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devices (IEDs) were the most lethal tools, which killed more than 690 civilians and wounded more than 1,800. At least 217 noncombatants died in air strikes, and 192 were killed in direct/indirect shooting by US/NATO forces in 2010.
    The American military presence in Afghanistan consists of fleets of aircraft, helicopters, armored vehicles, weapons, equipment, troops, and facilities. Since 2001, these together have generated millions of kilograms of hazardous, toxic, and radioactive wastes. Matthew Nasuti asks a simple question in
Kabul Press:
“What have the Americans done with all that waste?” The answer is chilling in that virtually all of it appears to have been buried, burned, or secretly disposed of into the air, soil, groundwater, and surface waters of Afghanistan. Even if the Americans begin to withdraw next year, the toxic chemicals they leave behind will continue to pollute for centuries. Any abandoned radioactive waste may stain the Afghan countryside for thousands of years. Afghanistan has been described in the past as the graveyard of foreign armies. Today, according to Nasuti, Afghanistan has a different title: “Afghanistan is the toxic dumping ground for foreign armies.”
    Hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) were used during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The US forces forbid any kind of DU-related exploration programs or research. They have also covered up and denied DU’s damaging health effects, and refused to release information on the amounts, types, and locations of these weapons. As a consequence, thousands of Iraqi and Afghan children and their families are suffering from various diseases related to low-level radiation (LLR), such as malignancies, congenital heart diseases, chromosomal aberration, and multiple congenital malformations.Women in the contaminated areas suffered high rates of miscarriages and sterility.
    DU weapons are manufactured from radioactive waste generated during the enrichment process of natural uranium, as part of the nuclear fuel cycle. American and British armed forces fired DU bullets and projectiles for the first time against a human population in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. When DU munitions hit their target, they ignite prophetically and generate heat that reaches a temperature of 3000–6000 degrees Celsius. This heat causes the DU and other metals to form a gas or aerosol of nanoparticles. These nanoparticles cross the lung-blood barrier, gain entrance to the cells, and create free radicals. Some effects that the people are facing are immune and hormonal systems damage; disruption of thyroid function; and tetrogenic toxicity, as soluble DU oxides cross the placenta to the fetus, resulting in damages that range from behavioral problems to mental retardation and congenital malformations.
    President Obama’s undeclared and congressionally unauthorized war against Libya may be compounded by the crime of spreading toxic uranium oxide in populated areas of that country. Concern is being voiced by groups such as the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, which monitors military use of DU antitank and bunker-penetrating shells.
    As of late March 2011, the US has not introduced its A-10 Thunderbolts, known also as Warthogs, into the Libyan campaign, probably because these subsonic, straight-wing craft, while heavily armored, are vulnerable to the shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles that Libyan forces are known to possess in large numbers. Once the air-control situation is improved by continued bombardment, however, these specialized ground-attack aircraft will probably be added to the attacking forces. The A-10 has a particularly large automatic cannon, which fires an unusually large 30 mm shell. These shells are often fitted with solid uranium projectiles.
Notes
    1 . Gregg Zoroya, “Army Suicides Linked to Risky Behavior, Lax Discipline,”
USA Today
, July 29, 2010, http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-07-29-army-suicides_N.htm .
    2 . Gregg