Dick Cheney Poisoned Hundreds Of US Troops In Iraq — They’re Dying — And The Media Is Silent
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
The
legacy of death and misery from the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan
continues today, and, once again, Dick Cheney plays a central role. A
new book by Joseph Hickman, a former U.S. Marine and Army sergeant,
titled The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers details how soldiers and local civilian populations were exposed to constant streams of toxic smoke from the burning of waste.
The
infamous Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR), which was a part of Dick
Cheney’s corporate empire under Halliburton, operated about 250 burn
pits which contributed to the $40 billion that Halliburton made during
the Iraq occupation. “Every type of waste imaginable” was burned,
including “tires, lithium batteries, asbestos insulation, pesticide
containers, Styrofoam, metals, paints, plastic, medical waste and even
human corpses.”
This reprehensible practice proves yet again that nothing is sacred when it comes to the military machine.
Just
as the U.S. laid waste to Vietnam’s human health and jungle environment
with Agent Orange, it wrecked human health and environmental quality in
Iraq. That country will suffer from this toxicity for decades, as
evidenced by sharp increases in birth defects and cancer and leukemia
rates.
Likewise, U.S. veterans and their families are bearing the brunt of this travesty.
The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers begins
with the story of a healthy young soldier sent to Iraq who was
constantly exposed to smoke from burn pits. When he returned home with
respiratory problems, the Veterans Administration (VA) denied him care,
and he later developed brain cancer and died.
Those
who do survive are having children with birth defects at a rate three
times higher than normal, according to the book. The denial of medical
coverage by the VA for burn pit-related illnesses is a central strategy
in denying that burn pits even posed a health hazard.
Beau
Biden, the son of vice president Joe Biden, died of brain cancer after
serving in Iraq in the vicinity of burn pits. Even this tragedy, which
is similar to many stories of exposure and death, never brought
attention to the issue of burn pits.
Salon interviewed author Joseph Hickman,
who provided even more shocking details, and how the Department of
Defense (DoD) does all it can to keep this knowledge from the public.
I think the Department of Defense does its best to squash this story and so does Veterans Affairs. They really don’t want this out at all.
Hickson
interviewed one former KBR employee who was very reluctant to even talk
about burn pits for fear of repercussions, as he was harassed by KBR
when he previously came forward about the issue. By using private
contractors for such operations, the DoD facilitates these egregious
assaults on human and environmental health because contractors are not
held to the standards of the military.
This
dependency on contractors feeds their tendency for carelessness.
According to Hickson, the upper management said at one point, “If
they’re going to investigate us over these burn pits, don’t worry about
it. If we pull out, they can’t run this base.”
The
U.S. government, in its effort to conceal the impact of burn pits, even
managed to influence a World Health Organization report that downplayed
the effects. It stands in stark contrast to several independent
researchers who found large increases in birth defects, leukemia, cancer
and other carcinogenic diseased in populations living near burn pits.
There’s a large group of epidemiologists that absolutely believe that that report was influenced by the U.S. government. Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, a widely respected environmental toxicologist, has been there and seen the birth defects and how we literally destroyed that country with pollution. There are birth defects there that don’t even have medical names yet.
The
evidence compiled by Hickson and presented in his book makes it
downright criminal for the DoD and politicians to continue denying the
issue. When veterans suffering from burn-pit illnesses contact their
Congressmen, there is silence because they are in bed with the defense
industry.
General
David Petraeus and other top DoD officials have denied the health
effects of burn pits, but veterans have no recourse because they can’t
sue the government. There is a lawsuit against KBR, but the DoD will not
acknowledge that the burn pits were misused.
While
politicians and military brass issue patriotic platitudes about
honoring those who serve their country, the reality is that soldiers are
just a name and a number, and they’re thrown away when the military
machine is done with them. Defense corporations reap billions as
veterans and local populations suffer sickness and death.
Please share this article in the hope that exposure can force accountability for the toxic legacy of burn pits.
Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com
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