The last time Sami Rasouli visited the North Country, Iraq remained in the midst of a bloody ethnic war. More than 18 months has passed since then, and while the security situation in his native country has improved, life in Iraq continues to be marked by war and its repercussions.

Rasouli was on the Iron Range last week, talking about conditions in the war-torn nation. He spoke in Ely and Grand Rapids and also stopped at the Timberjay’s office in Tower for an extended interview.

Rasouli, who grew up in Najaf and later moved to Minnesota, has returned repeatedly to Iraq since the invasion. During his most recent visit, in August, he found a country still divided and insecure, and still suffering from some of the less obvious effects of war.

“It’s really a tough life for the average Iraqi,” he said. While Iraqis still deal with the inconvenience of spotty electrical service and the health effects of ineffective sewer and water treatment, Rasouli said sandstorms, which used to be infrequent, have become a source of constant misery for Iraqis. “The sky is red and orange because of the constant sandstorms,” he said. The sand is so fine it’s the consistency of talcum powder and it seeps into every crevice in Iraqi homes, as well as into nostrils and lungs.

A July 2009 report in the Los Angeles Times called it an environmental disaster in the making, one fueled by a combination of factors, including war and drought. “Decades of war and mismanagement, compounded by two years of drought, are wreaking havoc on Iraq’s ecosystem, drying up riverbeds and marshes, turning arable land into desert, killing trees and plants, and generally transforming what was once the region’s most fertile area into a wasteland,” stated the Times.

Rasouli said most Iraqis put the blame on the constant movement of military equipment through the desert. He said the frequent churning of the sands by trucks and tanks has broken up the thin desert crust that used to hold the sand in place. The LA Times report cited military equipment as one of several possible causes.

The fine sands are inevitably inhaled by Iraqi residents, and Rasouli said there’s reason to believe that the sands contain toxic materials, particularly depleted uranium, a common component of many American munitions. DU is denser than lead, and harder than steel, making DU-tipped munitions extremely effective, especially against tanks and other armored vehicles.

No one disputes that the U.S. has exploded hundreds of tons of depleted uranium, or DU, on Iraq cities and across the deserts. Health experts have differing views on the dangers of DU. What few studies have been done, indicated that the DU particles typically don’t spread widely from the point of impact. But those studies were done in Kosovo, where dust storms are all but unheard of. According to Rasouli, many Iraqis now fear that DU particles have been widely distributed as a result of the constant dust storms, posing a long term risk.

And Iraqis point to evidence of a sharp rise in both birth defects and many cancers, that they believe are linked in many cases to DU, or other chemical agents used in the war.

The rise in birth defects, many of them both fatal and grotesque, has been documented by a large number of Iraqi physicians as well as some British media, but has rarely been mentioned in the mainstream U.S. media. The city of Fallujah, where the U.S. used DU and white phosphorus in its 2004 battle against insurgents there, has been particularly affected, said Rasouli. A recent letter to the United Nations from seven doctors and scientists familiar with the situation cited grisly statistics from September of this year. Of 170 babies born during the month at the Fallujah General Hospital, fully 75 percent were classified as deformed, and 24 percent were dead within a week. Many of the birth defects were horrifying, including babies without heads, with two heads, with scaly bodies, and missing limbs and faces. The physicians say women in the city are now afraid to have children out of fear of defects.

While other parts of Iraq aren’t seeing the rates of deformity being experienced in Fallujah, Rasouli said most parts of the country are still seeing deformities and cancers at rates far above previous levels.

Rasouli notes that Iraqis are not the only ones exposed to the chemicals and DU that have been used in the war. “The US soliders are also affected by this,” said Rasouli, who notes that many veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War have complained of varied medical problems that have come to be known collectively as Gulf War Syndrome. That war also saw the use of DU as well as exposures to widespread petrochemical fires and other potentially toxic substances.

Unhealthy water

If the air that Iraqis breathe may make them sick, the water they must use daily may also be contributing to health problems, said Rasouli, who is now working on a project known as Water for Peace. Rasouli said the lack of adequate sewage and water treatment in Iraq has made tap water unhealthy. The Water for Peace effort, which is coordinated by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project and the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, is focused on water purification for schools. By installing small, inexpensive water purification systems, Rasouli said the Water for Peace project is bringing safe water to Iraqi school children.

Rasouli said the project got underway with help from Veterans for Peace and is attracting increasing support from elsewhere. “We have been able to install 25 units so far, which means about 7,000-10,000 kids are now drinking safe water,” he said.