Online Journal
Front Page 
 
 Donate
 
 Submissions
 
 Announcements
 
 NewsLinks
 
 Special Reports
 
 News Media
 
 Elections & Voting
 
 Health
 
 Religion
 
 Social Security
 
 Analysis
 
 Commentary
 
 Editors' Blog
 
 Reclaiming America
 
 The Splendid Failure of Occupation
 
 The Lighter Side
 
 Reviews
 
 The Mailbag
 
 Online Journal Stores
 Official Merchandise
 Amazon.com
 Progressive Press
 Barnes and Noble
 
 Links
 
 Join Mailing List
Search

Commentary Last Updated: Apr 20th, 2007 - 00:46:55


Dream vacation: Sea, sand, and depleted uranium at Vieques
By Mickey Z.
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Apr 20, 2007, 00:44

Email this article
 Printer friendly page

For nearly 60 years, Vieques, a tiny island off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, was used as a heavy weapons target range for the U.S. Navy. In addition, says columnist Juan Gonzalez: �The U.S. government (was) not content to simply use Vieques for its own military. It (had) the audacity to rent out the island to the armed forces of Latin America and Europe.�

This deal earned Washington $80 million in 1998 alone but the roughly 9,000 residents of Vieques faced socio-economic disaster. The fishing and tourism industries were wrecked and 50 percent of residents were unemployed while 72 percent lived in poverty.

The situation attained international prominence when, on April 19, 1999, two F-18 fighter jets getting in some last-minute target practice before heading off to radiate the Balkans dropped two 500-pounds bombs on an observation post and killed David Sanes Rodriguez, a 35-year-old civilian worker. The incident sparked massive, sustained demonstrations and by 2003, the navy packed up and left.

Fast forward to 2007 and you�ll find travel articles extolling Vieques as an �untapped environment� with �pristine beaches� and �chic restaurants� perfect for the �upscale city dweller,� the �nature lover,� and the �spring breaker.� And the depleted uranium comes at no extra charge.

Among the tons of ordnance dropped on Vieques, the U.S. Navy admits to using depleted uranium (DU) armor-piercing shells. �When fired,� writes journalist James Ridgeway, �the uranium bursts into flame and all but liquifies, searing through steel armor like a white hot phosphorescent flare.� The effects of DU go far beyond the immediate explosion. �The uranium-238 used to make the weapons can cause cancer and genetic defects when inhaled,� says former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

�Depleted uranium burns on contact,� adds Dr. Helen Caldicott, �creating tiny aerosolized particles less than five microns in diameter, small enough to be inhaled.� These particles can travel long distances when airborne�and don�t be comforted by their size. �There is no safe dose or dose rate below which dangers disappear. No threshold-dose,�� explains John Gofman, former associate director of Livermore National Laboratory, one of the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb, and co-discoverer of uranium-233. �Serious, lethal effects from minimal radiation doses are not �hypothetical,� �just theoretical,� or �imaginary.� They are real.�

Also real: Vieques, the new tourist hot spot, registers a 73 percent higher incidence of cancer than Puerto Rico as a whole. As Johnny Rotten howled: �A cheap holiday in other people�s misery.�

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at www.mickeyz.net.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor

Top of Page

Commentary
Latest Headlines
An anti-imperialist case against a nuclear Iran
The Iraq occupation and the coming war against Iran: Political wickedness and moral bankruptcy
Are thugs who defend �American interests� lesser thugs?
For Iran, no nukes is not good news
Blackwater�s bullets over Baghdad
Who killed the antiwar movement?
9/11 isn�t �over,� Mr. Friedman
Dissenting at your own risk
Our Bonhoeffer moment
Let's try partitioning the US
A Q & A for the people of a forsaken republic: Addressing the origins of the 'Whose-Your-Daddy Nation'
The Anti-Empire Report-2: Anti-Semitism. Don't settle for imitations
Is the �bomb, bomb Iran� brigade winning?
Congressman Duncan Hunter�s message to universities, �Be patriotic, or else!�
A very expensive quagmire
Hypocrisy rules the West
Forgetting Gandhi on International Non-violence day
A letter to the Democratic Congress
The Anti-Empire Report-1: If not now, when? If not here, where? If not you, who?
Or we could always just tow it out to sea, sink it, and it�d make a great artificial reef