Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media: A fire broke out near Bir al-Sabee (Beersheba) in the western al-Naqab (Negev) as a result of an Iranian missile impact
Israeli media: The Home Front Command is investigating the reason for the delayed alert to the public, who arrived just three minutes before the sirens were activated
Iran: Islamic Revolution Guard Corps: We targeted the base from which the (Israeli) attack on the state broadcasting authority was launched
Israeli media outlet: In Israel, they are investigating whether the recent strike was carried out using cruise missiles rather than ballistic missiles, and this is also the reason for the significant delay in discovering the launches
Araghchi: Iran has never withdrawn from the dialogue table, but the focus at this stage is on an effective and painful response to deter aggression
Araghchi: Israel launched this war against the Iranian people with the direct support and complicity of the United States
Araghchi: We hold the Zionist entity and its supporters responsible for the consequences of any escalation in the war
Iran: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi: Iran's legitimate defense against aggression will continue with strength
Israeli media: An Iranian missile struck Bir al-Sabee' in the south
Broadcasted footage documented an Israeli air defense missile malfunction, impacting the ground amid the Iranian missile strike

US' toxic burn pits: "More insidious and enduring than violence": WP

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: The Washington Post
  • 20 Mar 2023 14:33
5 Min Read

US troops stationed in Iraq have long practiced "burning their trash in the open and poisoning the air all around them," most notably Iraqis, a new report by The Washington Post acknowledged.

  • x
  • Boys play in front of burning oilfields in Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq, 2016. (Reuters)s
    Boys play in front of burning oilfields in Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq, 2016. (Reuters)

Marking the 20-year anniversary of the start of the US invasion of Iraq, Louisa Loveluck, the Baghdad bureau chief in The Washington Post, and Mustafa Salim, a reporter in The Washington Post's Baghdad bureau, highlighted in a report on the US' toxic burn pits-- just one tiny piece of the horrors of the US invasion and later occupation which displaced and killed millions of Iraqis. 

US troops stationed in Iraq have long practiced "burning their trash in the open, poisoning the air all around them,"  most notably Iraqis. The items that went into the burn pits included batteries, medical waste, plastics, ammunition, even amputated body parts, rubber, and chemicals.

US' toxic burn pits: "More insidious and enduring than violence"

The scars of the American-led invasion of Iraq are still evident in shot-up walls and bombed-out structures 20 years later. But there is another legacy that is more pernicious and long-lasting than violence. Soldiers burnt their rubbish in the open where they erected military bases, polluting the air around them. As US doctors and scientists began to worry about the health of returning troops, Iraqis began to fall ill and die.

No US effort has been made to study the local consequences, let alone treat or compensate Iraqis who breathed the same toxic air.

More than a dozen locals told Washington Post reporters that they suffered cancer or respiratory ailments while working on the Balad base or living nearby. Most reported being young and fit when they became ill, with no family history of such ailments. 

Experts who have examined burn pit exposure and local doctors who observed an alarming increase in ailments consistent with such exposure in the years following the invasion corroborate their accounts.

Justice for US veterans, Iraqis die due to life-threatening diseases

Nearly two decades after American burn pits first smolder in Iraq, US President Joe Biden inked legislation last year acknowledging a possible link between toxic exposure and life-threatening medical conditions, dramatically expanding benefits and services for more than 200,000 Americans who believe they were permanently harmed by the US invasion's open trash fires.

The Pact Act, as it is known, changed how Washington treats exposure victims in the United States, whose injuries and illnesses sometimes take years to develop.

Related News

Afghanistan withdrawal was 'complete failure' of US leadership: Pompeo

US-based KBR Inc. to pay $143mln for fraud during war on Iraq

The burn pit at Joint Base Balad was the largest in Iraq, encompassing about 10 acres. According to the Military Times, almost 150 tons of garbage were burnt there every day by 2008.

In a memo to colleagues in 2006, Lt. Col. Darrin L. Curtis, a bioenvironmental engineer, described it as “the worst environmental site” that one teammate had ever seen, according to the report.

Signing the report, the aeromedical services chief, Lt. Col. James Elliot, strongly warned: “The known carcinogens and respiratory sensitizers released into the atmosphere by the burn pit present both an acute and a chronic health hazard to our troops and the local population.”

Prior to the US invasion, rates of lung, head, and neck cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were uncommon, according to local experts, but they were suddenly appearing in young individuals. 

Doctors reported seeing the same symptoms at the health center in Albuhassan, a community on the base's southeastern perimeter. However, the issue of waste management dropped further and further down the priority list.

Read next: Babies born deformed: The US' toxic burn pits in Iraq

US forces used more than 150 burn pits of varying sizes nationwide in 2011, as per the Burn Pits 360 advocacy group. Iraqis who couldn't flee were plagued by illness. Medical bills were frequently crippling, the report added.

It took nearly 13 years for US veterans to successfully advocate for the official recognition of burn pit exposure. Airborne particle research on its effects on human health is allegedly neglected or suppressed by the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs, according to advocates.

The Defense Department and Veterans Affairs have refuted these claims.

In the towns surrounding Balad, about 2,400 miles away, nobody knew about the PACT Act or that US soldiers had also developed illnesses. “I think they consider those soldiers more human than us,” Zakaria Tamimi said as quoted by The Washington Post. “There’s no door for us to knock on.”

A photo of Mehdi, his little nephew who died due to a burn pit exposure, still hangs on the wall of his brother’s living room. He would have been 17 this year. “He would have been in school,” his mother tells people.

"When she kneels down for prayer, she thinks of him."

Read next: Job of US Marine corps was killing people: Iraq War veterans speak up

  • US Invasion
  • Iraq
  • US
  • toxic burn pits

Most Read

Iranian missiles impact Israeli sites in Tel Aviv in 2nd wave

Iran's missiles impact 'strategic' Israeli site in Tel Aviv

  • Politics
  • 14 Jun 2025
Bin Salman: Islamic world backs Iran in call to Pezeshkian

MBS says Islamic world backs Iran in call with Pezeshkian

  • MENA
  • 15 Jun 2025
Smoke rises after an Iranian ballistic missile directly struck Tel Aviv, Occupied Palestine, June 13, 2025 (AP)

Op. True Promise 3: Iran's ballistic missiles strike Tel Aviv

  • MENA
  • 13 Jun 2025
'Israel' launches major strike against Iran's nuclear program

'Israel' launches massive aggression on Iran

  • MENA
  • 13 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Smoke rises from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Hezbollah, regional media authorities condemn Israeli IRIB bombing

The trace of a projectile is seen before hitting Tel Aviv, early Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP)
Politics

'Israel' bans foreign journalists from covering Haifa oil refinery

In this Dec. 23, 2019 file photo released by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, technicians work at the Arak heavy water reactor's secondary circuit near Arak, Iran (AEOI)
Politics

Iran signals no new concessions in nuclear talks with US, WSJ reports

An IRIB correspondent reporting live after the broadcaster's headquarters were struck by Israeli airstrikes, Tehran, June 16, 2025 (Screengrab)
Politics

Following blatant threats, 'Israel' bombs Iran's state broadcaster

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS