Assad Slams US, Israeli Use Of Radioactive, Chemical Weapons
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces likely targeted civilians with chemical weapons during a two-year civil war which has claimed more than 100,000 lives, lashed out at the US and Israel for their recent use of radioactive and chemical weapons.
In a pre-taped interview with PBS's Charlie Rose that aired on Monday evening, Assad scoffed at Obama's 'red line,' or his regime's use of chemical weapons, pointing to recent uses of depleted uranium by US forces in Iraq and white phosphorous by Israel during the 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza.
"Obama drew that line, and Obama can draw a line for himself and for his country, not for other countries," Assad said during the interview. "We have our 'red lines,' like our sovereignty and our independence. While if you want to talk the word 'red lines,' the United States has used uranium, depleted uranium, in Iraq; Israel used white phosphorus in Gaza, and nobody said anything. What about the 'red lines?' We don't see 'red lines.' It's political."
US forces did rely heavily upon depleted uranium (DU) munitions during both Iraq wars. Radioactive DU rounds are ideal for piercing hardened armor, but they explode on impact, releasing potentially deadly dust particles that linger in the soil, air and water for many years. Breathing DU particles into the body can poison organs, blood, nervous systems and DNA. While the Pentagon publicly states that DU is not known to cause any harm, Army training materials warn that "contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption" and require soldiers coming within 80 feet (24 m) of DU to wear protective clothing. Geiger counter readings of DU-contaminated sites in Iraq have shown radiation levels 1,000- 2,000 times higher than normal. In Fallujah, which saw heavy fighting between US forces and Iraqi resistance fighters, a staggering rise in horrific birth defects and miscarriages has been attributed to exposure to toxic and/or radioactive metals used during the war. US and NATO forces also unleashed large amounts of depleted uranium on Yugoslavia during the brief but deadly 1999 war against the Slobodan Milosevic regime.
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