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Here is what a reader wrote me in an email: (I can't verify that)

Dear Aleks:

The depleted uranium is a very dense metal, ideal to be used on projectiles because of its mass, and also because it ignites at around 600 degrees Celsius; for example, it can penetrate an armoured vehicle and incinerate the crew once it enters the cabin. As a block or a projectile, the material can be handled with no health consequences , but when it ignites or explodes, it's turned into dust, then, it can be inhaled or ingested by live creatures and it wreaks havoc in the internal organs, creating a very large number of cancerous lesions and genetic malformations.

That is why it is considered a very dangerous polluting material, same as a dirty bomb.

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Aleks:

Personal note. I was a contractor in Baghdad (and all over Iraq) from March of 2004 up until September 2011. I was tested (a 'beta particle test") via Urine collection in 2006 to see if I had suffered exposure due to DU. My test came back as "glows in the dark" (beta particles are flushed via the urine and my jug o'whizz was considered a Radiological Hazzard by the lab it was so 'hot' comparatively.) Thankfully, that radiation (I was told) was quick to flush.

However, in November of 2011, I was diagnosed with Lung Cancer and subsequently they found a teeny tiny piece of DU in the center of the tumor in my lung. I'm missing 1/2 an airbag now. I've subsequently met a BUNCH of guys at the VA suffering from the same 'flavor' of cancer, so yeah, DU is this past war's Agent Orange they'll never admit it until most of us are dead.

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author

I'm sorry to hear about that.

I hope you feel somehow better today...

Your comment and all the other comments in this section made me change my mind.

I was not sure whether DU is actually dangerous apart from the second and vicinity of impact.

Now I'm sure it is. Especially your comment brought me to think about it in another way.

Thank you and all the best to you.

Take care.

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Appreciate it. Cancer free since Jan 2012. I forced them to cut the lower left lung out as opposed to 'standard protocol' i.e. Chemo and Radiation. I had to fight tooth and nail to get them to carve it out to the point of threatening to have a "pistol cleaning accident" where they'd HAVE to do surgery... (My dad did 'standard protocol' and died horribly over a period of years, only making money for the medical industrial complex, $25k USD per Chemo session) so Yeah, I'm GREAT!

My understanding (and what's being suppressed) is that when the DU 'ignites' on impact the microparticles get 're-energized' radiologically speaking... they get to bounce off of one another, thereby re-initiating the radiological shedding of Alpha and Gamma Rads, so the inhalation (in my case) put a "glow stick" in my lung which my body reacted to the threat by 'encapsulating' the particle, however with the side affect of the cells mutating and going cancerous.

I'm luck AF that they caught it. I actually found out by almost dying on necrotic pneumonia for which they MEDEVAC'd me. During my recovery period, one of the lung 'spots' didn't resolve and went under close scrutiny. It went from "grape sized' to 'golf ball sized' (very aggressive) and ended up being apple sized when they removed it (and my lower left airbag)

LOTS of others I think didn't have the fortune to get sick that allowed the diagnosis... I haven't seen any public records as to lung cancer deaths from Iraq, but they're claiming and having formed the Burn Pit Registry should tell you something...

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Correct. I have so far not found any reports, whether or not DU can be taken up by plants and enter the food chain. However, inhalation is by far the most dangerous part. After being hit, ofc.

Lt. Gen. Kirillov, chief of the Russian ABC troops, just today gave a briefing on DU (https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12461679@egNews)

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A lot of points that I could dispute, but if you look at successful insurgencies (Afghanistan, Yemen, Vietnam, and others) one thing they all have in common is populations that skew young. The median age in Ukraine is over 40, some ten years higher than in the US and 25 years higher than, for example, Afghanistan (median age around 16.7 years).

Old people, as a rule, do not fight guerilla wars. That is a young man's game.

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Mar 23, 2023·edited Mar 23, 2023Liked by Aleks

Another serious issue in Bandera Reich is social cohesiveness.

