MIM Notes No. 198, November 15, 1999

U$ army boasts of environmentally friendly bullets
by a friend of MIM

Responding to concerns of the settler masses and the 
Environmental Protection Agency about possible lead poisoning of 
water supplies near Army firing ranges, the United Snakes Army is 
currently replacing the lead in M-16 ammunition with tungsten, a 
heavy but non-toxic element. There are plans of implementing lead-
free ammunition in other Army small arms and in M-60 and 0.50-
calibre machineguns during the next five years.(1)

No mention is made of the military's continued use of a far 
more toxic substance in its large-caliber weaponry. That substance 
is depleted uranium, used in the 37 mm autocannon in tank-
destroying missions in Iraq and Yugoslavia and in larger anti-tank 
artillery. The big difference is that the victims of leukemia 
caused by the presence of depleted uranium ammunition live 
primarily in third world countries -- southern Iraq and 
Yugoslavia. The armed forces have no plans to scrap depleted 
uranium, no matter how high the civilian casualty rate in third 
world countries.

Even the military is getting involved in the phony 
environmentalism commonly preached and practiced in the 
imperialist countries. This "environmentalism" protects the 
bourgeoisie and the labor aristocracy, while environmental dangers 
to third world people are at best ignored and more often 
exacerbated by moving toxins to third world countries and to 
internal colonies within the U$A. For example, Lawrence Summers, 
former chief economist of the World Bank, encouraged "more 
migration of the dirty industries to the LDC's [Less Developed 
Countries -- imperialist-speak for oppressed nations]"(2)

Readers should not be fooled into thinking that war can be 
made environmentally friendly, humane, or limited to military 
targets. The imperialists wage war by any means necessary and seek 
to accomplish their objectives despite any human cost. In its own 
interest and the interests of the majority of humanity, the 
proletariat is forced to take up weapons against its oppressors, 
and deal severely with those who deal mercilessly with the masses.

Notes:
1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer reprinted in The Arizona Republic, 
29 August 1999, p.A30.
2. "On Capitalism and the Environment," MIM Theory 12: 20-24.
edited by MC206