Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Who really cares about the soldiers?

Recent calls to 'unite behind our boys' sound hollow in the ears of many veterans of the first Gulf War. Returning home with a range of illnesses including degeneration of the nervous system and various cancers, as well as less easily defined immune system failings, they were not protected by the Ministry of Defence.

And in case you don't like the facts from Green Party, there's this;

The 220,00 Casualties No One Speaks About

Gulf war illness. Not a popular subject. We're on the brink of a new Gulf War. It's in bad taste to talk about the massive hidden casualties from the last one.
As the U.S. gets ready to send soldiers into Iraq we should remember what happened to our troops in Desert Storm.

Some Gulf War Statistics:

- As many as 100,000 U.S. troops were exposed to repeated low-levels of chemical warfare agents, including sarin, cyclosarin, and mustard gases;

- More than 250,000 received the investigational new drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB pills) the Pentagon "cannot rule out" as linked to Gulf War illnesses;

- 8,000 received the investigational new botulinum toxoid (Bot Tox) vaccine;

- 150,000 received the hotly debated anthrax vaccine;

- 436,000 entered into or lived for months within areas contaminated by more than 315 tons of depleted uranium radioactive toxic waste possibly laced with trace amounts of highly radioactive Plutonium and Neptunium, almost all without any awareness, training, protective equipment, or medical evaluations; and

- Hundreds of thousands lived outdoors for months near more than 700 burning oil well fires belching fumes and particulate matter without any protective equipment.

- Each of these exposures took place while troops were either engaged in combat, serving in a war zone, or stationed in the volatile region for a number of months.

- More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died.
- More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died.
- More than 9,600 Gulf War veterans have died.

One last stat:

- More than 1,200,000 civilians in Iraq have died since the start of the Gulf War, when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 (Source: United Nations and Iraq).


This is what I'm being asked to support. How is one suppose to support this war and the man who started it, when one hasn't forgotten the first war.

The sure predictor or future behavior is recent past behavior.

Kansas @ 5:49 PM