Whistleblowers: Major Douglas Rokke
Another Whistleblower who spoke in Melbourne Australia and I sat in on an interview at a local radio station. He was my first interviewee perhaps reflecting the tone of what I was to learn over a number of years. I learned about the military imperative to win wars and the lack of humanity. I learned about weapons that have toxic impacts and the lack of responsibility in using this highly toxic material and its dumping in other countries and cancer effects. I wonder at how we create a detachment to other humans? What is it in people where they can speak in a detached way about weapons without imaging the impact on humans? I wonder how psychologically people can just focus on the technical nature, to speak as a glee club group of agreement without bringing in any awareness of the impact on people, families and the great grief that violence creates? I imagine it is group think, a culture that has justified a good in what is being done. They would have to believe what they are doing is the right thing to bring about a perceived goal. I just find it hard to understand as it is the first place my mind goes is to the impact on people. I guess this is why I am on this journey to understand the great diversity in which I live. I have Oliver Stone playing in my ear right now so I will repeat what he has just said which I think answers my question as I just wrote it:
“Ron Kovic was a highly motivated individual and was paralysed, he was a patriot… it was cancelled two weeks before production, no studio supported it. Made it in 1989 with Tom Cruise. People in America… it is a culture that you have to embrace the flag, so much flag waving now, it is disproportionate, over praise of the military which I’ve been in, everybody who serves is a hero, that is not the way it is in reality… an overindulgence in war, we love militarism, we don’t know it, we have become increasingly an aggressive military culture to solve problems, using military force, worship of the military, fly over at the football games, our heroes, our veterans, cut to the hospitals see the veterans miserable, struggling for television to keep a good face. As Kovic said it is a lie, we lie to ourselves. Same veterans coming back it is a tough as it ever was for anyone who loses something over there, sometimes it is better to be killed. It is a culture of self congratulations which is lying to itself and leading to tragic consequences, for the families too … I say that advisedly, I think something is mentally wrong….”
I would have to say that military has never put itself forward as humanitarian or caring, they see their role as the protection and defence of nation states. Their primary argument is security. The ends justifies the means comes to mind. They cannot be sentimental about the human cost or colatoral damage and what the public doesn’t know is considered important in order to maintain questionable programs. War is murder is the reality and this is not the words used. Can we as a civilisation justify warfare as a means of solving problems or is it just past on from generation to generation as a means of maintaining an approach to national interest using force and violence. Can we move forward in a way where we learn to problem solve, to work together, to not see enemies but challenges, to understand psychology and find ways to resolve conflict. Resolution is not appeasement, it is not capitulation, it is to sit down and deeply learn about the other and the self. It is to express the problem, to listen to the other side, to work out mutual options and solutions. Obviously if there are instances where leaders are psychopaths, infiltrated by special interests or out of control (no checks and balances) it is the responsibility of those who know to speak out and for international law to be utilised to arrest criminal activity in government.
However, as our world evolves we start to see the humanity in civilians, we start to feel them as our own people and peace in all interests. We learn of negative and destructive actions that have long term ramifications on civilisation and nature. The toxic nature of depleted uranium is deeply concerning as it affects the earth, wildlife and civilians and future generations. The issue of international law, illegality, empathy, secrecy, problem solving, compassion, democracy and so on are important global conversations. Is the greatest security residing in peace building and relationships around the world. Is the real work to come from really learning about others and finding ways to live together peacefully. This would be the hardest path as it requires we look within. Most people feel challenged to even look into their own lives, imagine at the government level with the fear of legal action, so we never learn. Perhaps we can become more conscious of the future of children. I believe truth must be made visible so people are informed and then they can make decisions about who they are. These are the conversations we have to face if we want a future that is worth living in. It is the true essence of democracy which many say they fight for or some higher power. I want to say to the latter only god is love if that is your higher power. If you are not loving you are not fighting for the highest good. True honour is respect, love, peace and mercy. When we truly get this we will never harm another ever. Nonviolence is not just a word it is a state of being when truth is lived fully, Gandhi was an example of that. Today is his birthday.
