What did we do to Iraq?

This essay by John Pilger reminds us that the war crimes of the US and the UK in Iraq still go unpunished:

http://johnpilger.com/articles/from-iraq-a-tragic-reminder

The article notes that over 300 tons of "depleted uranium" was used, and that it was "a form of nuclear warfare". That figure apparently is from the first Gulf War, and more uranium was dumped on Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

But there's something fishy about those numbers. The damage to health after each of those two conflicts was comparable to what happened after Hiroshima; actually it appears that it perhaps will be worse since no cleanup is being done. This raises an interesting question:

"How did 300 tons of U238 cause the same damage as 140 lb of U235 (the Hiroshima bomb)?"

Less than 2% of the Hiroshima bomb underwent fission, so 2.4 lb of fission products and ~138 lb of U235 were released in the city (in a relatively concentrated release).

The 300 tons of DU used in Desert Storm was released all over the place, mostly in rural areas.

Whatever was released in Fallujah during Operation Phantom Fury (apparently sightly enriched uranium possibly containing fission products), its quantity and distribution is unknown. But considering that the long term effects are at least as bad (and perhaps worse) than Hiroshima, it must have consisted of a whole bunch of uranium and fission products.

The US probably did not use nuclear weapons per se in Fallujah, but it's a damn good bet that what was used were thermobaric weapons that dispersed uranium and fission products in a manner not unlike nuclear bombs would do.

Ain't that a war crime?