I am not sure that people of Romanian and Polish descent who are treated like second class citizens will have the morale to fight an insurgency war that benefits only the oligarchs.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Aleks

Only if those people would be so smart to realize that. We saw how that went in Bosnia for example. People were manipulated and blinded with ideology, so they fought really bloody war for interest of the west.

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You are assuming people that go and fight have a working mind. They don’t. If they did they wouldn’t be there to begin with.

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Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

You are mostly right, i lived in a war zone for a few months and saw what happened with people, but as always you want to forget that part of experience.

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author

My brother as well. He is mentally broken since then. He fought in Srpska Krajina.

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Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

I am so sorry.

Cruel world we live in

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This is another problem that GI Joes don’t think about BEFORE they go to war. What will be the emotional affects of seeing people killed including your friends? PTSD is a killer too. I read something like 22 former soldiers a day commit suicide in USA. There is a reason for that. They can’t live with what they saw or have done.

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Mar 23, 2023·edited Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

About the radioactivity, these shells are radioactive and that is well known since 1991 when they were first used in Iraq during Desert Storm!!!

They were again used in 2003 and in Fallujah and there have been babies born with 2-4 heads. There are a lot of images online. Cancers are all over the place in Iraq since 1991. The former British MP, George Galloway can testify.

Also, Beau Biden died of cancer after being deployed to Iraq for one year in 2014-2015. He was the son of Joe Biden who was a US Army Major (reservist). This was 15 years after the last use of DU weapons in Iraq! Depending on the Uranium isotope, the half life may be in the millions of years!!!

I can't tell which isotope is used in those shells and I bet that the Russian army knows what is in there.

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Mar 24, 2023·edited Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

Scott Ritter testifies here:

https://youtu.be/KYik0hUCrso

As you can hear from Scott, even US soldiers manning these tanks in Iraq got cancer after their munitions exploded and the VHA (Veterans Health Administration) has covered up these crimes. This is the first time I hear that from an Intelligence officer. I was only aware of the Gulf war syndrome related to the illegal anthrax vaccine (Iraq - 1991) that the VHA dismissed for decades.

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author

It looks to me that this could be a good question for Scott, when I interview him in two weeks. If the topic is then still up to date.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Aleks

About uranium ammunition:

Uranium emits alpha particles when it decays. These are the biggest particles emited in any radioactive decay, so this is the most damaging on impact but the easiest to shield off. Alpha radiation can even be shielded by a sheet of paper or the outer layers of the human skin. So handling s solid piece of uranium is rather save an should be totally save when packed in the unused shell. But on impact the shell gets pulverized and partially burned, so there is uranium dust all around that is almost impossible to remove. As I said before having this dust on your skin doesn't do much damage, but if you ingest it by breathing or eating it is inside your body and your functional tissues like your lung are all exposed to the damaging alpha radiation. Even worse, uranium is toxic.

So having uranium and uranium-oxide particles floating around does not create some death zone, but still causes a lot of cancer and for agriculture I suppose it depends on the kind of plants if they absorb and store uranium. I just know that there are differences between different plants and they interaction with (heavy) metals.

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Hello Erwin,

thanks for your explanations!

Very insightful and helpful for me to get the big picture about this particular question.

Thanks.

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....Note that if NATO escalates and commits a significant number of troops.....

I do not believe that NATO can commit troops in significant numbers in Bandera Reich because that would be against their military strategy since their debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan which consists of using proxies as foot soldiers in countries targeted for destruction and natural resources seizure.

This is called khazarism of the 21st century (see the Khazar kingdom ~900AD!).

Poland seems to be the only NATO country very involved with foot soldiers and I suspect they intend to also seize territories in Bandera Reich. A Romanian senator also submitted a bill for Romania to claim back their lands from Bandera Reich too! It's going to be fun to watch...

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Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

That’s exactly how things will be divided up after Ukraine collapses. Poland and Romania will get their historical parts of Ukraine. I doubt Slovakia will get anything. Belarus might get some of the northern part.

