Poisoning Leaves Cursed Betrayal

Industrial Ag threatens the small farmer and society as
never before. Communities are fighting back.

Update II: See also the Petition to EPA to stop Dow from Poisoning our Children with Chlorpyrifos, pesticides used by Big Ag.

Updated - Vietnam War combat veterans—aware of reporting on the vectoring of pathogens and pollutants into Wisconsin society by industrialized 'farming'—advise the current horror inflicted in southeast Asia on Vietnamese victims by unexploded American ordnance (UXO) and Agent Orange should inform public policy, pointing to recent pieces on the topic by George Black, The Nation; see also Haberman, NYT).

Agent Orange from the 1960s still deforming and killing people? Yes, this is still happening in 2015, the magnitude of the horror to which those American veterans who still live in Vietnam attest.

Agent Orange and other defoliants—generally regarded as among the most most toxic molecules ever synthesized by human beings—are extreme examples of mass poisoning, intended to destroy the verdant Eco-system of southeast Asia to facilitate killing southeast Asians held in disfavor of the U.S. government during the Vietnam War.

Dow and Monsanto which manufactured the weapons of Operation Ranch Hand (1961-71) are imprecations to many Vietnam-era veterans, one reason why Republicans in the Bush-Cheney administration targeted and even imprisoned Vietnam-era veterans who "tenaciously [pursued] a claim for [disability] benefits" sustained during their service to our country. (Horton, Harper's Magazine) That administration had to discourage Vietnam veterans from pretending to negative health consequences sustained from the war.

Many veterans with whom I have spoken place Karl Rove behind some of these criminal prosecutions, an unconfirmed fact, but not much happened during the Bush-Cheney administration without the chickenhawk Rove's go-ahead.

You don't have to look too far these days to find a Vietnam War veteran exposed to Agent Orange and other predictable effects of the Vietnam War, the observant might find such men at a community hospice.

Whether American war planners intended to kill, deform and traumatize Americans and Vietnamese or whether killing, deforming and traumatizing are merely predictable consequential side effects of the war, to victims of Agent Orange it doesn't matter.

Dow Chemical Company and Monsanto Company remain today, bigger than ever, business allies with American Big Ag.

Big Ag

This is fitting as Big Ag engages in its own we-didn't-know-the-consequences-our-motives-are-benign PR campaign against local communities such as Bayfield County and the town of Saratoga in Wisconsin. Other examples of Big Ag PR in Wisconsin are legion in America's Dairyland.

Big Ag using antimicrobials on an industrial scale (John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future) in the production of milk for example causes the "evolution and proliferation of antimicrobial-resistant strains of bacteria."

This is one reason why politicians should become serious students of biological evolution—especially the governor of America's Dairyland, Scott Walker—as Big Ag's new model of industrial agriculture represents a case study in which MRSA (Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and other pathogens are vectored into human society as the CDC and health surveillance agencies routinely see human-enhanced evolution of pathogens in action.

As victims of MRSA, Ecoli, and other pathogens proliferate, should Blue Baby syndrome (aka methemoglobinemia now prevalent in Yakima Valley in Washington state, caused by too many nitrates in surface waters and aquifers) come to Wisconsin, the local CAFO operating as LLC business entities will become as obscene to Wisconsin citizens as Dow and Monsanto are to Vietnam combat veterans—like the amiable bunch of crazy bastards of an old unit in Marine Force Recon who operated in southeast Asia and did many things, some of which were legal under international law.

As Wayne Griffiths of Bayfield County (Wisconsin) writes: "As a Vietnam-era military medic I think the we should consider the lessons from Vietnam. In particular I am concerned about the use of chemicals in an environment and the long term health problems they can cause for generations to come. We need to consider what we do today is inherited by future generations."

Vietnam Force Recon Vet Works for Peace on 50th Anniv of Agent Orange Use

We want peace; pass H.R. 2634

Vietnam War veteran Chuck Palazzo (1970-1971) has a lot of friends.

To a man, they love the guy. Ask Wisconsinite, Lem Genovese, sometime if you have an interest in history.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of a deadly obscenity that continues to kill and maim—Agent Orange.

Palazzo works as a man of peace now in Da Nang, putting his heart into healing and bringing attention to the horror that is still inflicted on newborn babies today 50 years later. [I'll spare you the pictures.]

In the United States there is currently a bill in Congress, H.R. 2634 [2011]—seeking broad and long delayed remedial action on behalf of all Vietnam-era victims of Agent Orange—a bill a country that cares for liberty and humanity would pass in an instant.

Palazzo works for relief from Vietnam.

I really don't know what drives Palazzo today; what demons he faces; what love he lives. Nor, will I ever understand [or ask] what he went through in the Vietnam War.

Chuck Palazzo

But we regard each other as friends, and I salute him today. It's nice to have genuine warriors for peace as friends.

By Chuck Palazzo

Dear Friends,

Fifty years ago today, the U.S. started what would become one of the most devastating military campaigns in history – the spraying of Agent Orange. On August 10th, 1961, and for 10 years thereafter, the United States sprayed this deadly poison on over 20% of the southern part of Vietnam. The result of what would soon become known as a senseless crime against humanity, affected civilians and military personnel on both sides of the Vietnam War. The effect through the years has resulted in the death and disease of over 4.8 million Vietnamese. Today, 50 years later, the genetic consequence of Agent Orange continues to kill and maim a fourth generation of victims. The toxic and destructive ecological effect remains throughout Vietnam and continues affecting the citizens of Vietnam, poisoning their food chain and causing multiple illnesses and birth defects.

I had the privilege of participating in The Second International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin, which was held in Hanoi from August 8th to 9th, 2011. It included Agent Orange victims, victims of other toxic chemicals, scientists, lawyers and social activists from 19 countries. As an international delegate, I was also privileged to have an opportunity to affirm what the Conference developed as an International Appeal. I signed my name, not only in solidarity, but as a confirmation to the entire world that the victims of Agent Orange must be recognized by the manufacturers of this poison as well as the U.S. Government – and to provide comprehensive and meaningful assistance to the victims of Agent Orange and their families in Vietnam in a more practical and effective manner.