Remember only the truth of love sets us all free. Let’s learn from Major Rokke from his experience, courage and wisdom.
Interview with Major Douglas Rokke: Depleted Uranium Project, Pentagon
Another related interview about Iraq concerned the use of depleted uranium. I met Major Douglas Rokke at his lecture in Melbourne and invited him for an interview. Here are excerpts from his interview with Marie Ryan and myself. The issues are still relevant today.
Interview with Major Douglas Rokke – No Duty of Care for US Service Personnel or Civilians Exposed to Depleted Uranium
Q: Can you tell us briefly about your background?
DR: …little bit of background, during Gulf War 1 I was a US Army Health Physicist and I was specifically assigned to clean up the Uranium munitions mass contamination friendly fire contamination from Gulf War 1, that dealt with the United States Military personnel that were wounded or injured during friendly fire using uranium munitions. In 1994-95 I was the Director of the United States Army in the US Department of Defence Depleted Uranium Project. My specific task as Director was to develop the education and training necessary to ensure safe operations of everything around uranium munitions when used, before they’re used or after they’re used, and also specifically tasked how to clean up uranium munitions contamination. What I have learned from first-hand experience, both from cleaning and doing the research and putting the program together and my own adverse health effects from uranium exposure, is uranium munitions are a catastrophe they leave a trail of health and environmental effects that very simply rule out their use forever.
Q: What is the state of play at the moment?
DR: The United States has deliberately used uranium munitions during Gulf War 1 through Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. That was in 1990-91. The first use of uranium munitions was by Israel against the Egyptians in the Sinai desert during the 1973 war. Again the medical evidence, the photographic evidence, absolutely confirms that, and then what happened is that in 1993 the United States was going to use them in Somalia on the horn of Africa. We got it stopped, issued specific medical directives requiring full radio bio analysis for anyone exposed to uranium contamination. That is within a building, structure, vehicle, anything that is struck, work in contaminated areas or being downwind where the contamination arises from. Issued in October 1993. Then in 1994, 1995 we used uranium munitions in the Balkans for the first time in Serbia, 1995-96 they shot Iraq, Okinawa. Then in 1999 despite all of our best efforts, up in the white house in Washington DC trying to stop it, they used uranium munitions again in the Balkans and then we turn around and then in this last year we deliberately used uranium munitions, in Vieques, Puerto Rico and then we deliberately used them in Afghanistan, and now we have littered Baghdad and most of Iraq in the cities with uranium munitions again now in Gulf war II…
Q: Isn’t using depleted uranium, isn’t that against all the rules of the United Nations?
DR: Absolutely the United Nations ruled in 1996 that the use of uranium munitions is illegal. But it is common sense, what right does any nation have to take even 1 kg of solid uranium and throw it in anyone’s backyard, the school yard, their neighbourhood, much less the hundreds of tonnes that they have thrown and they have walked away. Even though the United States own medical treatment requirements, require medical care within 24 hours for depleted uranium exposures. That medical care has been denied for the majority of US casualties in Gulf War 1. And it is absolutely not provided for any of the non-combatants in any place in the world where uranium munitions have been used.
Q: What impact will it have on their health?
DR: They’re sick and dying just like all my staff and my friends are. You can’t get heavy metal or uranium into your body and not get sick. Think about this, we know from Vietnam that Agent Orange had a devastating consequence. The US and other nations deliberately used Agent Orange. We know today that asbestos has a terrible consequence. And everybody and their brother knows that you can’t eat lead paint. In uranium munitions it is far worse than any of these, far worse than lead paint even. It is not only a heavy metal like lead, it is radioactive heavy metal. Nobody would advocate that you would get a few micrograms of lead paint or a few grams of lead paint in there but we are going to spread the world with depleted uranium, hundreds and hundreds of tonnes, refuse to clean it up. Refuse to provide medical care and then claim that we don’t have to. That is a crime against God, that is a crime against humanity.
