Gulf War Illness, DOD and VA Ripping Vets, as Usual

Update: Shinseki Slated to Head VA, Obama Confirms

Over 100,000 American troops in the 1990-1991 Gulf War came back and suffered an array of debilitating ailments known collectively as "Gulf War illness."

Amputations, brain and central nervous damage are among the results.

Gulf War veterans are in a word: Pissed.

A report released last month, 17 years after the first Iraq war (published under a Congressional mandate), entitled "Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans," was researched in response to the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs' (VA) inaction as 10,000s of veterans sought treatment and benefits.

The 400-plus-page report finally affirms that Gulf War Illness is a genuine medical condition, as suffering veterans and their families have been saying for years, but the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses' (created by Congress in 1998) scientific work is seen as being undercut by today's Department of Defense (DoD) and VA.

"As described throughout the report, scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans. Research has also shown that this pattern of illness does not occur after every war and cannot be attributed to psychological stressors
during the Gulf War," reads the report.

Michael Kilpatrick, a spokesman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, comes under especially harsh criticism, representative of what many veterans see as negligence as usual in reaction to the report's findings.

Writes one Gulf War veteran activist in an e-mail circulating among veterans' groups:

Our good 'Doctor' Michael Kilpatrick (He is the one that said the burning trash pit in Basra, Iraq that is sickening hundreds of service members is 'Perfectly Safe' last week) is now stating that Gulf War Illness is due to: 'pre-existing medical conditions before they deployed to the Gulf.'

Despite a 450 page [Research Advisory Committee] RAC report stating the complete opposite. So, the good 'Doctor' is saying that we were all sick and deployed to fight a war with cancers, ALS, MS, and Parkinson's Disease to only name a few of the illnesses that Gulf War Veterans have now developed. Wow, I didn't realize our military was that disabled? Amazing. I never saw anyone that sick in the Marines or Army Special Forces I worked with.

The sense of betrayal by Gulf War veterans is reaching a degree of disgust and anger not seen since Vietnam.

Veterans are looking to president-elect Obama to set things write.

Continues the veteran's e-mail:

Oh, by the way... The Chairman of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness has just been notified of the VA/DOD's response. Pres.-Elect Obama is next to be notified.