I ask each of you to please read and distribute the appeal which follows below. The Agent Orange problem is very real. Its victims continue to suffer. Please join with us and demand that action is finally taken. 50 years is far too long.

Thank you.

Chuck Palazzo
- Marine Combat Veteran, served with 1st and 3rd FORCERECON RVN 1970-1971. Currently living, writing and working in Da Nang, Vietnam as an Agent Orange and Unexploded Ordinance activist and researcher

APPEAL of the Second International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin

Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 9th August, 2011

The Second International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin, held in Hanoi from August 8th to 9th, 2011 included participants from around the world: Agent Orange victims, victims of other toxic chemicals, scientists, lawyers and social activists. The conference is a significant and important historic event, marking the 50th anniversary of the first spraying of the toxic chemical Agent Orange (1961-1971) by the U.S. forces in Vietnam and Indochina.

The delegates to the Conference agree that:

During the Vietnam War, from 1961 to 1971, U.S. forces through Operation Ranch Hand sprayed nearly 80 million liters of herbicides over South Vietnam, of which 61% was Agent Orange containing at least 366kg of dioxin, the most toxic substance known to science.

Since the First International Conference of Victims of Agent Orange in 2006, there has been greater public understanding and awareness of the dangers of Agent Orange/dioxin to humans and to the environment. More diseases have been officially recognized as being due to exposure to Agent Orange. Along with the Vietnamese people, many others around the world have become victims of this toxic weapon of mass destruction. Soldiers in the U.S., South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were exposed during the time they fought in Vietnam, and now their children and grandchildren are suffering as well. People in the U.S., Canada, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand and other areas were exposed because they lived near or worked in areas where the U.S. forces stored, buried, manufactured, tested or experimented with Agent Orange as part of their war in Vietnam.

Because of dioxin related damage to their endocrine, immune and reproductive systems, victims of Agent Orange suffer from multiple health conditions, some of which are quickly lethal and others which doom people to a life of horrific misery. Due to these diseases, many have been denied the most basic of human rights – especially the right to life, and the pursuit of happiness. Because of their inability to work and bearing the costs of medical treatment, most victims of Agent Orange everywhere are very poor. However, because Agent Orange was intentionally directed against the Vietnamese people, they are subject to the most onerous conditions. 4.8 million Vietnamese people directly sprayed repeatedly over extended periods of time were subject to multiple sources of exposure. The proportion of old people, women and children, who are especially susceptible to dioxin, is particularly high in Vietnam. In Vietnam, an enormous number of children continue to be born with Agent Orange-related birth defects. Now, a fourth generation of Agent Orange victims is being born. Because of this danger, in effect many women have been denied the human right to bear children. Agent Orange not only harmed human beings and devastated the environment of Vietnam during the war but also continued its devastation after the war. Dioxin dumped in the soil continues to damage the environment and sicken the people in and around several “hot spots.” Causing deforestation of nearly 3 million hectares of land, during the war, especially in coastal areas, Agent Orange has damaged not only the environment in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia but also the regional environment. It has and continues to have severe consequences for people in many areas of the world.

The use of Agent Orange in the war in Vietnam is a war crime and a crime against humanity Its consequences are passed from generation to generation. It challenges us to end, once and for all, the use of chemical weapons and any weapons of mass destruction anywhere today.

Humanity’s concern about the effects of chemical warfare, the threat of accidents at chemical manufacturing plants and the looming environmental disaster due biochemical engineering is increasing. The agony of those exposed to Agent Orange is central to this consciousness and international solidarity with Agent Orange victims’ struggle for justice is growing.

CALL TO ACTION

Therefore, the Delegates to the Conference hereby call upon:

1) Solidarity

All victims of Agent Orange, whatever their nationality or circumstances of exposure, should unite more closely and earnestly to act for our common interests. Further, to demonstrate our solidarity with victims of other weapons of mass destruction such as the atomic bomb and depleted uranium, ,All the victims and their supporters should work together in unity and coordinate actions. Only together, can we be effective, powerful and successful in achieving justice!

2) Organize

We ask all of humanity, all governments, organizations and individuals, whatever their social or political position, to take immediate action to support all victims of Agent Orange, with particular emphasis on those in Vietnam. In every country, and in every region, we should set up organizations and develop specific programs for mobilizing material resources in whatever form and for making our voices heard in all available forums in support of the struggle of the Vietnamese Agent Orange victims for justice.

3) Study and Remediate

Scientists, public health and environmental experts, especially from the United States, should focus on studying the specific health and environmental dangers of Agent Orange/dioxin and possibilities for remediation. This is very urgent in order to help victims whose time is running out, and in order to avoid similar disasters for future generations.

4) U.N. Ban on Weapons and War Crimes

The world community in general, the United Nations and each government in particular should rapidly promulgate new measures to more effectively prevent all acts in violation of international laws prohibiting war crimes and crimes against humanity.

5) U.S. Government and Chemical Manufacturers to Accept Responsibility

The U.S. government and chemical manufacturers of Agent Orange, particularly Monsanto and Dow Chemical should accept their responsibility and engage in greater and fuller efforts to work with the Vietnamese people and government to clean up the existing 'hot spots,' and to provide comprehensive and meaningful assistance to the victims of Agent Orange and their families in Vietnam in a more practical and effective manner. Because little of the monies appropriated by the U.S. Congress has actually reached the victims, funds intended for the victims should be given to Vietnamese NGOs like VAVA so that they actually go to those who need assistance most. The need for hospitals, clinics and respite homes for the victims and their parents, is overwhelming – many of the victims require 24 hour care and their elderly parents who are doing the caring also need help.

