Dr. Janan Hassan: Bringing Home the Iraq War and Occupation,
Monday 3/28; 8:30-9:30 PM
It should be now clear to anybody that the reason that the Bush administration
was so adamantly opposed to the idea of the International Court of Justice
is not for narrow ideological reasons, but because they were planning
major war crimes from the very beginning. This would include the invasion
of Iraq which is the very kind of unprovoked aggression that sent the
leaders of Nazi Germany to the gallows. With all the arm twisting, bribing
and pressuring that the US could muster, it could not force the Security
Council of the United Nations to approve the invasion and this means
that unbeknownst to the vast majority of the brainwashed US public that
the entire war is a war crime and every single act of violence carried
out by US forces in the invasion and the occupation is in itself a crime
against humanity. If we are going to completely disregard international
law and all forms of rules of war, then why not promote torture, massacre
civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure, and use illegal weapons
like cluster bombs, gas, and napalm on civilian populations? It's all
illegal and the leaders of this country are convinced that they are
so powerful that they will never be held to account.
That's unfortunate because, the leaders of this country and the zombified
public that refuses to face reality and use the ample democratic levers
that they possess to hold them to account, are likely to be remembered
for the most heinous war crime ever committed, that is the poisoning
of Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and several other countries forever
with the use of radioactive weapons. It is estimated that the US vaporized
300 tons of uranium in Iraq just in the first Gulf War. How much was
used in the latest invasion is still a secret but it is certainly far
more and was used widely in populated areas. The fine uranium dust that
results when a depleted uranium weapon is exploded has a half life of
3.5 billion years. It is carried by the wind, gets in the water and
food, and contaminates everything. It will be killing and maiming the
people of those countries and this one for as long as humans will walk
this earth.
Dr. Janan Hassan is a Pediatrician from Basra Iraq who has been studying
the health effects of depleted uranium on children first hand. She spoke
last month at the University of Washington Health Sciences Hogness auditorium.
Using graphs and tables, she demonstrated the huge rise in cancer rates
and deformity in children and showed a number of very disturbing pictures.
A panel discussion followed which discussed the health effects of war
and occupation on both the Iraqi and American people. The panel included
Evan Kanter, Staff Psychiatrist with VA Puget Sound, who specializes
in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder; Imad Al Janabi,
who graduated from high school in Baghdad, has a PhD in architecture
and City Planning (1983) and now lives in Tacoma; and Amal Sedky Winter,
PhD, a psychologist, and specialist in cross-cultural matters affecting
Muslim and Arab Americans.
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