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Re: DU Issue
I'll give everyone a heads up this is a bit off subject so you may delete.....or read on. Also, what I say here are just my rumblings and don't represent the position of anyone but me.
Phil Hypes has written several well thought out items on this issue. He has characterized the ethical issues and the dilemmas facing the modern soldier very well. Good job and a hand salute!
When I responded to Brian Ree's note, I was trying to point out that at the present only large caliber weapons systems use DU rounds. Hitting a person with a large caliber weapon is almost always fatal and the HP considerations become moot. Hitting hard targets (tanks, armored vehicles, bunkers) with troops inside is also nearly always fatal to the inhabitants and the HP considerations are also moot. The academics can figure out the exposure to what is left of a surviving crewman of a tank hit by a DU penetrator. I doubt if it will take long considering what I saw left of the enemy armor in Kuwait and Iraq. Environmentally, the effects of the use of DU (based on Desert Storm experience) is minimal. The effects on troops handling DU rounds as well as those exposed to DU shrapnel, dust, etc., has not yet shown to be a serious health problem. So where is the fuss? From the soldier's point of view "dead is dead" and the academics can argue the TEDE but it doesn't c!
hange the basic fact.
Also, thanks to Phil for adding to the discussion by pointing out the ethical problems associated with conducting military operations. I agree, with very few exceptions, the US Armed Forces do have an outstanding record of conducting combat operations while observing the "rules of land warfare," the guidelines set down by the National Command Authority, the Commander's intent and long, long lists of rules of engagement. The mission is accomplished knowing that sometimes these "humanitarian" and politically motivated rules may create significant risks to our soldiers, e.g., the ROE during the Viet Nam war that prevented firing-up a hospital, school or monastery even if it had an anti-aircraft gun on its roof. The use of the least force to accomplish the mission is our doctrine and I believe it is ethical. And, as Phil points out, the rules pretty much go away when defending yourself.
Regarding comparative risks on the battlefield. I look at things in basic terms. What can hurt me bad... right now. A future injury from inhaling DU or DU shrapnel was way, way, way, way down on my list of personal hazards. It was far below the use of chemical agents which, by the way, were somewhere on page 10 ....even way beyond the category of "foolish commanders." My list went like this, vehicle accident (fatal or serious injury), getting killed by an "unloaded" weapon (someone else's but not mine of course), mines of any type, booby traps, airplane accidents, poisonous snakes,{ they have some cute and cuddly "one-steppers" over there and snuggling up with one was not my idea of a Kodak moment!} food poisoning from an MRE, tripping over a tent peg and breaking my neck. Well, you get the idea. DU effects on the bod? Too much worry about an academic problem that probably will never, ever happen.
Combat IS ugly. If you are going to do it, then you have to be prepared to exact the maximum violence in the shortest time using the minimum of force and resources. Get it on and get it over......it will save lives on both sides in the long run. This theory is really the basis for the use of the atomic bombs during WW 2 no matter what the "revisionist historians" try to say. Harry Truman, ex-Captain and artilleryman from WW 1, knew this fact. As President his decision was based on saving a million or more Allied casualties during an invasion of Japan and getting the job done quickly.
And for those critics, if you have stuck with it so far, who implied that I was treating death in a frivolous manner and that I, or maybe American soldiers in general, are uncaring. You are mis informed. I'll leave you with a couple thoughts.
During Desert Storm our joint Civil Affairs Support team, composed of Marines and Army soldiers, established an "ad hoc" aid station and EPW collection point at the request of the 1st FSSG Commander at a God-forsaken grid coordinate in the desert known only as Al Kanjar. We begged, borrowed (and YES) stole the resources to build and supply it in a day. We staffed it with our physician, veterinarians, EMTs, physician assistants, fire fighters, and medical supply types from our Civil Affairs Company. Three Navy corpsmen from the Marine's Group Aid Station also pitched in. A NAVY Lieutenant at the MEDLOGS opened the CONEX containers and we helped ourselves to the cornucopia of medical supplies and gear. It was a TEAM EFFORT! Not only did these Soldiers, Sailors and Marines fulfill the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Commander's responsibility under international and national law and US regulations, they made a significant difference by favorably influencing the Iraq!
i soldier's opinion of the US forces. Their skill, professionalism, creativity and selfless dedication to duty protected and immediately improved the health of our former foes. More than 500 Iraqi prisoners were treated, fed, and sheltered (if you call a soggy blanket shelter) during their transfer from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia during the first 24 hours of operation. Street people from the inner city were better off than the best Iraqi soldier. Some had eaten very little in nearly 2 weeks and were without water for many days. (Did you know Sadaam had children of 14 years old in the front line? I do, I saw them......)