6) Disclose Locations of Agent Orange Sites

The U.S. government and all governments that have allowed the use of Agent Orange for any purpose during the Vietnam war years, should publicly disclose all the locations where Agent Orange was used, buried or dumped.

7) Partner with VAVA

The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin is the legal and moral representative of Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims and acts as a non-governmental organization representing the interests of these victims throughout Vietnam. To hear their voices and to help Vietnamese victims effectively and specifically, people of good will and compassion should partner with VAVA and assist it programatically and materially, contacting VAVA through its website.

NOW, fifty years since the first use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the delegates of the conference declare again that the needs of the victims are urgent, requiring immediate action! Half a century is too long to wait for justice!

We pledge to work together to make sure that justice delayed will no longer be justice denied!

New Vet Affairs House Chair Says: Look at VA Cost, Efficiencies and Privatization

Update: Dan Cedusky reports: The DAV Cap Wiz site indicates that Rep Miller has voted against veterans on nine key votes. "Not a good record ... we better watch him closely," said Cedusky.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (Rep-Fla) is a former real estate broker and deputy sheriff who is now the new chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

By Michael Leon

If you think the Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA or VA) and Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) have problems delivering benefits, Miller says that's because "unfortunately, the bureaucracy within VA has grown immune to having someone check their work." (Carlton Proctor, PNJ.com)

Miller's statement reflects a sentiment held by most veterans and advocates.

Another widespread belief is that Congress is bought and paid for; and many veterans are skeptical that change is coming at the VA, irrespective of significant gains in revised regulations that were garnered the last two years regarding Agent Orange and PTSD-related ailments and associated benefits.

Congress is not where change at the VA will begin, but Congress can make things worse.

Miller says he is concerned about the "cost" of newly appropriated tens of billions of dollars into the VA for improved benefits and health care.

"This is a huge government agency and there is a mindset within the agency that is hard to change. But I think we need to focus not only on delivery of services but the cost at which those services are being delivered to the veteran," said Miller. (Philpott)

Miller will be overseeing and not appropriating money and he says he is "more focused on helping to increase resources through efficiencies." (Philpott)

Is this Congress-speak for watch out veterans: We can fund war but not the people who fight them?

Miller, like almost all of Congress, is heavily financed by military-industrial interests. See Open Secrets where Health Professionals, Defense Electronics, Defense Aerospace and money figure prominently in Miller's Campaign committees.

So, the question arises will a new VA oversight chair ignore the Health industry money and military-industrial money and wage a campaign f0r more money for veterans when Rep. Miller's first published words are about costs and efficiencies?

One thing we do know is that Miller is a member in good standing of the J. Randy Forbes-Mike McIntyre Congressional Prayer Caucus. So, maybe a Hail Mary pass is doable if we all pray hard enough.

In an interview with journalist Carlton Proctor, PNJ.com, the following question and answer is published.

Q: The VA is the second-largest federal agency, with 300,000 employees and a $120 billion budget. Is that a sustainable cost going forward for the American taxpayer?

A: We have to find better ways to provide service and health care to the veteran community. I'm asking veteran service organizations to help me find ways to solve some of problems that exist financially in Washington. And I want to be an honest broker in this process, because, as a fiscal conservative, I have not been one who has voted to raise the amount of money to the extent that has been done.

Q: With growth of military population in the Panhandle, do you think there is a need to build a full-fledged VA hospital in the 1st Congressional
District?
...
Q: Are you suggesting a kind of "voucher system" that would allow veterans to use private health care systems?

A: Yes. With three hospitals we have in Pensacola, and the many others we have in the district, there is excellent health care that could be afforded to the veteran community if there was a way to allow them to have private health care in their home community.

Q: What is this 112th Congress doing, or going to do, to deal with spiraling health care costs?

A: One of the largest problems that exists today is that nobody is confronting the actual cost of providing the care. Some will say that they have
tried to make it more affordable, and that may be true, but that is with the federal government subsidizing the cost of that care. Again, the issues like tort reform, negotiating prices, all of these things have to be looked at to solve the issue.

Confronting costs and vouchers. Sounds French for privatization, underfunding veterans and pumping money into the health-care industry which funds Miller's campaign committees.

Let's hope I'm wrong.

The VA and Toxins: See No Evil, Cure No Evil

(via 91outcomes.com) - The military medical corps in the various branches have been responsible for some of the great leaps forward in treating battle injuries. The Veterans Administration has tried to match the treatment level provided at military hospitals with long term programs that over the years have met with varying degrees of success. But with the exception of battlefield gas, the military brass and the VA bureaucracy have chosen to act like ostriches over toxics exposure for nearly one hundred years. After every war it has taken years for the VA to acknowledge the impact of toxins in military environments and even longer for them to accept responsibility for treatment.

By Ben Stillwater, Freelance Writer, AsbestosNews.com

The Asbestos Epidemic

The 800,000 – plus lawsuits over asbestos exposure are old news today. But when World War II veterans, especially Navy veterans, began to develop mesothelioma and asbestosis thirty years after the war was over, the reaction from the military infrastructure was, “It wasn’t us.” It took the illness of tens of thousands of shipyard workers and Navy veterans who were exposed to asbestos insulation, asbestos sprays, asbestos gaskets, asbestos bearing packing, and the asbestos fabric used for fire protection to convince the VA that there was a problem. Between about 1930 and 1975 every Navy ship commissioned contained tons of asbestos insulation. The military bases and barracks built during that era contained flooring, roofing, ceiling tiles, insulation, joint compound, and cement that were laced with asbestos.

It can still be a challenge for veterans who have developed mesothelioma and who were exposed to asbestos during active duty, to prove to the VA that the exposure occurred during time of service. In the meantime thousands of critically ill veterans were denied treatment for a lethal form of cancer or for asbestosis, which is a progressive, non-curable, respiratory illness that slowly reduces breathing capacity. While most of those veterans are gone, the VA is still often reluctant to treat asbestos related illness as a service-related condition.

