Ill veterans 'made to feel like enemy'

[Khephra]

Veterans of the 1991 Gulf war were made to feel like the enemy when they complained of a range of debilitating illnesses following the conflict, a new independent inquiry heard at its opening today.

Flight Lieutenant John Nichol, who served as an RAF Tornado navigator, described a range of illnesses that service people had suffered and criticised the response from military officials.

Support groups claim about 6,000 veterans have suffered unexplained ill health since the conflict, and more than 600 are said to have died. The MoD has always denied the existence of a so-called Gulf war syndrome, insisting there was no single cause of the illnesses.

Hundreds of veterans have tried to claim compensation, but they were dealt a blow earlier this year when solicitors advised that there was insufficient evidence to prove their cases in court.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1259527,00.html

[tom_paine]

1. All but 0.1% of Amerikans are enemies of the Imperial Family Bush*

I don't know why these Veterans (who served the Old Republic which the Imperials loathe) expect to be treated as anything other than what the Busheviks see them as...

...Filthy Little Nobodies.

[Solly Mack]

2. True. We are all filthy little nobodies

in Bush' regime.

[riverwalker]

3. good resource here

More information and a treasure trove of information is at www.gulfwarvets.com
started after the first Gulf War by a army nurse, Joyce Riley.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. Move along now...you're just not important now that we've used

you....Grrrrr. These stories make me so angry and so sad. We treat our military as if they are disposable. Heroes one minute, dregs and drains on society the next.

[Rebellious Republican]

5. Whats even harder to believe, some disabled vets support W

I had a run in with one at the Kerry rally in St. Pete. Or so he said, he told me that he was 100% disabled. This guy was really strange looking to, he could have been Lyndie En older brother! I told him that I was disabled as well, only 10%, I did not bother to tell him that part, thats when he started mumbling something and walked off. There is more to this story, but thats the readers digest version.

[KT2000]

6. June 1 Hearing

On June 1 Shays and Sanders held a hearing about GWS. The researchers present validated the existence of this illness as a brain injury that has been documented on scans -initially by Dr. Robert Haley and others have found the same.

The money that was supposed to help the vets with research was largely spent on programs such as exercise and behavior modification with the goal of convincing the vets they were not really sick.

Now that most researchers on the subject accept GWS as a true illness, brain injury there is no money.

The exposures experienced by the vets are mostly from chemicals that are commonly used. The huge corporations that use such chemicals have mounted an effort to make sure any illness resulting from chemical exposure is not recognized as anything but a psychiatric disorder.

Please support the vets and others who are chemically injured - this is a silent epidemic that is leaving brain injured people in its wake. It could happen to anyone.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. No one ever EVER mentions Khamisiyah

Khamisiyah, the 50 square kilometer weapons depot in Iraq that was destroyed by the United States at the close of the first Gulf War. In a 1996 CIA White Paper entitled "Khamisiyah: A Historical Perspective On Related Intelligence" our government finally admitted that 'yes', we DID destroy warheads containing WMD at the end of the first Gulf War. So far, our government has only admitted to destroying one weapons bunker containing sarin tipped warheads. The rest of the information is either classified, or the Pentagon has claimed that no records were kept by special ops regarding their weapons demolition.

Doesn't it stand to reason that if one WMD containing bunker was destroyed after Gulf War I, then all other known depositories of WMD would have been destroyed as well by the US? They may have not occupied Iraq at the close of Gulf War I, but they surely wanted to take the opportunity to see that Saddam was deprived of the means to threaten the Arabian oil states in the future.

The US in fact probably destroyed much if not all of Saddam's WMD stockpile at the close of Gulf War I. It was done surrpetitiously by teams of special ops, because much of this materiel had American markings on it and had been sold to Saddam by US private companies pursuant to export licenses issued by the US Department of Commerce. The lie had to be perpetuated because we gassed our own people, exposing our own military to the WMD we sold Saddam when we blew it up. The Pentagon tried to avoid admitting any known cause of Gulf War Syndrome, to avoid the enormous medical expense associated with it, further perpetuating the lie. And, when the inability of Saddam to explain the whereabouts of WMD that we blew up offered George Bush a convenient excuse for war against Iraq, the lie came in handy once again.

This is a major cover-up folks and it goes all the way back to Reagan-Bush and the events at Khamisiyah.

[Karenina]

8. Ding-ding-ding...

Hmmm... :kick:

[Mizmoon]

9. Gulf War Syndrome is probably is psychiatric

Our soldiers and the British soldiers did terrible things to the Iraqis. Look at the road to Basara to see what I mean. Killng 3rd world people for bullshit reasons tends to make people who like to think that they are honorable and moral very sick ... very sick indeed. This is especially so when they are denied any real mental health care.

[Pathwalker]

10. Sigh...my son's bones are melting

due to handling depleted uranium in Oil War One. Of course, he's NOT covered...Thanks, Poppy.

[KT2000]

12. Please don't say that

Do psychiatric problems arise in soldiers after a war? Yes, of course.

But this is not what Gulf War Illness is about. The way it works is like this -
A decision is made that GWS will not be recognized, therefore a definition of the illness is not established. Then a case is made that since there is no documented illness in the books, everyone who reports these symptoms will be diagnosed with a somataform disorder. Questioning by health professionals into the persons background identifies a source for the somataform disorder - divorce, death of a loved one, abuse as a child and on and on. A diagnosis of somataform disorder arising from a pre-military experience is not compensable.

Now to reality - Dr. Robert Haley, with funds from Ross Perot, defined GWS as 3 separate syndromes likely resulting from different exposures. Haley, who is an epidemiologist just followed standard practice to arrive at his definitions.
He then went looking for the likely area that was responsible for such symptoms and found it in the brains of GW vets. THis work has been duplicated

Oil and chemical companies have a huge stake in the outcome of the GWS debate. They have inserted themselves in the debate and the result is essentially throwing overboard the sick vets. Please read more in this subject as your statement is what these huge corporations are paying for - in one way or another the vets caused their own problems when in fact their bodies and supplies were coated with pesticides, were exposed to nerve gas and depleted uranium experimented on with unapproved vaccinations and more.

[TahitiNut]

11. What else is new?

Funny how that works. Whether it's PTSD or Agent Orange from 'Nam or Sarin and DU from the Gulf War ... it's denied until nearly all the victims are dead. Helluva country. :puke:

[Gyre]

13. How unpatriotic of them to get ill!

Have they no sense of decency?:)

Gyre