Epidemic of Birth Defects and Cancer in Iraq: Americas Toxic LegacyStephen Lendman Children born with two heads reflect it. Some had only one eye. Missing sockets look like the inside of an oyster. Theyre milky and shapeless. Some children had tails like a skinned lamb. One or more had a monkeys face. Girls had their legs grown together. They were half fish, half human. Miscarriages are frequent. Hundreds of newborns have cleft pallets, elongated heads, overgrown or short limbs, and other malformed body parts. Some are too gruesome to view. Deformed Iraqi newborns are commonplace. So are virtually every known illness and disease. Theyre inordinately frequent. They range from severe headaches, muscle pain and debilitating fatigue, to serious infections, cardiovascular disease, brain tumors and numerous type cancers. They include leukemia, Hodgkins disease and multiple myeloma. Others affect the bile ducts, bones, brain, breasts, colon, prostate, esophagus, gall bladder, liver, lungs, pancreas, pharynx, ovaries, salivary glands, small intestine, stomach, thyroid, urinary tract, and pelvis. Cancers been around a long time. In October 2010,Nature.com headlined Cancer: an old disease, a new disease or something in between? It said a striking rarity of malignancies in ancient physical remains might indicate that cancer was rare in antiquity. University of Illinois School of Public Health/Cancer Prevention Coalition Chairman/Professor Emeritus Samuel S. Epstein titled his 1978 award-winning book The Politics of Cancer. Twenty years later, he updated it. Its called The Politics of Cancer Revisited. He referred to doing so in modern societies. Iraq and other US war theaters are different. Iraq perhaps is in a class of its own. Vast parts of the country are irradiated. On May 21, Science Daily headlined Cancer and Birth Defects in Iraq: The Nuclear Legacy, saying: Ten years after the 2003 war, Mosul-based scientists detected high levels of uranium contamination in soil samples at three sites in the province of Nineveh which, coupled with dramatically increasing rates of childhood cancers and birth defects at local hospitals. Iraqs a toxic wasteland. Scores of pollutants include dangerous chemicals and metals, oil, gasoline, pesticides, bacteria, other poisons, and irradiation. Widespread depleted uranium use caused it. US bombs, missiles, shells and bullets use solid DU projectiles or warheads. Theyre de facto nuclear bombs. Their widespread use is more harmful than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Inhaled or ingested DU particles or dust is highly toxic. Theyre designated illegal weapons for good reason. America prioritizes their use. Iraqis suffer horrendously. Radioactive contamination is virtually everywhere. DUs half-life is 4.5 billion years. Contamination is permanent. According to Helen Caldicott: Americas two Iraq wars have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people, particularly children, are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity. From 1991 2008, the incidence of birth defects and childhood cancer spiked sevenfold. Over one-third of US Gulf War vets are dead, seriously ill, or permanently disabled. Science Daily said widespread carcinogenic material across Iraq suggests the public health legacy of the two Gulf Wars is only going to get worse. It does so annually. In October 2012, Londons Guardian headlined The victims of Fallujahs health crisis are stifled by western silence. Four new studies link one of the most severe public health crises in history to Americas two November 2004 assaults on the city. Cancer rates and birth defects spiked dramatically. Cancer expert Dr. Chris Busby studied conditions. He called Fallujahs crisis the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied. In some respects, Basra replicates it. Its neural tube defects (aka open back) incidence is unprecedented. Numbers keep rising. Hydrocenphalus (water on the brain) cases among newborns are sixfold higher than America. US munitions bear full responsibility. In September 2012, the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (BECT) headlined Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities. Evidence it reported was damning. From October 1994 October 1995, congenital defects per 1,000 live births in Basras Maternity Hospital was 1.37. In 2003, it was 23. It represented an astonishing 17-fold (increase) in the same hospital. From 2003 2011, annual evaluations were conducted. Congenital birth defect occurrences and types were reported. Metal levels in hair, toenails and teeth were provided. Children with birth defects had nearly three times more lead in the enamel portion of deciduous teeth than others living in unimpacted areas. Parents were abnormally affected. Pregnant mothers and growing fetuses are especially vulnerable. Exposure to toxic air, water, and soil pollutants assures trouble. Following US bombings, contamination increased dramatically. Cancer, other diseases and birth defects followed. Theyre at epidemic levels. They keep rising. Populations in war zones suffer horrifically. Radiation-affected theaters compound it. BECT said nationwide Iraq ill health reports suggest greater crisis ahead. News of increases in childhood cancers, of perinatal and infant morbidity and mortality, and of unusual increases in congenital birth defects, have continued to emerge from across Iraq. Data from central Iraqs Al-Ramadi corroborated Fallujah findings. Basras seriously affected. Present knowledge on the effects of prenatal exposure to metals, combined with our results, suggests that the bombardment of Al Basrah and Fallujah may have exacerbated public exposure to metals, possibly culminating in the current epidemic of birth defects. Internal pre-Gulf War data showed cancer incidence at 40 per 100,000. By 1995, it was 800. By 2005, it doubled to 1,600. Annually, numbers increase. They understate the problems severity. Cancer and birth defect rates are likely much higher. Reporting falls short of whats needed. Iraqs a cauldron of disease, malformed newborns, pain, suffering, misery, deaths and despair. Daily violence, extreme poverty and unemployment, malnutrition, repression, dysfunctional infrastructure, permanent occupation, and other imperial priorities compound other problems. Media scoundrels dont explain. US ones hail an Iraq success story. In August 2008, The New York Times called Iraq a remarkably safer place than it was when Petraeus arrived. Violence plummeted significantly. Streets are flourishing with life. The worst, for now, has been averted. Americas toxic legacy was ignored. Violence then was more than acknowledged. Today its out-of-control. Resource theft, ecocide, human misery, and health crisis conditions go unreported. News most fit to print is suppressed. Official fabrications substitute. Its standard scoundrel media practice. Most Americans dont know whats been done in their name. Its true in all US war theaters. They dont ask. Theyre not told. It happens every time. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War.Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. 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