Reply #40: Artillery use DU?

[EvilMonk]

Sure, I guess.

But when there is no armor to use it against...

Remember all those tanks and T-72s we encountered?

Neither do I.

Oh. And artillery doesn't use DU. It's a direct fire weapon, not an indirect one. The only systems to use DU are the M1 series of tanks (including the much older first version that utilized the M68 rifled main gun; the modern version is smooth-bore), the heavy machine guns on land-attack aircraft (such as the venerable A-10's main rotary cannon), and area-denial landmines that have a powdered version thereof for it's explosive properties under extreme heat and overpressure.

See here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/du.htm

DU is expensive, and since it was the USMC that was the primary push force, I doubt that they were just lobbing it all over the place. How would it have been effective? It puts a hole the size of your big toe in things. Not exactly a big effect on anything other than armored vehicles and hardened structures. We used HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) rounds with our tanks. They don't have any DU in them, just two explosive charges that are designed to explode first through any armor or structural wall, and second inside the target itself. Much more effective a weapon on the reinforced concrete buildings and houses that are the sole building style of the city (or Iraq in general for that matter).

Incidentally, our "cruelty" was evidenced by dropping leaflets over the city for 3 months prior to the assault telling everyone to leave and inviting Bad Guys to come play. Which they did. The cruelest thing I saw were the mental patients that were all that was left of the original occupants of the city. They were simply released at large or left behind by the families that left as they were "too inconvenient" to take care of properly. More than one of them accidentally wandered into a field of fire...

And no. I disagree with the assertion that it is fair for a "journalist" to arrive at a titled conclusion that American Military Action is the reason for these children's maladies. Especially when the report held up as some sort of proof is inconclusive at best. You can't simply state that you know the reason and wait for the research to "catch up" to your fore-gone conclusion.

I don't suppose that the deplorable living conditions naturally evident in the city or more importantly the surrounding villages (Saqliweah, for instance) has anything to do with it? How about those villages? Our presence in them was minimal to say the least, and when we made a larger presence, and saw first hand how they lived in an almost virgin setting, it was hideous. There was bright neon green water all over the ground that those kids would play in or even drink from. That has nothing to do with birth defects and rampant health problems I suppose? Let's not even begin to discuss the "rich culture" that uses one's own hand to wipe after excrementation, using only filthy water to rinse off with...