Q: If the US Government was going to clean it up how would they do it?
DR: I was the individual responsible in the US Department of Defence in the army that developed the procedures to clean it up. Physically what you have to do, this is what I tested and verified and did in Gulf War 1, you have to physically pick up the destroyed building, bunker, tanker package for disposal. The only way you can do that is to dig a massive big hole and put it in that big hole. Then you have to collect all of the spent uranium penetrators. In Gulf War 1 there was well over 1 million of them spread all over. I don’t how many in Gulf War II but I can guarantee just from the video and photographic evidence and first hand discussions, Baghdad is littered with them. I mean video footage that I have seen shows just a half of a block, hundreds of them, laying there. Yet to physically pick up every spent penetrator then you have to take a bulldozer and remove all of the dirt to about 100 metres to at least 12 cm and put that into a big hole. Once you put this in the big hole, how do you mark this big hole for eternity? Because in the future maybe someone is going to build a school or a hospital or a church on that big hole with that radioactive waste is buried, they will unearth it and then everybody will get sick again. You have to understand uranium munitions are solid uranium 238 contaminated with plutonium, neptunium, americium and they still have a remaining visible uranium 234 and 235. It is not in a small concentration. It is 100% uranium and god knows probably close to 1,000 tonnes in Iraq alone now. You can’t clean it up. That was the reason why after I had the responsibility to do this I made this strong recommendation to the United States Department of Defence in the world, do not use uranium munitions ever again.
Q: That was ignored?
DR: Deliberately and wilfully but more importantly the individuals that are responsible for this in the United States point blank refuse, your press release on your ABC news network said the other day ‘none of us’ repeat ‘none of us that were involved in friendly fire and depleted uranium were .. or did the clean up, were sick.’ It was an absolute lie. Deliberate and wilful lie in order to comply with the Los Almos memorandum. To sustain the use of uranium munitions even though there are known adverse health and environmental effects.
Q: What is the Los Alamos Memorandum?
DR: The Los Alamos Memorandum, was written by Ziehmn, was sent to me in March 1991. And it very specifically said that when we prepare our reports on what we found on the use of uranium munitions that we lie so that we make sure we can always use them. Ignore the health and environmental effects. But more importantly, and yet another thing, in 1992 the Assistant Secretary of the Army Walker, by directive of the United States Senate in DC sent a memorandum to the United States Army Environmental Policy Institute directed a study on the environmental effects. In one of the very specific directives was to figure out ways to reduce the toxicity of the munitions. One of the conclusions of our study was that you cannot reduce the toxicity of uranium munitions. That is common sense. Who wants even 1kg of solid uranium waste put in your backyard? I don’t. What right does any nation have to take their radioactive waste that they can’t dispose of in their nation and throw it in someone else’s backyard?
Below is a scanned copy of The Los Alamos memorandum
Q: Are you saying that because they have nowhere to keep it in America they have too much radioactive waste from the nuclear power plants etc. that this is one way of using it?
DR: Absolutely. This is deliberate, you can go and read the Environmental Impact Statement from the United States of Energy for Uranium Hexofloride which is the actual chemical name for Depleted Uranium. Yeah it says point blank take radioactive waste from the United States and throw it in someone else’s backyard. We don’t have it anymore and we don’t care what happens to them.
Q: But there are American troops there at the moment who are walking around all that. Even if you forget about the Iraqi people you have thousands of troops there.
DR: Absolutely and the actual country, America’s finest sons and daughters from Gulf War 1 as recorded by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in a report released in September 2002, that right now over 221,000 of America’s finest sons and daughters are permanently disabled as a result of duty from Gulf War 1 in the first Gulf region from August of 1990 through May of 2002. Over 221,000 are permanently disabled and over 10,000 have died. That proportion is the same all over the world. If you look at the adverse health effects from Iraq and all of these exposures not just uranium but all the environmental contaminants of war and you look at those reports or look at the photographic and medical records called the Children of the Gulf War it’s all there.
