posted 09-11-2003 09:13 AM            

Gulf War II Syndrome?
Military Equipment and "Pneumonia"

By STAN GOFF

(This article originally appeared in Counterpunch, www.counterpunch.org - reprinted with permission, Stan Goff)

To understand the official military response to the mysterious "pneumonia" breaking out among American troops in Iraq, we have to understand that troops are equipment.

To the unremitting vexation of Donald Rumsfeld and his "network-centric" techno-groupies, troops are articles of equipment whose preparation and maintenance prove troublesome. They have to be coaxed into "service" with Army-of-One-style Madison Avenue pitches and educational bribes, enculturated to discipline and punctuality, taught how to perform their various functions, then kept in the job through a system of economic and psychological rewards. Troops are the only part of the "tables of organization and equipment" (TO&E is the military's term to describe its units, not mine) that have to be indoctrinated.

There are a couple of troublesome aspects to this for the politicians who control the military. First, troops are not equipment. Second, indoctrination narratives are perishable as circumstances change.

I tend to harp about this, having been military for so long and now being a very politically active leftist, but no member of the armed forces is ever transformed into the unthinking, unfeeling, lethal robot that thrills the right and haunts the left. These men and women start and end as human beings exactly like all of us. They experience the same range of emotions, desire the same outlets for their creativity, seek the same human companionship, and are driven by the same intellectual curiosity. They are not computers that can be programmed. They feel loneliness, awe, pain, lust, confusion, mirth, dread, appetites, and obsessions just like every last one of us, and they exist in the same uncontrollable mix of potentially subversive facts that we do. They are the same combination of goal-directed willfulness and unmanaged acting-out as the rest of us. They are part of the same system as you and me, in which Wal-Mart workers and soldiers are both necessary and expendable. Like the rest of us, they can also get mad when they find they've been had.

They have to be given a special status, reinforced by popular media, that equates their subservience to heroism. They are dressed up in crisp uniforms so they can be properly recognized and adored, and rewarded with colorful medals and badges that hang like fetishes all over those uniforms, and convinced that they are serving some sacred purpose even when they are only slaking Wall Street and the Dollar with their blood and sweat.

Troops might be bewildered, as we all are, by ideologies of chauvinism, consumerism, gender, and so on, but they're still exposed to all that contradictory stuff that life presents them. In fact, troops are often exposed more directly to the charlatan character of official horseshit than the rest of us. As middle class white America comforts itself with the cake-and-ice-cream of 'liberation' in Iraq, for example, the troops who are the instruments of this wretched folly are confronted each day with the generalized hostility of an occupied people, and with the glaring fact that their senior officers--whom they've been told to trust as leaders--are now professional hucksters assisting with the sale of war to voters and taxpayers.

What troops often haven't had yet, and what many don't have until after their tours of duty, is the epiphany that they are equipment. Equipment with an expiration date.

The Department of Defense does not care if a soldier retires and dies three weeks later. In fact, the Veterans Administration bean counters would see that as positive. The Department of Defense does not care if a soldier who was getting out anyway, finishes his or her three or four year hitch, then comes down with mysterious and debilitating ailments, as long as that ailment can plausibly be denied as "service-connected." Note how many millions have been spent by the US government to deny that Gulf War Syndrome existed, and how hard they've fought liability for Agent Orange.

Now there is a "pneumonia" breaking out among the troops, which may very well be related to inhalation of microscopic particles of the highly toxic and radioactive depleted uranium, a heavy-metal slag used in another bit of expendable military equipment, US anti-tank ammunition.

The press, as per standing operating procedure, is collaborating with the Department of Defense in completely evading the possibility of DU as a causative agent for the respiratory malady that has already killed two perfectly healthy young men and has dozens of others hospitalized with some on ventilators. CNN's medical reporter, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has made the claim that the morbidity rate is average for the population, a claim copied directly from the Defense Department playbook. This idiotic assertion, of course, accepts the premise that this is one of the communicable pneumonias we all know and love, in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. There are no disease clusters to indicate that an organism is responsible for the problem at all, but this doesn't stop the spin machine.