Agent Orange

The story of Agent Orange and its impact on Vietnam-era vets has played out on a public stage, with much more press coverage of and commentary on the issue than occurred with asbestos. For an interminable period of time veterans complained about various illnesses and the military command structure was resolute in denying any connection between the herbicides and veteran complaints. It’s been a very slow turn to the situation today, when the VA provides volumes of information on Agent Orange-related illnesses and health issues. The lawsuits started in 1979.

In 1983 as the result of a class action lawsuit, several chemical companies involved with the manufacture of Agent Orange set up a $180 million trust fund to pay damage claims filed by veterans who could claim “total disability” as the result of exposure to the herbicides. However the guidelines for claim recognition, the requirements for proof of illness and the window of opportunity for filing those claims led to fewer than 50,000 paid claims. The lawsuits have continued with no real civil restitution for the additional hundreds of thousands of veterans who may have been exposed, but the VA has slowly come to terms with the health damage that Agent Orange did to an entire generation of combat veterans. In 2003 the acknowledged link between Agent Orange and chronic lymphocytic leukemia; other diseases have followed.

Gulf War Syndrome

This generation’s battlefield poison has taken less time for recognition from the VA, but only because the number of impacted veterans is so high in relation to the number of men and women who served. As with Agent Orange, there is a collection of health problems that initially defied diagnosis as to cause. But the fact that those health problems exist is unmistakable; as this website notes over a third of the veterans who served have developed significant health problems.

The people who have gravitated to this website and certainly those who maintain it know much more about the Gulf-related health problems and their causes than we do. We can’t contribute to the body of knowledge on Gulf War Syndrome, but we can draw some parallels with previous wars, previous classes of veterans and previous responses from the military. In the case of all three wars, primary exposure to toxins was respiratory in nature. Protective measures were inadequate or nonexistent.

That’s not entirely a shortcoming of planning or logistics; in some cases such as with asbestos the danger was not widely acknowledged. What has been consistent, it seems, is the struggle to get VA recognition of and treatment for the health problems generated in these various war theaters. Sure, the health problems have been unusual, or difficult to link to a cause, but the conditions that veterans were exposed to were also unusual. Toxins cause all sorts of problems; multiple toxins cause multiple problems. Most recently the concern among Gulf War veterans has been the authorization of funds for research. A decade’s worth of tangible health problems should be a pretty good basis for clinical studies. Inertia in the VA has become an American military tradition.

Article Source:

Ben Stillwater is a freelance writer for Asbestos News, an information and news resource on the risks and dangers associated with high levels of asbestos exposure, and the related illnesses that arise from such exposure. Ben prepared this article for 91outcomes.com as a special service to Gulf War veterans.

Homeless Veterans Not "Details" to Retiring Dallas Dr.

- For Dr. Joel Feiner, homeless veterans are "not details" as some politicians say, they're human beings. Over the years, as many as 200 homeless veterans visited Dr. Joel Feiner's cluttered office at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center -

By Kim Horner at The Dallas Morning News — They came from cardboard boxes under bridges and from shelters.

They suffered from severe depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and addictions.



[Above photo by KHAMPHA BOUAPHANH - Dr. Joel Feiner, flanked by his wife, Dr. Gail Alexander, gets a hug from Helen Sorrells during a retirement party at the VA Medical Center in Dallas, where he was medical director of the Comprehensive Homeless Center. "]

One in five homeless people is a veteran, according to a count by the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. Dallas has an estimated 5,750 homeless residents on any given night – with more than 1,200 of them veterans.

And the outspoken, award-winning Dallas psychiatrist helped transform many of their lives.

Feiner recently retired as medical director of the VA's Comprehensive Homeless Center and as a professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, making for some tearful goodbyes.

Patients and mental health advocates credit him with changing the lives of people often written off as hopeless cases.

Terrence Lewis said he already misses his doctor. But he said that Feiner's lessons will always be with him.

"It's like he's a little conscience and he's guiding me," the 50-year-old Gulf War veteran said.

Lewis is recovering after spending 16 years on the streets because of depression, an anxiety disorder and an addiction to crack cocaine. He has been sober nearly three years.

At a June retirement event, Lewis spoke about the psychiatrist's emphasis on not treating patients as the "thems" of society. Instead, Feiner emphasized that patients are working as a team with mental health professionals.

"As one of the 'thems,' you really made me feel like a 'we,' " Lewis said.

Patient Juan Torres said he didn't have the words to thank Feiner. In fact, he was too emotional to say more.

"This man is truly a hero," Feiner said, and then he saluted Torres.

'Feinerisms'

Feiner came to Dallas in 1992 after treating patients and teaching at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He moved to Dallas to teach at UT Southwestern and run an inpatient program for people with mental illnesses and addictions.

The doctor with the New York accent and collection of aphorisms – called "Feinerisms" by some – became known as the psychiatrist who chatted with patients on his way out each night and who invited them to call him at home if needed. The program, Mental Health Connections, was lauded as a success.

Feiner drew praise and criticism when he fought further budget cuts in 1999. Texas ranks 49th in per capita spending for public mental health, and the poorly funded system still suffers from budget cuts.

Mental Health Connections closed in 2001 because of a lack of funding, to the dismay of many.

"There are people who spent 15 and 25 years in and out of state hospitals and jail until Dr. Feiner got a hold of them," said Janie Metzinger, public policy director of the local chapter of Mental Health America.

At the VA, Feiner served as medical director of a program with long-term treatment that included psychiatrists, psychologists, a dorm, transitional housing, job training and work programs.

Drawn to the margins

Feiner did not originally plan to become a psychiatrist to the homeless. The Yale undergrad originally set out to work with children.

But he took a different direction after traveling to Louisiana in 1965 with a civil rights group.