Q: So you are saying that most of the problems for the Iraqi children are a result of this depleted uranium?
DR: Combination of depleted uranium deliberate destruction of Iraq’s chemical and biological warfare materials beginning in December of 1990 until the present that the United States gave to them and they also manufactured in all of the hazardous materials that were totally released when that nations infrastructure was destroyed. You got to remember that we used chemicals, biological and radiological materials … industry, education, manufacturing and medicine, correct. When you destroy all of these companies and … when you destroy the infrastructure, then all that material is released. War is a toxic wasteland. Because we can no longer deal with the adverse effects of war and all the releases whether it be from DU munitions or any other munitions and conventional munitions leave toxic waste. In all of the materials released during warfare, war has become obsolete. We are poisoning our planet. We are poisoning the future generations. And it is flat wrong.
Q: I wanted to ask you a question in relation to the mindset of the people who would send troops into an area and fire depleted uranium missiles. What sort of mindset would you describe of the sort of people who would do this type of thing?
DR: It is real simple I have been a combat veteran of multiple wars and I am a warrior and still classify myself as a warrior and a patriot. The reason or purpose of war is to kill period. You kill all living things and you destroy everything that is not living. When you are a warrior that is what you do. You don’t think twice about this, you don’t even give concerns. You know the term collateral damage that is used… as if it is nothing, collateral damage means destroying everything that is not military. That means killing, killing and wounding the children. It means destroying schools, hospitals and churches. And everything else, that is what collateral damage means. They don’t even count the collateral damage in war. They just ignore it and say it is ok. It is justified. There is no justification for killing and harming the children of the world.
Q: So what would you advise people in the community after hearing this type of story, very disturbing for everyone.
DR: What I recommend is that we ensure that all the citizens of the world stand up, ensure, demand that medical care be provided for all of our warriors, sons and daughters, military personnel. We have to give the same medical care to the enemy whoever they are if we classify them as an enemy of war, and we have. We have to give that medical care to all the non-combatants the woman and the children of the world. Then the next thing we have to do is that we have to clean up the environment of all the contaminants of war. You can’t continue to contaminate God’s earth and cause harm. And then finally what we have to do, we have to ban, uranium munitions have already been banned, we have to make sure they are permanently banned and if anyone uses them hold them individually responsible for the individual use of uranium munitions. Think about it if somebody comes out and takes 10kg of solid radioactive waste and throws it into your local schoolyard they should go to jail right? Same thing needs to apply every place in the world. It is as simple as that.
Q. But Doug, your Government is just accepting no responsibility for any of this?
DR: How about that. And there is a lot of us who are warriors and patriots who are speaking out because it is flat wrong.
Q: Well it certainly is and you’re very courageous to speak out against it. But is there any way of stopping this. You mentioned that in the first Gulf War there are 221,000 sons and daughters who have been affected by this depleted uranium.
DR: And other contaminants of war. I’m just a school teacher aren’t I!
Q: I don’t think you are just a school teacher you are a fantastic courageous individual.
DR: Somebody said you can think of yourself as just a garbage man. That is probably right I am trying to clean up the garbage of war. I am trying to ensure people are taken care of. What it all comes down to. We have to work together for peace. All nations and all peoples and all governments and all religions and all cultures and all societies. We can no longer deal with the consequences of war. War has become obsolete. And always in my lectures and to me it is very important, we say, let there be peace on earth. Peace has to begin with each one we have to take care of it, and ourselves, make a commitment and take action but what is more important that prophesy of peace that comes about 1,000 years ago. And a child shall lead us to peace, well if we continue to contaminate God’s earth the flora the fauna and harm the children I don’t know where that child will come from that will be able to lead this world to peace. I don’t know but I am sure going to do something about it. One seed at a time…