Nothing describes the Iraqi soldier's appreciation for the good treatment they were receiving than the following event. While I was caring for an old fellow who had badly burned hands, a young female MP Lieutenant stooped over to help and her loaded .45 fell out of her shoulder holster in to this guy's lap. In war "stuff happens! He beamed a big smile with his few remaining teeth and calmly handed it back to her. {This unexpected hazard was not on my list, by the way!}
What about good ol' "Doc" Flemming who single handedly jumped into the back of a semi truck jammed with about 80 EPWs to help someone in acute respiratory distress? He was "armed" with a dispenser of Albuterol. It is a very tough thing to give up your comrades to the "enemy" especially if you don't know how you are going to be treated. The sick man's buddies realized what was going on and quickly passed their friend (and the Doc) up and over the side for more care.
And how about those guys inside the cage, who eventually pushed their comrades to the front , waved their arms and wanted us to check him out. Sure enough, broken legs, arms, bullet holes, burns or something serious. Wounds and injuries hidden from prying eyes until they decided we were "OK." Yep, we Americano soldiers must be a real bad dudes. It takes a lot of confidence to turn you best friend over to the enemy.
Here's a couple more.... My buddy Bill, who was with the Tiger Brigade rounded up about 50 Iraqi women and children and sheltered them in a Mosque. He got them food, water, some blankets and got them safe passage to the rear. He also encountered an Iraqi family in which one of the kids had been injured....probably a "toe popper" mine or God knows what....he arrainged for the family's evacuation to a medical unit. The family was eventually flown by an ARMY air ambulance to Saudi so the kid could get the care they needed.
How about SGT W. treating a nasty infected cut on a really cute Palestinian girl's foot in the median strip of the highway northwest of Kuwait City?. Maybe I should digitize the photo and send it around.
Yeah, the next night when its 40 degrees, the wind whips about knocking things down and the cold rain is trickling down the back of my neck my thoughts will drift back to that EPW cage in the desert ; or when the orderly, orangey lights of an industrial center glare a mile off the side of a highway I'll think of Al Mishab and the coastal highway; industrial buildings surrounded by walls topped with razor wire remind me of Safwan, Dahran; when the scouts, Cobras and a platoon of Blackhawks from the Maryland Guard thump, rumble and beat the air into submission over my house on the way to an air assault exercise I'll remember the air missions passing so low over my hooch you could have touched them had they not blown the sand in your eyes, or when an oily black storm cloud boils up quickly and roils, rolls darkening the sky and dropping the temperature so quickly you get a chill I'll think of the fires and smoke of Kuwait. Then my thoughts drift off and I'll think of t!
he one Iraqi who did not make it. He died of malnutrition, dehydration and exposure. A cold and lonely death jammed into the back of the one truck that did not stop at Al Kanjar a now forgotten grid coordinate in the Arabian desert.
I don't want to ever again hear that we soldiers don't care about life and death. The men and women with whom I've served are the very best that America has to offer. I'm proud to have served with them. Few individuals I have met are more caring and more giving.
If you have read this far, you have probably guessed that I too am an "Army" man. I now have 28 years of service between active and reserve duty. Like Phil, my father was also a "lifer" .... a career airman who served WW2, Korea, and Viet Nam and Thailand. I'm not an "tanker man", like Phil and Joe Provost , so I'm not as eloquent a writer as they are. I'm just an airman turned Civil Affairs man and special operator. I have a practical and straight foreword way of doing things and in way I say things. I have sense of humor that similar to Hawkeye Pierce of MASH fame after years of working as a medic and technician. I have sense of fatalism derived from my experiences over more than one drop zone. "Blood on the Risers" and "Ballad of the Green Berets" are my favorite songs. The Green Berets, The Devil's Brigade and A Bridge Too Far are my favorite movies. Get the picture?
For the critics: As soldiers we take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign or domestic. We don't choose the missions, set the national or international policy, nor do we favor one political leader or party. Sometimes we don't have much choice in weapons systems that are given to us by grateful nation. But, we are blessed to have a country that gives us the very best technology, equipment and the most realistic training possible. If that technology includes DU then I will use it to this country's best advantage within the generally accepted international rules of warfare and the legal orders given to by my commanders.
As for those who decry making war, I think we would all agree with you. We hate it and fear it. But we don't make the decisions to fight or not to fight. The decision makers are not even the politicians. The decision makers are people like you who must influence the elected government by expressing your opinions and voting. After all, your freedom of expression is what we, the soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guardsmen and airmen have sworn to protect.
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