Socialist Viewpoint

There was an article in the September 15th, 2002 issue of the New York Times by Rick Bragg with Glynn Wilson entitled, "Burning of Chemical Arms Puts Fear in Wmd." It was about the Anniston Am1y Depot which houses nine percent of the nations' chemical weapons stockpile. According to their article, the Army is to begin burning these chemical weapons in a nearby incinerator in October. "But unlike incinerators on Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean and at Tooele, Utah, in the Great Salt Lake Desert, the weapons bunkers here in this green, hilly region of northeastern Alabama are surrounded by schools, churches, ball fields, day care centers, nursing homes and trailer parks." The article continues:

"And I'll be thinking, what could I do?" said Mr. Robinson, 74, who lives just a few miles from the Anniston Army Depot, where stockpiles of deadly nerve gas and mustard gas, some leaking from corroded shells, rockets and barrels, await destruction in a $1 billion incineration plant.

"One in each bedroom, two in the living room, one in the kitchen," he said, running over the windows in his house, and the room he would try to seal with plastic wrap if an alarm sounded. "No, I couldn't. I'd just get nervous and give up."

But fear not, the U.S. Army is in charge, and they claim that burning 2,254 tons of the most"inhuman weapons ever devised" at 2,700 degrees will produce nothing more than water vapor. However, according to the same article, efforts by the Army elsewhere to get rid of such material has been, "... marred by mechanical foul-ups and human error, and some health experts, environmentalists and residents say it is madness to burn weapons of mass destruction in a county of 116,000 people."

The article points out that while the federal government has spent $41 million in an effort to protect the population of Anniston, "... the county still has not fully carried out the plan. It has not given residents materials to seal their homes, or protected all the surrounding rschools with equipment that raises the air pressure indoors so gases outside cannot leak in."

To seal off a home is a process that would take at least half a day if you were a person physically able to do the job at all and had the materials on hand at the moment of alarm. And just what are you supposed to breathe inside this airtight environment and for how long?

So what are the chances of a leak happening?

According to the article, Peter deFur, a toxicologist and biologist with Virginia Commonwealth University who has researched Army reports on such incineration projects, reported on the accidental release of nerve gas 45 times higher than the permitted level from the incinerator on Johnston Island as well as the release of emissions such as PCB's, dioxin, lead and mercury from the Army incinerators at Tooele and elsewhere. In each case, these emissions when released through the air contaminate not only the water but also the soil and the food grown in that soil.

The safety of such incineration projects is not in question. It is definitely not safe and that has been amply proven. The safeguards offered by the giant war machine of American capitalism such as "shelter in place" (a term we who live near oil refineries are familiar with) or sealing your house in plastic, are not serious safeguards. They might as well suggest to the surrounding public that they save their plastic supermarket shopping bags and simply secure them around their heads with a rubber band in order to avoid getting poisoned when the alarm of a leak is sounded.

The problem of disposing of poisonous waste is a real one and not something to make light of. It is the filth left by a genocidal regime willing to sacrifice the whole planet to save their profits, wealth, or power. They spared no expense in creating these weapons. They spare no expense in creating new weapons of mass destruction. But they cannot afford to do what is necessary to do away with them safely in the midst of their own people!

The material is obviously too dangerous to move. It's probably true that it is safer to destroy it in place. But leaving the 116,000 people of Anniston, Alabama in the vicinity is just criminal. Every corporation that received and profited off the government contracts to manufacture those weapons should be charged with the expense of relocating all 116,000 people to a permanent and safe distance from the area. All the profits heretofore collected for the manufacture of these weapons should be turned over to those people as well as any others in the same circumstance. There should be giant work projects funded by these profits not only to clean up the toxins but also to create housing and jobs for all those displaced by the criminal production of this material. And all further production of weapons of mass destruction should be immediately ceased.

This is what a sane society would do because this is what we need to do if the planet and we are to survive. But this is a job only a worldwide socialist revolution can handle!