As a volunteer for the Medical Committee for Human Rights, he had to have a guard while assisting black patients who had been denied care, seeing the threats of the Ku Klux Klan firsthand.

"When I came home, I was changed," Feiner said. He became committed to working with people on the margins of society.

Since then, Feiner has trained generations of psychiatrists with his unique perspective.

"The part of him that's been unique is, he really has insisted on connecting with other people," said former student Dr. Kenneth S. Thompson, now medical director at the Center for Mental Health Services at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

'Quiet heroes'

Feiner is more humble about his influence, emphasizing that he was part of a team that included psychologists, nurses and other professionals.

He also noted that in handling some of the toughest cases, they didn't always succeed.

Feiner said he has worked with veterans who probably experienced post-traumatic stress disorder from abuse and abandonment long before they served their country. And some formed addictions as they looked to drugs and alcohol to relieve those symptoms.

Despite Feiner's emphasis on connecting, he and Gulf War vet Lewis got off to a rocky start.

Lewis said he approached Feiner one day asking for an evaluation so he could apply to become a peer counselor. He said Feiner snapped at him.

Lewis got mad. "I wanted to beat him up," he said.

Feiner, recalling the episode, said patients with addictions are used to quick fixes – and can have quick tempers when those are not available. But he did approach Lewis later and apologize.

"I gave him medication for the anxiety he experienced because of cocaine withdrawal. We started to meet regularly," Feiner said. "He continued and told me about his hopes and dreams."

Relieving Lewis' symptoms was only the beginning of his work, Feiner said.

Next, he focused on removing obstacles in the way of education and employment.

It was a long road, but Lewis now has his own apartment and a 4.0 grade-point average at El Centro College, where he studies speech communication. He teaches a children's Bible study and hopes to become a teacher – but he worries that his drug criminal record could hold him back.

Still, Lewis said he has never been happier.

"I was literally under a bridge in a cardboard box," he said. "I'm surprised I'm alive. It's really a miracle."

At his retirement party, Feiner said it's been his privilege to work with patients like Lewis.

"We have some very quiet heroes and heroines here – the veterans themselves," Feiner said. "Some have been clobbered by conditions they had, through no fault of their own. It's their ability to keep on that I am in awe of."

Shinseki Fights off Veterans' Enemy Sen. James Webb, Defends Agent Orange Benefits

- Watching C-SPAN 3's telecast of the hearing on VA Disability Compensation, Presumptive Disability Decision-Making by the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs is an illustration why no veteran or advocate in Virginia should consider voting for Sen. James Webb (Traitor-VA) -

This morning, while posturing as the earnest student of empirical investigation, Webb prefaced his hostile line of questioning of witness Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki saying Webb is concerned about protecting the "credibility of our [VA] programs."

I was hoping Shinseki would pull out a can of aerosol composed of dioxin [tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD)] and offer to spray it around the Committee room and see if anyone of the august senators had a presumptive problem with it.

Shinseki and the other witnesses responded politely and on-point, more than the Committee deserved.

"[This hearing] is also about the accuracy of the scientific process as it pertains to the Agent Orange and service in Vietnam. We have struggled with this now for more than 30 years," said Webb.

As if it to illustrate his point of concern about the recent Presumptive Agent Orange Disability rule, Webb asked his assistant to produce a chart (who is also a Marine Webb pointed out) showing that 431,699 additional Vietnam veterans would now be eligible for service-connected benefits because of the expanded Agent Orange VA rules.

You mean Vietnam Veteans will get diability benefits? Horrors.

This piece of wasted space named Sen. James Webb is up for reelection in 2012. Virginia should send him home to his fat military and Senate pensions.

Target: Veterans' Benefits; AP Is Leading Edge of Fight Against Veterans

- Paul Sullivan, executive director for the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense, said it would be unreasonable for veterans to have to prove on a case-by-case basis that their illness came from Agent Orange. He believes the science supports the decision by VA to grant presumptive benefits. -

"The presumptive law is absolutely essential," Sullivan said. "Money should not be an issue," emphasizing veterans file claims against VBA in order to obtain urgently needed and endlessly delayed VHA medical care.

The day after the AP hit piece on veterans' benefits comes another piece on Aging vets' costs concern Obama's deficit co-chair.

The question remains whether the veterans' community is going let Congress to slash veterans' disability benefits, a neocon policy priority for years:

By Mike Baker, Associated Press Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. — The system that automatically awards disability benefits to some veterans because of concerns about Agent Orange seems contrary to efforts to control federal spending, the Republican co-chairman of President Barack Obama's deficit commission said Tuesday.

Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson's comments came a day after The Associated Press reported that diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans, even though decades of research has failed to find more than a possible link between the defoliant Agent Orange and diabetes.

"The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess," said Simpson, an Army veteran who was once chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has also allowed Vietnam veterans to get money for ailments such as lung cancer and prostate cancer, and the agency finalized a proposal Tuesday to grant payments for heart disease — the nation's leading cause of death.

Simpson declined to say whether the issue would become part of his work on Obama's panel examining the nation's debt. He looked to Congress to make a change.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat who currently chairs the VA committee, said Tuesday he will address the broader issue of so-called presumptive conditions at a hearing previously set for Sept. 23. The committee will look to "see what changes Congress and VA may need to make to existing law and policy," Akaka said in an e-mail.

"It is our solemn responsibility to help veterans with disabilities suffered in their service to our country," said Akaka, who served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. "That responsibility also requires us to make sure limited resources are available for those who truly need and are entitled to them."

Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat and Vietnam combat veteran, has also raised questions about the spending. The leading Republican on the committee, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, has not responded to several requests for comment on the topic in recent months.