I’m getting very confidant Ukraine won’t exist and they have no one to blame but themselves.

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Tank shells with depleted uranium will not cause much damage to the Russian side. Tank crews will suffer more damage. I am of the opinion that sending tank shells is another attempt to provoke Russia into a reaction. I hope it doesn't work. The West is entering a spiral of problems, economic, political, etc. The race against time is accelerating. Russia's response would end the current events. I think Russia has to find a way to cushion this Depleted Uranium story from its public and still continue the attrition game.

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Great write up! Two things I'd like to add for consideration: The Russians have been rotating their troops rather regularly. Every month or so? This keeps troops relatively fresh, while maintaining a pool of combat trained reserves. I'd imagine the called up troops are a part of the rotation. The other item is NATO supplies weapon systems, and personnel to operate and maintain said systems. All the "volunteers," have to do is take off their uniform. I believe a general from Slovakia (Slovenia?) recently said this during a Q&A forum.

Keep up the great work!

Cheers from Cheyenne

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author

Thanks a lot.

And as always you add also very insightful and important information to the discussion.

What I indeed forgot is to write in my article, that people could take my formulas/framework and fill in numbers/estimations about the Russian army. That is also very interesting.

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Mar 23, 2023Liked by Aleks

I have been under the impression that depleted-uranium ammunition was used both in Iraq and Serbia with results of serious medical consequences. Including serious increases of various cancers and damages to fetuses. From your comments above it does not seem that Serbia is suffering these consequences. Is this correct? Thank you.

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in serbia, nato used aircraft bombs, which quantitatively have much more depleted uranium than tank missiles.

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IIRC the A10 warthog also fires depleted uranium ammo from it's gatling auto-cannon.

Not sure if the A-10 was used in Serbia tho

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Yes was used in Kosovo mainly. Serbs forces shot some oh them , one lended inSkoplje airfeld demaged.

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Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

Living in the 4 Corners area, SW Colorado. The town of Durango “destroyed” the furnace of the building that produced uranium “something”. I remember when the demolition took place everyone in town was to shelter from the dust. I sense the area is contaminated when I travel thru to this day. All that destruction of the sacred Navaho/Hopi land…carry on, best we can…given the pervasive lack of critical thinking 💙🇷🇺❤️

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Mar 24, 2023·edited Mar 24, 2023Author

Thank you for sharing your experience. Very important.

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I don't know who is pulling all the strings, but there is HUGE karma - reap what you sow - crashing down on them. I wouldn't want to be them. The West is a wounded beast and that's dangerous. I don't know when, sometime after WWII, that the West gave up any pretense of caring about it's citizens, or caring about people in general. Those days are gone. The citizens are just standing on the sidelines with their jaws agape watching this horror show in great confusion and wondering what will happen next. The West is already scorched earth, it just doesn't realize it yet. I'm optimistic about humanity, but not the soulless oligarchs scratching their way along and serving some dead idol. Can you tell that I'm so over this whole thing? ;-) But, thank you Aleks for sharing your thoughts and experience. It does help to have some insight since I have no military expertise at all.

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Mar 24, 2023Liked by Aleks

DU does not only turn into dust on impact, it also oxidizes. In this form it becomes much more absorbable by organisms than the pure metal. Then it's already fully able to exert it's toxicity as a heavy metal. As for radioactivity, if it's a metallic lump, then this lump itself shields much of the radiation coming from its inside. That's why you won't measure much when holding a Geiger counter against it. By contrast, if the oxide gets absorbed, then it will accumulate unevenly in different tissues. None of these accumulations is in lump form with any kind of self-shielding effect. This means that any radiation emitted will directly affect the living tissue around it, and it will be concentrated due to accumulation. DU truly is a dirty nuclear bomb.

