Please read these two articles and tell me what you think

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.iraqmedicine04jun04,0,3318572.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

The dilemma of caring for wounded Iraqis

Originally published June 4, 2006

<snip>While Steinbruner spoke, a 13-year-old Iraqi girl named Hadeel was resting on a bed behind him, as doctors tried to diagnose what was apparently renal failure. A team of Marines had arrived at her house west of Baghdad a few days earlier conducting a census, and her father asked them if they could help his daughter. She was the fifth of his nine children to suffer the same symptoms. The other four died.

The doctors promised to do what they could but knew that Hadeel's prospects were dim if she required dialysis or some other expensive, long-term treatment. Her father, who goes by the single name Hamadi, understood the limitations but said he had nowhere else to turn, despite the danger inherent in seeking help from the Americans.

"The American medical care is the only thing that can help her," he said, still looking off-balance from his ride in a Marine Corps helicopter a few minutes earlier. "This is not a matter of armies and nations, it is about my daughter's life. Of course I will trust them. I am grateful."

The hospitals in Iraq were once among the most capable in the Middle East, but years of economic sanctions followed by three years of war have erased that distinction. The Medical City complex in Baghdad, a full-service teaching hospital that serves as the city's primary civilian health clinic, is badly under-equipped and frequently a target of attacks, American doctors who have been there say. Many of the well-trained Iraqi doctors and nurses available when the war began have since been scared off or even assassinated.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-03-12-uranium.htm

Experts: Depleted uranium may damage kidneys

03/12/2002 - Updated 12:08 PM ET

LONDON (AP) — A few soldiers — mainly Americans — might suffer kidney damage from depleted uranium munitions used in the Persian Gulf and Balkans conflicts if they swallowed or inhaled enough of the dust, according to a new report.

Most at risk are those involved in friendly fire incidents or involved in cleanup activities, said the assessment published Tuesday by The Royal Society, Britain's academy of scientists.

The report was prompted by concerns raised last year that the dust created by hits with depleted uranium shells could cause cancer or metal poisoning. snip

The kidney is the most likely organ to suffer toxic effects from uranium. The few human studies that have been done indicate that kidney failure is likely to occur within a few days at concentrations above 50 micrograms of uranium per gram of kidney.

Minor kidney problems are thought to be linked with concentrations of about 1 microgram per gram of kidney.

[rkc3]

1. Compassionate conservatism at it best.

Neither compassionate nor conservative.

[ms liberty]

2. I've heard that we've been dropping depleted uranium bombs...

on Iraq since the first GW. Isn't it supposed to have been linked to Gulf War Syndrome?