleted uranium, and statistical evidence supports the correlation. Like the cases of rising cancer rates following the 2003 invasion, the war in 1991 also led to a spike in civilian cancer. Similarities have also been found between babies with birth defects in Afghanistan and Iraqis from bombed areas. American soldiers have also been showing adverse reactions to the depleted uranium. Their children are born with similar defects to Iraqi babies, and some soldiers claim the uranium exposure is the reason they have developed cancer. Children continue to be born in these countries without eyes, without limbs, and tumors growing out of their eyes and mouths.
The effects of depleted uranium and the modern age military technology make fighting a just war increasingly difficult. When one side has more weaponry and more harmful weapons, a just war is a notion from the past. The way that people around the world view war has become increasingly negative. This could partly be the result of increased technological globalization. Technology such as the telephone is fairly new, and the development and expansion of the internet has connected people around the globe. The effect of access to people from different nations has humanized the face of suffering. When the people of Iran were protesting in the streets after the 2009 election controversy, people from all over could follow protesters through twitter. People are no longer statistics, they have become humans we can interact with. This discover has also led to the disturbing realization that our fellow man are being harmed or killed. While the Iraq war is being brought to a conclusion, we leave in our wake a country rife with human suffering. Iraq today is a clear result of a liberal state going to war with an illiberal state, and an attempt to change that illiberal state into a liberal democratic one. However, the success of Iraq's government and the ability of the Iraqi people to heal after the devastation of war, will determine the success of their democracy. The future of Iraq remains to be seen, while some people continue to wait and hope, others will move forward to rebuild a nation.
This is really interesting, Tiffany, and I like how it shows the consequences of 'high politics'-- wars, governments, diplomacy, etc on everyday lives, especially those we do not hear about as much.
ReplyDeleteBecause the 'information revolution' provides us with an ability to forge closer connections with people in distant places, it is often though, as you write, to bring about a more compassionate world. Yet, I am not so sure this is always the case. The media can be used, for example, to further portray people in stereotyped ways, or to promote fear of the other or the unknown. More on this in class tomorrow!
In addition to your analysis on the role of the media in spreading information globally, I found your comment, "American soldiers have also been showing adverse reactions to the depleted uranium," very interesting. In the political theories we have talked about in class, a common theme is self-preservation, and that nations will avoid taking aggressive measures against other states if it will threaten their own security. I wonder whether this idea applies to this situation, in the sense that American soldiers and their children have shown similar defects to those in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would assume that it would apply to this situation, so what argument could explain the US's justification?
ReplyDeleteIt use to as these bombs make the environment worse and it affects the health of those area people.St Louis Actos Bladder Cancer Attorney
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