We're the problem, and I include myself. We demand rights without sacrifice; a handout without exchange of value; a free ride using someone else's wallet. We whine and complain, but fail to vote or to run for office unless there are personal benefits to be gained. We accept third or even fourth rate presidential candidates. We have forgotten family obligations, rights of the unborn and we wear religion on our sleeves, but not in our hearts.

Longshoremen should finish unloading 6,700 tons of sand contaminated with depleted uranium and lead Tuesday afternoon, said Chad Hyslop, spokesman for the disposal company American Ecology.

UK and US forces have continued to use depleted uranium weapons despite warnings they pose a cancer risk, a BBC investigation has found.

The widespread use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq has led to a much higher death rate among U.S. military personnel than the Pentagon is willing to admit. The tragedy of Dustin Brim is the untold story of one such casualty.

The most important story of the Afghanistan - Iraq Wars is that Depleted Uranium munitions dust is slowly killing the civilian population -- over the next 20 years, no civilian will be able to live in Iraq. Here, we demonstrate how Nature effectively moves contaminated dust from the battlefield to the cities, and to nations beyond the country's borders.

The use of weapons containing uranium violates existing laws and customs of war and "constitutes a war crime or crime against humanity," according to a leading U.S. expert on humanitarian law.

Far from the radioactive battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan , another war is being waged. This war, over the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, is being fought between the military top brass and the men who understand the dangers of DU: former military doctors and nuclear scientists. This war is for the truth about uranium weapons, and the consequences of their use, and has been waged for more than 13 years-since the U.S. government first used DU weapons against Iraq . Most Americans, however, are unaware of this historic struggle, because the Pentagon has used its power to prevent information about DU from reaching the public.

A growing number of U.S. military personnel who are serving, or have served, in the Persian Gulf, Iraq , and Afghanistan have become sick and disabled from a variety of symptoms commonly known as Gulf War Syndrome. Depleted uranium (DU) weapons have been blamed for causing many of the symptoms.

A United Nations study found DU contaminating air and water seven years after it was used. DU, left over after natural uranium has been enriched, is 1.7 times denser than lead, and very effective for punching through armoured vehicles. When a weapon with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of a tank, it goes straight through before erupting in a burning cloud of vapour. This settles as chemically poisonous and radioactive dust.

I am writing this letter out of concern for the military personnel who may now be serving on or near the Gulf War battlefields in Iraq and may be quartered in areas already contaminated by depleted uranium munitions. But they are not my only concern. The Gulf War Veterans who are now suffering severe health consequences have also been exposed to depleted uranium, chemicals and biological materials including vaccines while serving in Iraq and Kuwait. The children and people of Iraq have been the greatest victims from exposure to depleted uranium15 used in the Gulf War and will continue to be. Over time, they cannot escape the chronic, low level exposure to internal radiation from depleted uranium and its decay products as it cycles and recycles through their environment3 in water, air and food products.

For Rui has leukaemia and, at just 22, his life has been put on hold. Days that once consisted of working as an engineer in the police, then going for long runs, followed by a beer with his friends, have turned into a round of chemotherapy sessions and resting in bed at his home in the central Portuguese town of Abrantes. A shy, soft-spoken man, he would clearly prefer to have undergone all of this in private. Instead, he has become a national figure in Portugal and at the centre of the row sweeping across Europe over alleged links between cancer and depleted uranium ammunition used in the Balkans.