Chicago Trib Has Killer Series on Agent Orange

Tribune Watchdog Report on Agent Orange

Memories of the Vietnam War are dimming, but veterans and Vietnamese nationals who were exposed to Agent Orange and other dioxin-laced defoliants are still experiencing devastating health effects, and birth defects have brought the impact into a second generation. Yet the U.S. government has yet to make full amends, either in the U.S. or overseas. To report this series, the Tribune interviewed nearly two dozen civilians and former soldiers in Vietnam as well as researching thousands of pages of documents and traveling to the homes of veterans in the U.S.

Vietnam War Still Kills

This following piece was written in 1998.

In sum, Agents Orange, Blue, White, and Purple, suicide, PTSD and other ailments continue today to kill Vietnam-era veterans whe remain unpopular with those who advocate war, leaving others to clean up the human mess.

So the next time you hear the chickenhawks, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and other war cheerleaders explain that Vietnam was a long time ago, please think again.

[Pictured above is a troop who manages a laugh, no doubt thinking at some point 'we gotta get out of this place,' into which the country was lied and a generation shredded.]

Via Col. Dan Cedusky (Ret):

Memorandum: Accelerated Mortality Rates of Vietnam Veterans

by: S. Brian Willson

Introduction

During the early 1980s, while first living in Franklin County, Massachusetts, I became active with other Vietnam veterans in response to the myriad physical, psychological, and social problems we seemed to be experiencing. I was active in a local Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) chapter, and subsequently became director of the state-funded Western Massachusetts Agent Orange Information Project, and later, executive director of a veterans outreach center.

Through numerous conversations and formal interviews with hundreds of veterans I began to establish an empirical substantiation of the syndrome of problems that certainly is one of the tragic legacies of the Vietnam War (i.e., the war against the Vietnamese which the Vietnamese call "the American War"). Grasping the depth of the prevailing sense of shame, malaise, and deteriorating physical and mental health, I began to understand more deeply both the burden and incredible potential wisdom of the war, not just for veterans, but for the entire American society. Both the syndrome known as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), often delayed for a decade or more enabling the psyche time to integrate the horrible realities that the Vietnam experience possesses for many, and exposure to the most intensive application of chemical warfare in history by the Pentagon (in cahoots with seven chemical companies, including Monsanto and Dow), directly contributed to a myriad of symptoms, physical, emotional, and psychic. A pattern of extraordinary sickness and depression for this age group of young males (age 30-45 in 1984-85) is believed unprecedented in the United States.

Nineteen million gallons of Agents Orange, Blue, White, and Purple were sprayed over an area the size of Rhode Island and Massachusetts combined (over 6 million acres), applied up to 14 times the recommended domestic agricultural application rate. Subsequently, these chemicals have been banned in the U.S. due to their intense toxicity, being considered, perhaps, the most potent cancer-causing substance ever studied by the Environmental Protection Agency. It should be noted that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, based on studies conducted by the National Academy of Sciences ' Institute of Medicine, now presumes the following conditions as service-connected for Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides:

Chloracne (this is VA propaganda on this one)
Non-Hodgkin' s lymphoma
Soft tissue sarcoma
Hodgkin's disease
Porphyria cutanea tarda (this is VA propaganda on this one)
Multiple myeloma
Respiratory cancers (including cancers of the lung, larynx, trachea and bronchus)
Prostate cancer
Peripheral neuropathy (acute or subacute) (this is VA propaganda on this one)
Spina bifida in children of Vietnam veterans

Mortality Rates for Vietnam Veterans

There have been a number of representations and claims over the years that more Vietnam veterans have died from suicide since returning from the war than the 58,000-plus who died in the war. There is no certain way for determining precise data on veterans' suicides. My involvement with many physically and mentally troubled veterans, and search of "scientific" data about the subject of mortality rates of Vietnam veterans, produced the following information by mid-1986.

When first conversing with local veterans in rural Franklin County, Massachusetts in mid-1983, they informed me that there had been four suicides of local Vietnam veterans between 1981 and June 1983.

Phil Girard, in 1982 the Senior Vice President, Agent Orange Victims International, reported at a public meeting at Greenfield, Massachusetts Community College (April 17) that their organizational research indicated that "from the end of the war to 1981 there have been 109,000 veterans who have died."

An unpublished manuscript, Vietnam Veterans, by Tom Williams, University of Denver School of Professional Psychology, April 1979, concluded that "More Vietnam veterans have died since the war by their own hand than were actually killed in Vietnam."

Testimony presented to the Massachusetts Commission on the Concerns of Vietnam veterans in Greenfield, Massachusetts on May 4, 1982, declared that "Vietnam veterans have nationally averaged 28 suicides a day since 1975, amounting to over 70,000."
"Suicide rates 33% higher than the national average rate" were reported in The Forgotten Warrior Project by John P. Wilson, Cleveland State University, 1978. This definitive study was originally titled, Identity, Ideology and Crisis: The Vietnam Veteran in Transition.

A classified VA memo dated 6/30/82 identified a total of approximately 300,000 deaths occurring among Vietnam-era veterans from 1965-1981 calculated by adding together deaths in-service with an actuarial estimate of the number of Vietnam-era veterans who have died since returning to civilian life, a much higher figure than estimated by the VA in previous reports. Research conducted by the U.S. Center for Disease Control in the early 1980s had found a number of illnesses and suicides contributing to elevated death rates for Vietnam veterans than for non-veterans in the same age group.

An alarming disparity in official VA figures reporting a dramatic decrease in the estimated number of Vietnam Era Veterans in Civilian Life from September 30, 1981 to March 31, 1983, reveals a loss of 793,000 Vietnam-era veterans in that 18-month period. The disparity was never explained. I suggest four possible explanations: (1) changed, inconsistent, and/or mistaken reporting and estimation procedures; (2) a large emigration of Vietnam-era veterans out of the U.S.; (3) a high mortality rate for Vietnam-era veterans; or (4) a combination of any and/or all of the above explanations.

