Ten years after the 2003 U.S. invasion in Iraq, medical professionals are witnessing an abnormally high number of cases of cancer and birth defects. Scientists suspect the rise is tied to the use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus in military assaults.
On the war's ten-year anniversary, Democracy Now! spoke with Dahr Jamail, an Al Jazeera reporter who recently returned from Iraq. Jamail recounts meeting Dr. Samira Alani, a pediatrician in the city of Fallujah who is the only person registering birth defects.
"She said it's common now in Fallujah for newborns to come out with massive multiple systemic defects, immune problems, massive central nervous system problems, massive heart problems, skeletal disorders, babies being born with two heads, babies being born with half of their internal organs outside of their bodies, cyclops babies literally with one eye -- really, really, really horrific nightmarish types of birth defects."
Jamail says that the current rate of birth defects for the city of Fallujah is 14 times greater than the same rate measured in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the nuclear attacks at the end of World War II.
A full transcript of the discussion is available here.