Two of the over 100 cases have shown strep, and this is boldly emphasized while the fact that ONLY two have shown strep (which could very well be coincidental or opportunistic infections) is underplayed. And the boilerplate pre-emptive argument against toxic exposure as the source of this outbreak is that there is "no evidence of toxic or chemical exposure." What is not stated is that when the most obvious etiology is deliberately overlooked, the "evidence" is unlikely to appear on its own. The military made its mind up some time ago that DU is not toxic or carcinogenic--flying directly in the face of scientific fact as effortlessly as the military's political bosses stated the bogus case of al Qaeda-Iraq connections and WMD's.

The target audience for this kind of chicanery is generally the US civilian population, but in this case it is also the troops themselves. They cannot be allowed to develop a preoccupation about the very dust they are relentlessly exposed to every day, because that might degrade their ability to perform their primary functions.

Whether or not this deadly inflammation is the result of DU or some other environmental hazard, the troops are being exposed to DU and a lot more nasty shit every day, just like the troops from Desert Storm and its aftermath, and they will likely eventually be disabled at more or less the same rates--that would be upwards of 40 percent. Troops have become a target audience for the pneumonia spin, because their expiration dates are any time after Uncle Sam can extricate himself from this tar baby he has encountered in Iraq. Until then, just to cope with this arrogant overreach, Bushfeld is offering bribes all over the world for spare troops and activating the Individual Ready Reserve--a measure normally associated with direct defense of the nation or general war.

In March the sandstorms dead-lined their helicopters. Now something is dead-lining the troops. But the troops are NOT equipment, in spite of what Donald Rumsfeld and his whole techno-fascist entourage might like. We can tell them--and I am telling them--you are being had.

posted 09-11-2003 10:26 AM            

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953

http://www.costofwar.com/

posted 09-21-2003 05:45 PM            

The Depleted Uranium
Cover-up

By Michelle Mairesse
http://www.hermes-press.com/depluran.htm

From 1962 until 1971, the American. military sprayed 11 million gallons of a dioxin-based defoliant, Agent Orange, in South Vietnam. Although dioxin is a powerful toxin, twenty-five years elapsed before the American government conceded that sick servicemen acquired their diseases after exposure to Agent Orange. Finally, in the face of incontrovertible evidence, President Clinton announced in 1996 that he would expand disability benefits for those veterans exposed to agent Orange who suffered from chloracne, porphyria, cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer and respiratory cancers (including cancers of the lung, larynx, trachea and bronchus). Vietnam veterans' children with congenital spina bifida were also eligible for benefits. A new study just released by the Institute of Medicine suggests that the offspring of veterans exposed to Agent Orange are at increased risk of contracting leukemia.

In 1991, thousands of veterans returning from the 1991 Gulf War reported a variety of disease symptoms, including chronic fatigue syndrome, immune dysfunction, urinary disorders, joint pains, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but the Veterans Administration fobbed them off with the same all-purpose diagnosis they had first imposed on the Vietnam vets--battle stress. Government officials insisted that the use of depleted uranium in missiles, shells, bullets, and armor plating did not contribute to Gulf War Syndrome. The Rand Corporation announced that there was no evidence for radiation illness or kidney disease attributable to depleted uranium exposure.

Both government officials and Rand associates should have known better. As early as 1990, the defense establishment realized that depleted uranium, a radioactive, toxic heavy metal, presented health risks for troops and civilians in combat areas. A July 1990 report from the U. S. Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command noted that depleted uranium is linked to cancer when exposures are internal. Another report by the AMCCOM (the army's radiological task group) states that long term effects of low doses of depleted uranium have been implicated in cancer and that "there is no dose so low that the probability effect is zero."

The Rand Corporation report was based on data from uranium mining. Uranium miners were exposed to a soluble form of uranium, which the body eliminates during approximately twelve hours to twelve days. The depleted uranium deployed in the Gulf War burns at a high temperature, producing a ceramic aerosol of inhalable particles that can lodge in the body from five to ten years before being excreted. Because DU radiates alpha particles, the largest and heaviest of the three kinds of radiation, DU is easier to shield against than alpha or gamma rays. However, when released internally, alpha radiation lodged next to living tissue can damage the DNA nucleus of the cell and provoke mutations and cancers.

The plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a by-product of its uranium enrichment program, funneled much of its depleted uranium into Gulf War weaponry. Disease and mortality studies from Oak Ridge tend to nullify both the defense establishment's and Rand Corporation's bill of clean health for DU. Forty years after the wives of some Oak Ridge workers complained of their husbands' burning semen, the wives of Gulf War veterans made the same complaint. In the Oak Ridge neighborhood, there is a high rate of chronic fatigue syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and immune dysfunction, the most frequently reported symptoms of Gulf War veterans

As for the defense establishment's assertion that chemical exposure to DU was insignificant, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, who in 1991 was chief of the Nuclear Medicine Clinic at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Wilmington Delaware, discovered significant evidence of uranium exposure in his patients, severe pathology of the renal and geneto-urinary systems. After two of the Gulf War patients died, Dr. Durakovic insisted on expanding the tests. He wanted samples of the patients' skeletal systems. The tests were not performed, medical charts disappeared, the uranium Registry Office was dismantled, and Dr. Durakovic was laid off in 1997. (Dr. Durakovic is presently professor of radiology and nuclear medicine and radiology at Georgetown University.)

For six years, the official line was that Gulf War veterans reporting a variety of symptoms (brought together under the blanket term "Gulf War Syndrome") were all suffering from wartime stress. In October 1997, a House panel disputed the conclusions of the president's Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, finding "no credible evidence" that wartime stress contributed to the Gulf War Syndrome. The House panel pinpointed toxic agents, including nerve gases, vaccines, pesticides, smoke from oil well fires, and depleted uranium from spent U. S. anti-tank shells. (About 320 tons of depleted uranium were fired by tanks or aircraft in the Gulf War.)

The defense establishment maintained that the Iraqis might be responsible for the toxic agents, but the Army Surgeon General's office immediately declared that only 35 veterans had been internally exposed to depleted uranium and that further testing was unnecessary. By January 1998, the Pentagon's Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses revised the number of exposures in announcing that troops unaware that depleted uranium contaminated equipment (such as enemy vehicles disabled by DU rounds) required special handling. "The failure to properly disseminate such information to troops at all levels may have resulted in thousands of unnecessary exposures."

Yet in April 1999, Harold Heilsnis, Director of Public Communications for the Pentagon, told the Sierra Club of Canada, "To the best of my knowledge, we are not using these rounds (DU) in the Balkans. We would not hesitate to use these rounds however, as we are confident they pose no risk to human safety or the environment."

In December 2000, NATO officials said that U.S. aircraft fired more than 10,000 depleted uranium projectiles in Bosnia and Kosovo. The governments of Italy, Belgium, Holland, Spain, and Finland, and Turkey expressed alarm over illnesses developing in returning troops, but the UK Ministry of Defense blandly responded that there is no scientific evidence linking depleted uranium to the deaths of alliance soldiers.

In January 2001, Edward N. Luttwak, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, expressed contempt for a study in Kosovo conducted by a United Nations' environmental team, declaring that it had " provided quite enough farcical entertainment." After trotting out the misleading observation that there is more natural radioactivity in many homes in the United States and Europe than in an M1 tank armored with depleted uranium, Luttwak alludes to the "carefully monitored" 33 American soldiers wounded by depleted uranium fragments who are not suffering from any form of radioactive disease. Littwak denied the possibility that any Balkans service personnel had contracted leukemia from depleted uranium. "If DU armor is shattered in war, particles could be ingested. The result would not be leukemia but chemical poisoning, its severity depending on the amount of particles. That is why after the 1991 Gulf War, troops that came into contact with fragmented DU in examining destroyed Iraqi tanks wore face masks."

The militarists' tactics of condescension, diversion, and denial are wearing thin. The questions surrounding DU cannot be answered by those wholly concerned with "national security". The manifest dangers of depleted uranium concern everyone on the planet.

Dr. Rosalie Bertell, President of the International Institute of Concerns for Public Health, among the most respected researchers to advocate banning DU weaponry, has tirelessly informed the general public about the dangers of depleted uranium. Her lecture presented to the Hague Peace Conference, May 1999 appears on the web at http://ccnr.org/du_hague.html and should be required reading for anyone who is gullible enough to believe in the veracity of public officials.

How radioactive is depleted uranium? Bertell says, "The difference in radioactivity between natural and depleted uranium is that given equal quantities, depleted uranium has about half the radioactivity of the natural mixture of uranium isotopes. However, because of the concentration of the uranium in the depleted uranium waste, depleted uranium is much more radioactive than uranium in its natural state."