On Monday, January 28, 1985, the Massachusetts Agent Orange Program of the State Office of Commissioner of Veterans' Services released results of its study, Mortality Among Vietnam Veterans in Massachusetts, 1972-1983. The one-year study revealed that deaths due to suicides and motor vehicle accidents, along with kidney cancer, were "significantly elevated" among Vietnam veterans compared to non-veteran Massachusetts males for the study period 1972-1983.

A comprehensive research study by the University of California at San Francisco published in the March 6, 1986 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, titled "Delayed Effects of the Military Draft on Mortality," disclosed that Vietnam veterans were 86% more likely than non-veterans to die of suicide in the years after the war, and 53% more likely to die in traffic accidents. The researchers claim that this study of California and Pennsylvania men is the first to show a cause-and-effect relationship between military service during the Vietnam War and an unusual risk of suicide.

From Summer 1983 through Summer 1985 there were seven known additional suicides of Vietnam veterans in the Franklin-Hampshire County area of Massachusetts. Because one's veteran status is often not known at time of death, whether by suicide or other cause, and because suicides are often masked under causes listed as single-car accidents, drug or alcohol overdose, etc., actual deaths by suicide remain unknown. Other veterans whom I knew in the 1982-1985 time period died of alcohol and drug abuse.

A November 1, 1984 U.S. House Report 98-1167, Diversion of Funds from Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Counseling Program, by the Committee on Government Operations, concluded that "the suicide rate among Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD is high . . . not because of massive underlying neuroses, but as a result of the harsh treatment they received in Vietnam, and experiences upon returning to the U.S." Dr. Arnold, Chief of Psychiatry at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona at the time, and an acknowledged expert on PTSD, explained to the Committee that the VA's most recent statistics indicate that while Vietnam veterans make up only about 14% of the veterans they treat, Vietnam veterans constitute 30% of the suicides of all veterans treated by the VA, over-contributing substantially to the total number of suicides of patients who are treated by the VA.

Conclusion

There is no certain way of knowing how many Vietnam veterans have died through suicide, motor vehicle "accidents," or illnesses. The available evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, however, suggests elevated mortality rates from suicides, motor vehicle accidents, and certain cancers for Vietnam veterans. In some cases the data suggests mortality rates are "significantly elevated."

My comments: (from my book)
From Doctor Cate Jenkins, a PHD, and toxicology expert, with our Environmental Protection Agency:(69) (See Chapter 4 for Dr. Jenkins’ “stalwart efforts” in our toxic chemical issue.)

“The controlling majority of the VACEH, in making its recommendations to compensate Vietnam veterans for peripheral neuropathy, neglected to evaluate Dioxin's central nervous system (CNS) effects. Because the available evidence for CNS damage by Dioxin outweighs that for peripheral nervous system (PNS) among Vietnam veterans, and because of the inseparable relationship between the biological mechanism by which dioxin exerts both CNS and PNS effects, this failure of the VACEH is indefensible.”

The CNS consists of the neurological apparatus of the brain and spinal cord (including motor neurons), while the peripheral nervous system (PNS) consists of those nerves in the extremities of the body (arms, legs, etc.). Peripheral neuropathies are one result of damage to the PNS.

“Central nervous system damage by fat-soluble (lipophilic) neurotoxicants such as dioxin has always been found to accompany, and usually precede, any peripheral nervous system (PNS) damage such as peripheral neuropathy. The prestigious International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded as early as 1977 that human CNS damage was associated with dioxin exposures. In 1986, the IARC clearly restated it’s finding that dioxin was associated with peripheral neuropathies and personality changes, a neuropsychological consequence of CNS damage (IARC, 1986). Since the IARC evaluations, many new epidemiological investigations have established an even stronger casual relationship between dioxin and CNS damage.

“Neurotoxic substances may exert their effects by several mechanisms (Anthony and Graham, 1991). Chemical attack of whole nerve cell structures may result in cell injury or death (neuropathy) .

“Chemical attack may be specifically on the axon (long nerve fiber) (axonopathy) , or the myelin sheath of the axon (myelinopathy) . Neurotoxicants may also damage, or alter the neurotransmitter system, damage the glial cells that support the primary neurons, or damage the blood vessels supplying the nervous system.”

“The OTA found that degeneration of the axon (axonopathy) is one of the most frequently determined neurological effects from neurotoxic chemicals (OTA, 1990). If the axon of a nerve cell dies back, it no longer reaches the next nerve cell, muscle, etc., and cannot transmit any message. Because the longer axons have more targets (larger surface area) for toxic damage, it is predicted that the longer axons found in CNS are more effected by neurotoxicants (Anthony and Graham, 1991), assuming the neurotoxicants is sufficiently lipophilic to cross the blood-brain barrier.

“Although the mechanisms by which dioxin exert its neurotoxic effects, have yet to be fully elucidated, the CNS effects are consistent with destruction of the nerve axons (axonopathy) . Because of the extreme toxicity of dioxin and the wide range of biological affects, however, the mechanisms of dioxin's neurotoxicity may not be limited to axonopathies. The hypothesis that dioxin damages the CNS and PNS by destruction of axons is supported by the similarity of the neurological symptoms caused by dioxin and many other lipophilic neurotoxicants causing both CNS and PNS axonopathies, including carbon disulfide, hexane, methyl n-butyl ketone, trichloroethylene, polybrominated biphenyls, and polychlorinated biphenyls (Anthony and Graham, 1991).

“Lipophilic toxicants such as dioxin are able to cross the blood-brain barrier to affect the CNS. In addition, since the brain is 50 percent lipid (dry weight), compared to 6 to 20 percent lipid in other organs (OTA, 1990), the brain may be particularly vulnerable to accumulating dioxin into its fat content. Nervous system tissue itself, with its high lipid content, will also act as a selective repository for dioxin. In addition, the low elimination rate of dioxin from the body will contribute to its ability to reach equilibrium concentrations in lipid-rich nervous system tissues.

