Inert bombs are safe

They say it is for our safety. They say it is for our own good. The U.S. military says the ground for training with live-fire weapons on Tinian is to ensure global peace. There will be environmental casualties, but hey, casualties happen all the time. Henceforth, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement lists several significant impacts on the environment, using a spectrum of live-fire weapons, one of which to include “inert bombs.” Inert bombs, some people have claimed, are safer than regular bombs. After all, the dictionary definition of “inert” means safe or stable or harmless. The U.S. military PR can try to convince us locals as much that inert bombs are safer. Desperately so, they need us to agree. But we must be forewarned that if the grassroots campaigns for the No Action Alternative prove successful, higher up officers have in mind to sneak in amendments to Title 10, Section 2664 on Property Acquisition (page 1,577). The locals must be distracted and not see this coming. “Let’s get them to agree with bombing the area, but tell them, they are inert bombs. Inert means.”

Photo courtesy of Thomas Wictor

Let’s get to the technicality of inert bombs. Inert bombs are mainly made up of sand and cement. You would probably ask, “Hey, we use those for everyday things. How bad can they be?”

We can Google how bad inert bombs can be, and like what all types of bombs can do, the result is the same—they destroy, wreak havoc, and cause damage…even if they are just made up of sand and cement.

So you’re saying “It can get bad? How so? The military says they are safe.” Let me use an analogy on the hot pepper plants that grow wild on the northern two-thirds of Tinian. On the plant, hot peppers are relatively harmless. By itself, without any interaction with the environment, the pepper plants are harmless. The pepper plants are safe to look at. Now, say, someone decides to go out into the jungle to pick these pepper plants. The experienced collector knows that direct contact with the peppers will produce an itchy, burning sensation on her hands. To prevent direct contact, she wears gloves or wears plastic bags over her hands. Sometimes, on other days, she’ll rub oil on them so that the capsaicin (the chemical found in peppers and spicy substances) does not get absorbed into her skin. Otherwise, it will cause damage, and she will be stuck for the next hour or two with that itchy, hot, burning and uncomfortable sensation over her hands.

So let’s look back to inert bombs. They are made up of sand and cement. They are harmless. When you chemically mix these with much more dangerous chemicals, it changes the nature of the sand and cement, so that it becomes something else entirely. Like the hot pepper plant left alone in the jungle, the inert bomb is safe. When you allow the inert bomb to interact with something else (like the hot pepper in direct contact with your hand), what result do you expect? For the collector without using precaution, the capsaicin interacting directly with her skin causes that uncomfortable, burning sensation. When you use sand and cement and mix it in with more dangerous chemicals, and then you alter the temperature and pressure of its environment, that inert bomb can cause damage, as those seen via inert bombs in Iraq that penetrated fortified bunkers, without “collateral damage.”

Inert bombs are much safer than regular bombs, because they are more target-specific. In fact, in 2009, the Israeli air force used inert bombs (40 MK-84 inert bombs, 40 MK-82 inert bombs, 40 BLU-109 inert bombs, 40 MK-83 inert bombs—U.S. weapons sold to Israel in June 2004) to strike the homes of terrorists. These terrorists’ homes were completely obliterated (I’m assuming the terrorists themselves were in that home and whoever else lived with them!), but hey, these bombs are still safe to use, because there were no blast or fragmentation damage to the houses next door! Please see photo.

Let’s talk about a more specific inert bomb: DIME bombs. DIME for Dense Inert Metal Explosive. These inert bombs were used in Israel, and an article (R. Whitaker, 2009) from The Independent detailed the injuries caused by this inert bomb on individuals unlucky enough to be hit within 10 meters of their target. “It was as if they had stepped on a mine, but there was no shrapnel in the wounds. Some has lost their legs…looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before.” This was a comment made by Dr. Erik Fosse, a physician who worked in Gaza’s hospitals. Dr. Fosse and fellow physicians had difficulty treating the patients, whose symptoms they attributed back then to mysterious causes. Even when they treated the symptoms, the physicians were ill-equipped to do much more in treating its cause, and many who came in contact with the blast didn’t have an entry wound. As it turns out, the metal used in this inert bomb, tungsten, has the effect of shrapnel, but when it comes in contact with human tissue, the tungsten dissolves into the skin, leaving no marks on the outside, but causing all kinds of damage inside. The article by Whitaker also described a 14-year-old boy who died from something that caused a small puncture wound in his head, but caused extensive damage to his brain. Dr. Ahmed Almi says, “I don’t know the nature or type of these weapons that make a very small [entry wound] and go on and make massive destruction in the tissues.”

So, what do you say, Tinian? Inert bombs are safe. A whole range of inert bombs. Just don’t be within 35 feet of them.

Want to know more about what else is happening? Attend every one of these events, sponsored on behalf of the core women on Tinian, working to promote the “No Action Alternative” as stated on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Stemming from a grassroots level, these women advocate for peace and prosperity for themselves, their families and friends, and for future generations. Please be kind to them and sign their petition to stop the destruction of two-thirds of Tinian at www.tinyurl.com/StopIslandBombing.

Also, let us acknowledge how incredibly wonderful the Tinian women have been for working so hard, especially considering the long hours and many nights they’ve spent strategizing around a certain mahogany table at the Tinian Municipal Council. We salute them for their courageous hearts, strong voices, creative minds, and willing spirits.