WASHINGTON HAS A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

GULF WAR SYNDROME
~ A STRUGGLE TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED

In November of 2008, the Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses presented a 450 page report to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. The report stated that the Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), previously dismissed as a psychosomatic disorder, is a very real illness affecting between 25-50 percent of the 700,000 U.S. Veterans who participated in the 1991 Gulf War.

Gulf War syndrome (GWS) is a widely used term referring to the unexplained illnesses occurring in Gulf War veterans. The Pentagon denies that U.S. soldiers were exposed to chemical and biological warfare agents during the Gulf war, but its own records contradict the official line.

Gulf War syndrome, affecting a number of men and women who served in the Persian Gulf War, represents a group of medical and psychological complaints including fatigue, respiratory illness, muscular pain, spasms, skin rash, memory loss, dizziness, peripheral numbness, and sleep disturbances.

There is also an increased number of birth defects in their children. Brain cancer deaths, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and fibromyalgia are now recognized by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments as potentially connected to service in the Persian Gulf War.

Historic data

The Gulf War began in August 1990, when Iraq invaded the small neighboring oil state of Kuwait. It ended in February 1991 with the expulsion of Iraqi forces, by a military alliance drawn mainly from Europe and the United States.

Incidence

Some place the number of U.S. citizens who took part in the Gulf War at over 1 million. Official Pentagon numbers only show a total of 697,000, but they may not include non-military members.

About 6 percent of Gulf War veterans have reported an ailment they believe is linked to their service. The Pentagon found that 85 percent had ailments or diseases with known causes not linked to the Gulf War.

According to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, at least 12 percent of Gulf War veterans are currently receiving some form of disability compensation because of the Gulf War syndrome.

The most common symptoms

The following are the most common symptoms of Gulf War syndrome. However, each person experiences symptoms differently.

Symptoms may include:

• fatigue
• musculoskeletal pain
• respiratory illnesses
• cognitive problems
• skin rashes
• diarrhea
• neurological signs or symptoms
• neuropsychological signs or symptoms (including memory loss)
• signs or symptoms involving upper or lower respiratory system
• sleep disturbances
• gastrointestinal signs or symptoms (including recurrent diarrhea and constipation)
• cardiovascular signs or symptoms
• menstrual disorders

Symptoms of Gulf War syndrome may resemble other medical conditions.

The fact is that symptoms continue to pose a frustrating problem for affected veterans and their physicians. Despite extensive research, the cause of the syndrome remains unexplained.

Possible causes

When causative factors are obscure and not unilaterally accepted as it is with the Gulf War Syndrome, speculation oftentimes overrides a precise explanation. Suppositions are many in regard to the contributory sequence that terminated in the physical and psychological symptoms familiar to veterans diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome.

Several possible causes are mentioned:

• Contagious disease
• Depleted uranium weapons
• Anthrax vaccine
• Biological weapons
• Chemical weapons including Nerve gas and Mustard gas
• Fumes from oil well fires
• Exposure to inhibited red-fuming nitric acid (IRFNA), a rocket fuel, which is also an oxidizing agent used in SS-1 Scud ballistic missiles, SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles and possibly other pieces of Iraqi military technology.
• Exposure to pesticides
• Parasites
• The side-effects of drugs given for protection against nerve agents
• Military experimentation

Theories

There were several theories that tried to explain the onset of all the symptoms in Gulf War participants.

The most common are:

GWS as contagious disease

There are some who believe that Gulf War Syndrome is the result of contagious bacteria. There are some reports of improvement in some victims when treated with antibiotics meaning that there might be some bacteria involved!

GWS as a multiple chemical sensitivity

The symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome are similar to those of industrial uranium fume exposure and condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. In particular, MCS victims do not suffer from increased incidence of congenital malformations, although immune system effects and cancer rate data seems similar.

Anthrax vaccine

For a long time, the anthrax vaccine was blamed by the troops as a potential source of the mysterious pattern of illness. In fact the vaccine was particularly painful and often caused a severe local skin reaction that lasted for weeks or months.

Many experts were saying that this isn’t possible because the vaccines were tested, but even after the war, the troops that had never been deployed overseas developed symptoms similar to those of Gulf War Syndrome after receiving the anthrax vaccine.

However the Pentagon failed to report to Congress the 20,000 cases where soldiers were hospitalized after receiving the vaccine.

Among these reported reactions, almost every patient noticed some of the common Gulf War symptoms such as:

• Joint and muscle pain (41%),
• Decreased energy and tiredness (29%),
• Reduced concentration (28%),
• short-term memory loss (24%), and
• Sleep problems (17%).

Positive reactions

Despite repeated assurances that the vaccine was safe and necessary, a U.S. Federal Judge ruled that there was a good cause to believe it was harmful, and he ordered the Pentagon to stop administering it in October 2004.

Pesticides

According to the report, 62 percent of ground troops interviewed reported some form of pesticide use. Forty-four percent used pesticide sprays daily and 26 percent used pesticide lotions a median of 20 times per month. The most commonly used compound was DEET, used by half of all personal almost daily. Permethrin was used by fewer personnel but was on average, used daily.

The Pesticide Information Project of Cooperative Extension Offices of Cornell University states that "Everglades National Park employees having extensive DEET exposure were more likely to have insomnia, mood disturbances and impaired cognitive function than were lesser exposed co-workers".

Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency classified permethrin as "Likely to be Carcinogenic to Humans" by the oral route. This classification was based on two reproducible benign tumor types (lung and liver) in the mouse, equivocal evidence of carcinogenicity in Long- Evans rats, and supporting structural activity relationship information.

Permethrin also has been shown to kill 1 in 10 cats exposed to permethrin with 90 percent of them displaying symptoms of twitching and convulsions. Furthermore, a study by the Predictive Toxicology Research Group in Inda found significant functional impairment of the blood-brain barrier following pesticide exposure during development in rats, even after one exposure.

Nerve agents

Many of the typical symptoms of Gulf War syndrome are identical to those experienced in organophosphate poisoning. Gulf War veterans were exposed to a number of sources of these compounds, including nerve gas and pesticides. Over 125,000 U.S. troops and 9,000 UK troops were exposed to nerve gas and mustard gas when Iraq was bombed in 1991. All this makes a good case for the nerve agents theory.

There were even some small devices installed that should alarm if the chemical gas was released. Several reports said that chemical alarms went off 18,000 times during the Gulf War. The United States did not have any biological agent detection capability whatsoever during the Gulf War. Several experts have argued that a likely cause for the increase in birth defects was the Iraqi Army’s use of teratogenic mustard agents.

Depleted uranium

Today, I am a coward. Although I have looked at and been horrified by images of the children born with DU deformities, today I just could not go there. If you wish to go here, do so. Some days, and this is one of them, I am sickened to the soul at what is done to the innocents of this planet. We all know this is genocide at its ugliest.

"Unborn children of the region [are] being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." - Ross B. Mirkarimi, The Arms Control Research Centre: ‘The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf Region.’ May 1992

Since uranium is a heavy metal and chemical toxicant with kidney-damaging, teratogenic (birth defect-causing), and potentially carcinogenic properties, some sources believe there is a connection between uranium exposure and a variety of illnesses.

Increases in the rate of birth defects for children born to Gulf War veterans have been reported in several studies. A 2001 survey of 15,000 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times as likely to report having children with birth defects. Some studies also showed aberrations in their white blood cell chromosomes.

Evidences for and against

Evidence that confirms the presence of GWS

Several studies suggested that the veterans' illnesses are neurological and linked to exposure to neurotoxins, such as the

• nerve gas sarin,
• the anti-nerve gas drug pyridostigmine bromide, and
• pesticides that affect the nervous system.

Some reports claimed that Gulf veterans were twice more likely to suffer from some diseases than if they had been deployed elsewhere, and that the illnesses suffered were the result of a combination of causes.

These included:

• multiple injections of vaccines
• the use of organophosphate pesticides to spray tents
• low level exposure to nerve gas
• the inhalation of depleted uranium dust

A new British study comparing 24,000 Gulf War veterans to a control group of 18,000 men have come to the conclusion that those who had taken part in the Gulf war have lower fertility and are 40 to 50% more likely to be unable to start a pregnancy.

Among Gulf war soldiers, failure to conceive was 2.5% vs. 1.7% in the control group, and the rate of miscarriage was 3.4% vs. 2.3%.

Evidences that are against the presence of GWS

The proven fact is that similar syndromes have been seen as an after effect of other conflicts such as World War I, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the Vietnam War. So, there is a possibility that some or all of the symptoms experienced are unrelated to service in the Gulf.

The fact is also that some reported symptoms cannot be verified or connected to Gulf War service.

These symptoms are almost identical to those of several other diseases not associated with the Gulf War:

• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
• Fibromyalgia

Treatment for Gulf War syndrome

Although there is no specific treatment for Gulf War syndrome, research suggests than an approach called cognitive-behavioral therapy may help patients with non-specific symptoms lead more productive lives by actively managing their symptoms.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting a two-year, scientifically controlled study to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in veterans with these symptoms.


Homeless and Incarcerated Veterans

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, as of 2001, 23 percent of the homeless populations in America are veterans, accounting for between 529,000 and 840,000 of the total homeless population.

33 percent of these were stationed in a war zone, 89 percent received a dishonorable discharge and 75 percent experience alcohol, drug or mental health problems. For comparison, as of July 2008, there were 147,000 troops deployed in Iraq.

A 2000 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicated another 225,000 veterans were held in Nation's prisons or jails in 1998. 60 percent of incarcerated veterans had served in the Army. 35 percent of veterans in state prison were convicted of a violent crime, compared to 20 percent of non-veterans and surprisingly, the average sentence of veterans was 50 months longer than the average of non-veterans.

MEANWHILE MEN AND WOMEN ARE RETURNING FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN IN EVEN WORSE SHAPE AND IN MUCH LARGER NUMBERS. IF ONE DID NOT KNOW BETTER (!) ONE MIGHT THINK THAT THIS GENOCIDE OF THE MUSLIM PEOPLES IS ALSO BEING APPLIED TO THE YOUNG AND HEALTHY OF AMERICA. ASK YOURSELF WHY THIS MIGHT BE. I GUARANTEE YOU WILL NOT LIKE THE THINGS THIS BRINGS TO MIND CONSIDERING THE PLAN OF THE NWO TO REDUCE WORLD POPULATION AND, IN PARTICULAR, WHAT THEY HAVE IN MIND FOR AMERICA WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS. A WEAKENED AND DEMORALIZED AMERICA WOULD BE MUCH MORE MALLEABLE TO THEIR CAUSES.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT ISN'T IT?

Please watch >>>>>KILLING OUR OWN

Homeless Veterans

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