”Neuropsychological damage may be one of the most significant consequences of exposure to Agent Orange. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA, 1990) concluded that neurotoxic chemicals play a significant casual role in development of psychiatric as well as neurological disorders. Even minor changes in the structure or function of the nervous system were found to have profound consequences for behavioral and other neurological functions.

“The OTA found that neurotoxic chemicals could cause or exacerbate anxiety, depression, mania, and psychosis.”

These symptoms are very close to what the government is calling PTSD and may serve to amplify any combat related experiences that normally would have been regressed.

“In addition to the biological basis for the involvement of the CNS whenever PNS damage is produced by a lipophilic neurotoxicant, there are also numerous epidemiological investigations to support the casual relationship between dioxin and CNS effects. CNS effects observed in dioxin-exposed populations include depression, anxiety, suicide, decreased cognitive function, fatigue, and poor coordination.”

Again, some of these symptoms are close to what the government calls PTSD. In addition, notice the fatigue, poor coordination, and decreased cognitive functions. These symptoms can be associated with degenerative neurological disorders.

“The most severe neuropsychological consequence of dioxin exposure is excessive suicides, which has been demonstrated among exposed Vietnam Veterans, chemical production workers in the U.S. and European countries, forestry workers, and railroad workers. Another severe consequence is the excessive death rate from accidents found among the dioxin-exposed chemical production workers and Vietnam Veterans, representing either motor neuron malfunction or suicide in disguise.

“In 1977, the Working Group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer found that neurological and behavioral changes were among the most frequently reported effects in studies of exposures to 2,4,5-T (IARC, 1977a). IARC identified 6 out of 7 different populations occupationally exposed to chlorinated phenolic compounds where neuropsychological symptoms such as neurasthenic or depressive syndromes were established (IARC, 1977b). IARC noted that PNS damage was also found in the same 6 dioxin-exposed populations, including polyneuropathies, lower extremity weakness, and sensorial impairments (sight, hearing, smell, taste). In 1986, the IARC clearly restated it’s finding that dioxin had been found to be associated with peripheral neuropathies and personality changes (IARC, 1986).

“The evidence from the 1990 Ranch Hand study (Thomas, et al., 1990) is particularly compelling in demonstrating CNS damage from Agent Orange exposure.

“Significant psychological deficits were found among Ranch Hand veterans in several subscales in a battery of psychological tests. In contrast, none of the typical dioxin-related psychological deficits were ever found in statistical excess among matched controls. Ranch Hand Veterans experienced a statistically significant excess of great or disabling fatigue during the day, a condition found among many other populations exposed to dioxin.

“Borderline statistically significant verified psychological disorders were found for the category "other neuroses. A series of tests found a borderline statistically significant excess of Ranch Hands experienced depression, somatization, and the severity of psychological distress. Antisocial and paranoid scores for the Ranch Hands were significantly higher, and the psychotic delusion score was marginally significantly higher for Ranch Hands.

“CNS effects, other than neuropsychological deficits, were also found among Ranch Hand veterans (Thomas, et al., 1990). When Ranch Hand veterans or controls that had known past exposures to insecticides were excluded from one analysis (so that neurological findings could be attributed solely to Agent Orange), Ranch Hand veterans exhibited significantly elevated relative risk for cranial nerve dysfunction. Analyses disclosed marginally more balance/Romberg sign (standing without swaying when eyes closed and feet together) and coordination abnormalities for Ranch Hand veterans.

“The VA proposed exclusion of peripheral neuropathies that only become evident 10 or more years after service in Vietnam, on the assumption that such a neuropathy could not be associated with Agent Orange exposure, due to the long interval from exposure.

“This assumption contradicts the findings of the OTA, which found that neurological damage is not always detectable clinically, or noticeable by, the sufferer after exposure to a neurotoxic substance such as dioxin. As time progresses or old age approaches, the rate of natural neuronal cell death accelerates, and the results of earlier neurological damage may first become evident, or unmasked (OTA, 1990). The availability of alternate neuronal pathways is reduced, which were formerly responsible for compensating for earlier toxic damage. The OTA specifically noted the importance of research showing the possibility that neurotoxic substances were important in Alzheimer's disease, the degenerative brain disease of old age.”

Here we have in 1990 the Ranch Handers, noncombatants that were primarily skin exposed, experiencing statically significant excess in - psychological disorders of depression, somatization, and severity of psychological distress. Antisocial and paranoid scores were significantly higher along with psychotic delusion.

How many of you doctors could actually tell the difference in what the government is calling PTSD and toxic chemical induced neuropsychological disorders? Be honest. How many of you doctors were aware of these toxic chemical findings?
President Clinton in 1996 as a “friend of the Veterans” announced the addition of “acute neuropathy” to our Agent Orange List. By the time the VA got through with it, this addition was now acute and sub-acute transient peripheral neuropathy, limited by a one-year removal from Vietnam, and then cured within an additional two years. At the time Doctor Jenkins was reviewing this neuropathy implementation the VA was proposing a 10-year time limit. It ended up with an even more ridiculous one-year time limit.

Perhaps the Secretary of the VA and members of NAS/IOM can tell my “three board certified neurologists” and the “75 other board certified neurologists,” just how to cure this polyneuropathy within two years or cure it at all. It seems that none of our neurological specialists know how this is accomplished. Even those neurologists who were previously head of neurology at a major research hospital do not seem to grasp this VA and NAS/IOM simple solution to our nerve damages.

At the same time President Clinton was trying to add this condition, the VA was undermining him with the additions and manipulations that in effect allowed very few to actually qualify for this new addition. What seemed like a good faith gesture on the part then President Clinton ended up doing practically nothing for Vietnam veterans.

I urge you to continue and read for yourself if neuropathy is a one-year disease, a ten-year disease, or if it can develop at any time in ones life depending on what underlying dioxin causation you develop. In addition, decide if it is indeed curable as the VA claims. If it is indeed curable, then we have a lot of “dumb doctors” in this country who are mistreating our Veterans.