Bertell states that the chemical action of all isotopic mixtures of uranium (depleted, natural and enriched) is identical and can only be separated from the radiological action in theory. "The direct damage to lungs and kidneys by uranium compounds is thought to be the result of the combined radiation and chemical properties, and it is difficult to attribute a portion of the damage to these separate factors which cannot be separated in life." Iraqi soldiers found dead inside their tanks succumbed to the aerosol spray given off by depleted uranium projectiles on impact. Bertell notes that "it was the radiation protection units of the military which designated these contaminated tanks off bounds. They were acting because of radiological (not chemical) properties of the aerosol."

The statistics are piling up faster than the politicians and militarists can deny them, sick soldiers, radiation contaminated environments, and birth defects in children born to soldiers on both sides of the Gulf and Balkans conflicts.

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Gulf War, the (Amman) Jordan Times printed an editorial joining the call for international legal instruments to forbid the use of depleted uranium ammunition and asserting that the public in the "so-called developed world needs to be informed beyond governments' and militaries' propaganda, about what really happened in Iraq over those two months and the 10 years that followed."

In March, NATO announced that a panel of experts found no evidence of a link between depleted uranium and disease. Is this the Ghost of Agent Orange Past?

The force of public opinion finally ended the war in Vietnam, and today the force of public opinion could and should compel all nations to ban the use of depleted uranium weaponry.

posted 10-04-2003 06:14 AM            

Scientists believe respiratory irritation caused by sand storms, oil fires, and concentrated vehicle fumes during Operation Desert Storm weakened the blood/brain barrier and allowed DU to enter the central nervous system of soldiers in the field resulting in slowly developing neurotoxic responses. Their brains, in effect, were slowly poisoned.

GET THE PDF:

http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/stand/du.html

The brain is a 'target organ' for dissolved uranium. Tests on some Desert Storm vets show lowered ability to think and solve problems, as well as lowered motor skills in subjects with above average uranium levels.

During the latest operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, American and British tanks fired thousands of depleted uranium armor penetrators. American A-10 and AV-8B aircraft shot hundreds of thousands of small caliber depleted uranium rounds.

Many troops in Iraq are being exposed to some level of DU, and the exposure this time may be far more long-term. The longer troops stay in theater if they are in a contaminated area, the more exposure they will have. DU is also toxic to the kidneys, and is known to cause cancer from inhalation. It is reasonable to assume that neither skin exposure nor swallowing particles of DU is wise.

The exposure to DU combined with the exposure to extensive combustion products from oil fires and blowing sand from the desert environment, however, is unique and the extent of exposure to respiratory irritants during this war was probably greater than in previous wars. These exposures for some soldiers may be more intense and more sustained now than they were in 1991.

What Are the Symptoms of D.U. Exposure?

Depleted uranium has two different effects on the body, chemical poisoning and radiation poisoning. Symptoms are similar to those described as Gulf War Syndrome. DU may also cause respiratory problems and is known to elevate the risk of lung cancer and leukemia.

• Chronic Fatigue

• Neurological signs or symptoms

• Signs or symptoms involving upper or lower respiratory system

• Menstrual disorders

• Kidney problems

What Should One Do If These
Symptoms Appear?

• Report them to a physician and get them on record. If they persist, do not be discouraged by military doctors who seem to brush them off. Return again and again if necessary as long as the symptoms persist.

• Those who are still on active duty should immediately register with DOD by calling 1-800-796-9699. Those who have left active military service should call the Veterans Administration at 1-800-PGW-VETS.

• Increase the frequency of screening for lung cancer and leukemia.

What Can One Do to Limit Exposure to
D.U. and Other Causative Agents?

posted 10-09-2003 10:29 PM            

Mystery Blood Clots
Killing US Troops
10-7-3

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Several U.S. soldiers in the Iraqi war died from sudden illnesses and a United Press International probe shows those were triggered by unexplained blood clots.

The Pentagon says blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes.

NBC reporter David Bloom also died of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing near Baghdad.

The UPI investigation by reporter Mark Benjamin also points to another disturbing factor of soldiers becoming ill or dying from similar ailments in the United States. In some cases, the soldiers, their families and civilian doctors blame vaccines given to them by the military, particularly the anthrax or smallpox shots.

Some of the soldiers who died suddenly had complained about symptoms suffered by Bloom -- including pain in the legs that could indicate problems with blood clots.

The UPI investigation found 17 soldiers who died of sudden illnesses.

"I would say that that number of cases (blood clot deaths) among young healthy troops would seem to be unusual," said Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases doctor at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis.

posted 11-18-2003 07:34 AM            

http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/Loewenstein/industrial-du.html