August 21, 2013 4:00 am
Maybe I’m a little slow, but I can’t understand people actually supporting this crazy Powertech uranium mining proposal.
I left the military last year after five years, four of which saw me in or en route to Iraq for three tours.
Piloting a rigid-hull inflatable with a SEAL team on board for interdiction operations off Basra, I saw first-hand how devastating our intervention was for the Iraqi people.
We often discussed the deceit that brought us to Iraq, like the nonsense about yellowcake being shipped from Niger for Saddam’s nuclear ambitions; a proven lie.
Now I’m home and find a foreign company that will likely be allowed to mine U.S. yellowcake at great risk to our water, tourism and agriculture, take it to Canada for processing, and sell it to the highest bidder without U.S. control.
It will most likely go China, with Russia and India making up the remainder of the current world market.
So this is my question: Why are we supplying U.S. uranium to China, where it could wind up powering their Xia and Jin class ballistic missile submarines, carrying real nuclear weapons aimed at the USA?
Have we totally lost our minds?
I left the military last year after five years, four of which saw me in or en route to Iraq for three tours.
Piloting a rigid-hull inflatable with a SEAL team on board for interdiction operations off Basra, I saw first-hand how devastating our intervention was for the Iraqi people.
We often discussed the deceit that brought us to Iraq, like the nonsense about yellowcake being shipped from Niger for Saddam’s nuclear ambitions; a proven lie.
Now I’m home and find a foreign company that will likely be allowed to mine U.S. yellowcake at great risk to our water, tourism and agriculture, take it to Canada for processing, and sell it to the highest bidder without U.S. control.
It will most likely go China, with Russia and India making up the remainder of the current world market.
So this is my question: Why are we supplying U.S. uranium to China, where it could wind up powering their Xia and Jin class ballistic missile submarines, carrying real nuclear weapons aimed at the USA?
Have we totally lost our minds?
— Michael Petersen, Rapid City
