Commentary
Army Green, not so Green
New lead free bullets promoted as "safe" for the environment
By Janice Scull
I used to think that guns were meant for things like killing. I have now come to a new understanding. Not just an understanding but a complete awakening. Guns are meant for killing. And with these killing machines come things like death, murder, and war.
 | Illustration by Grant Reynolds |
Now we all know that guns cannot do these terrible deeds by themselves. Rather, it's the finger that pulls the trigger and apparently it has a heart. The warm and fuzzy U.S. Army will load their M-16 rifles with a new kind of ammunition this year: environmentally friendly bullets. These new "green bullets" are lead-free and will not harm the environment, just people.
The production of these peaceful bullets began at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Missouri as part of a comprehensive program that will eventually make all bullets "green." In designing the environmentally benign core, which doesn't have the toxicity associated with lead, developers evaluated 14 possible materials and decided on a tungsten mix which had a density closest to lead and provided the accuracy and energy transfer needed for effective combat use. According to Michael Dette, chief of technology demonstration at the Army Environmental Center, there is no difference in the efficiency of the new bullet. The lead flogs have just been taken out and replaced with a tungsten composite of tin or nylon.
Well, it seems that lead from bullets has been wreaking havoc in the environment for decades. An estimated 200 million rounds are fired each year from weapons by soldiers in training. Urban sprawl has forced civilians to live next to the property lines of these military bases and because a higher content of lead has been found in the water and soil in areas where shooting takes place these innocent people are being affected.
The environmental impact of military weaponry became a particular issue after the Gulf War in 1991, in which thousands of shells containing depleted uranium (DU) were used by allied forces against Iraq. A number of world scientists and doctors believe the DU weaponry to be the cause of severe deformity in newborn Iraqi children and could be the cause of the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome that has hit hundreds of former allied servicemen.
The whole issue however seems quite disingenuous. It is obvious that the U.S. Army is entering into another phase of propaganda in order to mitigate its already battered image. They have selected the word "green," which in most circles denotes meanings such as environmental friendliness (with emphasis on the word friendliness), good for the earth, bio-espherically good, etc., to describe an item, the very use of which is sinister. Let's pause for a second and think of "green war," "green death," "green human obliteration," "green destruction," "green bullets." The point we need to understand very clearly is that making a decision to stop destroying the environment has no meaning until you realize why it is that it needs saving in the first place; humanity needs to be saved and therefore human lives are at stake.
Would the folks living near the Vieques, Puerto Rico, Army practice facility feel any different about the virtual invasion they face daily, if an Army spokesperson suddenly showed up to say that it is now alright to continue with the war exercises, since they are now using "green bullets"? Within the whole scheme of things, green bullets do little to save the environment from the air pollution the Army trucks and jeeps spew out. They do little in comparison to the way that the Vieques area is being scorched by incendiary bombs, by the cluster bombs being dropped. Green bullets are nothing in comparison to the thousands of diesel engines that are in constant operation during the Army maneuvers.
Jets flying overhead leave a coating of spent jet fuel. The foot traffic alone being generated by the thousands of soldiers is enough to destroy the local environment.
The fact of the matter is that bullets by themselves, environmentally friendly or not, kill people. It is painfully obvious that the U.S. Army's choice of the word "green" is a futile attempt to placate an ever-growing market of environmentally friendly people. However, the fact is that bullets are never going to be friendly- after all, they are bullets.
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