Chernobyl was bad, but imperialism's crimes are evil
Thursday 11 March 2010
Printable
EmailI remember when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in April 1986. Reports started coming in of clouds of toxic waste. An estimated 70 per cent of fallout landed in Belarus - an area between Russia and Poland, but the fallout also travelled around the world - in parts of Cumbria and Wales lambs were not allowed to be marketed as a result.
As the months and years passed reports followed from Chernobyl of birth defects among newly born babies. Hundreds had developed thyroid cancer, thousands more suffered heart, lung, kidney or liver disease.
On March 4, as I listened to the early news, I heard that 1,000 children a year are being born in Fallujah, Iraq, with birth defects. Later, on News at Ten, reports claimed that the birth defects were due to the weaponry used by the US during its 2004 attack on the town.
Chernobyl was preventable but was nevertheless an accident. Fallujah was not.
The use of weaponry to inflict suffering on babies not yet born drags the human race to a depth of unbelievable inhumanity unsurpassed in the world's history.
If it is wrong to bully a child, or to sexually or physically abuse a child, then the use of such weapons must be a crime of unparalleled cruelty. The arms dealers who sell such weapons, the politicians that authorise their use and the military forces that use them must all stand accused of a wrong.
Bob Chapman Canvey Island
If you have enjoyed this article then please consider donating to the Morning Star's Fighting Fund to ensure we can keep publishing your paper.
