It's a highly sensitive issue, no doubt. NATO still sticks firmly to the line taken by the Pentagon and others that there's no connection between DU and any known case of cancer. That is the received opinion of the radiological community as well. But you have to remember that the problem is being raised primarily by southern European countries — Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal — who also happened to be those that were most iffy about NATO's intervention in Kosovo. That's not to take lightly their concern, but there's clearly a division in NATO about how seriously to treat these concerns.
"Europe has seen what happened in the U.S. over Gulf War Syndrome, and wants to be out in front of any public concern that develops here. Portugal is taking a leading role in raising the issue, and that's hardly surprising since it faces an imminent election. Germany had previously taken the U.S.-British line, but Chancellor Schroeder said Monday that he was skeptical of any ammunition that could harm those that use it — and, of course, he has his own coalition with the Green party to preserve.
So there's an awful lot of politics in this right now, and NATO will be trying to finesse it in a way that takes into account the concerns of the smaller European states while taking into account the facts — nobody has yet made a convincing case for linking depleted uranium to cancer. The U.S., in particular, can't afford to just dismiss this. Nothing would play worse than arrogance about this, which you do hear off the record, which would be grist to the mill for those who want to paint the U.S. as simply going in and dropping bombs and then leaving others to clean up the mess. And remember, this comes at a time when Europeans are increasingly skeptical of government assurances on matters of public health. The way the scandal over mad cow disease was handled has spread a great deal of mistrust of governments in general. So NATO is going to play this one very sensitively, giving maximum attention to the Europeans' concerns."