Aug. 6, 2008: Our readers write

Yellowcake uranium still dangerous

Mr. Jeff Vaughn wrote a letter in the July 22, 2008 issue of The News-Enterprise addressing the yellowcake uranium issue which I found to be of interest when I considered how badly the liberal media beat President Bush up over the lack of weapons of mass destruction evidence.

As a former intelligence analyst, I spent a career taking bits of known information and putting it together to indicate the capabilities of potential enemies of this country. When you don't leave things out, the truth really hurts those who won’t admit that for one reason or another, it would have been necessary to go to Iraq.

Because of operational security, the full thought process of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq may never be known to the public (nor should it ever be) and the news media will make up its own to sell papers, get good network ratings and pursue the political agenda of their financial backers.

Mr. Vaughn states that when we invaded Iraq during Iraqi Freedom, the uranium in question was under lock and key by U.N. security forces.

When I think of how easily the U.N. weapons inspectors were chased off during the initial WMD inspections, that doesn't make me feel good at all. How well would that uranium have been protected/defended if Saddam Hussein had decided to seize it with the remainder of his armed forces?

As the yellowcake uranium was still in Iraq and the only people defending and securing it were U.N. security forces, the usual combat ineptness of the countries involved in that “circus” would indicate to me that we clearly had an urgent issue as Saddam Hussein could have taken it all at will.

I once wrote a letter about U.S. involvement in Northern Russia; shortly after World War I, during the Russian Revolution. U.S. forces were sent to a place called Archangel to secure military arms sent to the czar during World War I against the Bolsheviks. Bitter combat ensued with U.S. forces inefficiently deployed in piecemeal, small unit combat teams throughout the combat theater under foreign military leaders with dubious leadership ability. Faced with a similar situation decades later in Iraqi Freedom, we made sure that we sent enough troops with our own commanders and logistical assets to “take care of business” so that history didn’t repeat itself.

There are military retirees working in local law enforcement who can explain the amount of havoc someone can wreak just by blowing up vehicles containing 100 pounds or so of yellowcake uranium with conventional explosives. Even without nuclear fission, the contamination alone could disrupt the operations of any major U.S.city. This contamination hazard could be further accentuated by the size of the conventional explosive charge used and prevailing weather conditions at the time.

What really concerns me is that this stuff is being moved to Canada, which makes it easier to transport to terrorist targets in this country.

Harry M. Braxton

Elizabethtown