I disagree with regard to the impossibility of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Delivery systems have become very accurate these days and nuclear warheads can be made very low-yield like the equivalent of 500 tons of TNT or so. Russia can use Kinzhals with such warheads to attack Dnepr bridges at long last. If a nuclear warhead goes off close enough to a bridge, then no amount of sturdy construction will make the bridge withstand the blast, as the concrete will simply melt. I am assuming that a Kinzhal is accurate enough for that. There will be contamination downwind but both Hiroshima and Nagasaki are thriving cities today after being subjected to air bursts of more than ten thousand tons of TNT equivalent.

Using nuclear weapons is more of a political problem than a direct military or ecological one. The West may respond with supplying nuclear weapons to Ukraine, or let NATO get directly involved. It will also incur a loss of diplomatic good will on the part of the global South.

My guess is that China should now get openly and massively involved to deter the West. That's perhaps the last chance to avoid a nuclear confrontation.

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This is what the collateral battles look like in Napoleon's land.

 The Battle of Bakhmut (Paris/France)

Bakhmut (jungle) is safer than Paris (garden)!

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1633170124612988932

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1634595978429755392

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1636454210882482178

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1638934766606254080

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Yo supongo que solamente los tanques Challenger pueden disparar municiones de uranio empobrecido. La cantidad de Challengers que los británicos darían a Zelensky serían pocos, no creo que más de 10. Por lo tanto no creo que hagan la diferencia. Además los británicos no quieren exponer algunos elementos de la tecnología de esos tanques de combate, y los rusos se enfocarían en destruir y capturar esos tanques. Además Putin tendria la justificación para usar su artillería pesada de misiles hipersónicos con ojivas convencionales por supuesto, para exterminar las concentraciones de equipo militar.

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Es un gran placer aprender sobre ciencica militar gracias a tus conocimientos que compartes generosamente. Un gran abrazo.

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Thank you ;)

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So far, UN estimates of civilian casualties (<10,000 dead) indicate a ratio of less that 1:20 for civilian:combat casualties. The rule of thumb for US and other conflicts in the post WW2 era have been about 1:1. This means the Russians are being exemplary.

Especially when you take into account that the Ukrainians are using civilians as human shields and civilian objects as baracks/firing positions/hiding places as their normal tactics.

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Since the UK was dumb enough to say they will provide depleted uranium they should be bombed if that toxic stuff is used in the war.

Russia could hit all the gov institution and military buildings and I bet the people there will cheer. There’s no point in hitting civilians or civilian areas like the Ukrainians do because that’s just plain stupid and provides no benefit at all.

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Given that the UK is sending so few Challenger II to Ukraine I suspect this isn't about the Challenger II itself. The Leopard 2 main gun is apparently fully compatible with US 120mm ammunition, including the M829 DU rounds. I was able to find several cases where several types of US ammunition were fired by NATO Leopard 2 operators however none of them had ever fired DU, at least as far as I could find publicly.

Given the much greater number of Leopard's being delivered I suspect the British government is taking the flak (rightly in this case) for the supply of the DU ammunition now but the main use will likely be from the much more numerous Leopard. I can't prove anything but this is a huge escalation that seems completely out of proportion to the gain given the tiny number of Challenger II (~14) being supplied.

I really hope I'm wrong but I have zero faith that those in power, particularly in London and Washington, are capable of being reasonable at this point.

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Interoperability of ammunition. Before I was a contractor, I was in Armor, specifically a crewman in the inter-war period (mid 90's) The M256 120mm main gun on the Abrams is made by the Germans (Rheinmetall). NATO main guns, all of them can use the same ammo.

We called the DU rounds "The Golden BB" as the penetrator is gold in color and the sabot petals are black, as opposed to a steel practice round which is a gray penetrator with blue sabot petals. BTW, NEVER fired a war-shot, so the DU injury I got (lung cancer) HAD to be from the Theater of Operations (Baghdad and points) I was in.

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“Reasonable”? Lol. These puppet politicians in USG and the UK are insane. If they were “reasonable” they would never be in the positions of power they are in.

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