The new Gulf war syndrome
UPDATE 11/29/08: A reader has kindly brought to my attention an error in my original introduction: The SFgate link provided here does not reflect the statistic, “18 veterans per DAY commit suicide.” My apologies for less than exacting journalism–please allow me to direct readers to the horse’s mouth. Please refer to this story regarding an ongoing investigation by CBS News, wherein Dr. Ira Katz, the VA’s head of Mental Health is quoted:
Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.
“Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate,” he said last November.
But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later.
He wrote: there “are about 18 suicides per day among America’s 25 million veterans.”
That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, “is supported by the CBS numbers.”
That full CBSNews story, with many accompanying links, can be found here: “VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show”
MUCH more update about this important issue every American must address, follows at the Read More link below.
– Ed.
INTRODUCTION UPDATE, continued:
Furthermore, a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Press Release states:
In February 2008, Dr. Katz sent an e-mail stating “Shh! – Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?”
[911truth.org Ed.: Note that Katz says here, "...among the veterans we see in our facilities..." This does not count the veterans who couldn't get appointments, whose families tried to commit them before they killed themselves but were turned away, or who were too mentally ill to even seek help...]
See also, “Committee chairman accuses VA of criminal negligence,” in USAToday, May 6, 2008. And from the Rand Corporation, “One In Five Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Suffer from PTSD or Major Depression: Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.” Or this excellent article at The Nation, “On Veterans Day, Don’t Forget About the War” by independent journalist and author, Aaron Glantz, editor of www.warcomeshome.org. Or this new article from the San Francisco Chronicle, “Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders,” which states: “Some 15,000 soldiers are heading home to this sprawling base after spending more than a year at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military health officials are bracing for a surge in brain injuries and psychological problems among those troops. … Medical staff at Fort Campbell say they also worry that there will be a new surge of suicides — an escalating problem in recent years, largely related to the stresses of war.”
We can debate statistics till the cows come home; nonetheless, our veterans continue to suffer and die in huge numbers after they come home from their voluntary service. To dismiss the need for every American to DEMAND immediate, concerted assistance to these men and women is appalling and unconscionable.
Update compiled and posted November 29, 2008 by Janice Matthews, who obviously feels extremely passionate about this issue and just doesn’t understand why we’re not all ridiculously outraged!
[Original Introduction] This story was reported in the Guardian, a UK newspaper, on Veterans Day, November 11th. Why, during Veterans Week, wasn’t it anywhere to be found in US newspapers? Why did only the San Francisco Chronicle pick up the AP article reporting the stunning fact that 18 Iraq War veterans commit suicide every day. Yes, that’s EVERY DAY.
Get up. Stand up. Support the “We Are Not Your Soldiers” tour now underway. Find a way to bring these courageous young people to your town, to talk to your kids. We must make MORAL courage, over physical courage, the culture of America, as resister Mathis Chiroux has said. See also, “Five simple things you can do to organize war resister support in your community” and this excellent article explaining the positions of some of our resisters, “The G.I. movement against the war,” by Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist Project Coordinator.
US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are being exposed to toxic chemicals that pose serious health risks
November 11 2008
by Nora Eisenberg
guardian.co.uk
What does a war injury look like? In the case of Iraq, we tend to picture veterans bravely getting on with their lives with the help of steel legs or computerised limbs. Trauma injuries are certainly the most visible of health problems – the ones that grab our attention. A campaign ad for congressman Tom Udall featured an Iraq war veteran who had survived a shot to his head. Speaking through the computer that now substitutes for his voice, Sergeant Erik Schei extols the top-notch care that saved his life.
As politicians argue about healthcare for veterans, it is generally people like Sgt Schei that they have in mind, men and women torn apart by a bullet or bomb. And of course, these Iraq war veterans must receive the best care available for such complex and catastrophic injuries.
Unfortunately, the dangers of modern war extend far beyond weapons. As Iraqis know only too well, areas of Iraq today are among the most polluted on the planet – so toxic that merely to live, eat and sleep (never mind to fight) in these zones is to risk death. Thousands of soldiers coming home from the war may have been exposed to chemicals that are known to cause cancers and neurological problems. What’s most tragic is that the veterans themselves do not always realise that they are in danger from chemical poisoning. Right now, there is no clear way for Iraq war veterans to find out what they’ve been exposed to and where to get help.
In October, the Military Times reported on the open-air pits on US bases in Iraq, where troops incinerate tons of waste. Because of such pits, tens of thousands of soldiers may be breathing air contaminated with burning Freon, jet fuel and other carcinogens. According to reports, soldiers are coughing up blood or the black goop that has been nicknamed “plume crud“.
In other cases, soldiers may have been exposed to poisons spread during efforts to restore Iraq’s infrastructure. In 2003, for instance, members of the Indiana national guard were put in charge of protecting a water-treatment plant. They were told not to worry about the bright orange dust lying in piles around the plant, swirling in the air and gathering in the folds of their uniforms. In fact, Indiana soldiers spent weeks or months in a wasteland contaminated with sodium dichromate. The chemical, made famous after its role as the villain in the movie Erin Brockovich, is used to peel corrosion off of water pipes. It is a carcinogen that attacks the lungs and sinuses.
Today, a decade and a half after the first Gulf war, we know that such exposure may lead to widespread suffering. In 1991, veterans began to exhibit fatigue, fevers, rashes, joint pain, intestinal problems, memory loss, mood swings and even cancers, a cluster of symptoms and conditions referred to now as Gulf war syndrome (or illness). For years, the US department of defence maintained that stress caused the veterans’ symptoms. Veterans groups blamed war-related toxins. This year, the National Academy of Sciences published an extensive review of years of scientific study of Gulf war illness that concluded a cause and effect relationship existed between the widespread illnesses among veterans and exposure to powerful neurotoxins. Complementing the US studies is an emerging body of epidemiological data linking increased incidence of Iraqi cancer, birth defects, infant mortality and multi-system diseases to toxic exposure.
Strangely enough, though, there has been almost no discussion of whether today’s soldiers – those fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan – have also been injured by wartime poisons. We don’t have a word yet for the constellation of cancers, psychological ills and systemic diseases that may be caused by toxins in today’s wars.
In order to care for our veterans, we must do more than offer state-of-the-art hospitals and high-tech prosthetics. Veterans will need information about what poisons they have breathed or touched or drunk and when.
What would such an effort look like? First the military would need to disclose all known incidents of toxic exposure. Then it would have to reach out to veterans and give them information about how to receive care for conditions that arise from this exposure.
This summer, senator Evan Bayh made a first stab at such a system. Bayh pushed the national guard to track down hundreds of those Indiana soldiers who may have breathed orange dust back in 2003. Most of the soldiers are now civilians scattered across the US, unaware that they are at high risk for lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. Some of them may already be struggling with illness. The national guard is making an effort to search for these veterans and provide them with a phone number to call in order to seek medical help.
That’s a good first step. But what about all the other veterans who believe that they have returned home from the war healthy? Without knowing it, they may be carrying a small bomb inside them. And they have a right to know.
