“I always knew something over there caused this,
And now, they can’t deny it.”
A Gulf War Veteran
They were called ‘a bunch of whiners’
They were all told they were ‘crazy’
They have waited seventeen long years
A new report says they’re sick, not lazy
After enduring seventeen extremely long years of illness
From fatigue, to joint pain, to rashes, to sweats in the night
Finally, a new report from a Research Advisory Committee
Says that these long suffering United States veterans are right
This new 450-page report was very recently released
Citing new evidence that ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ is real
Over 200,000 of our United States Gulf War veterans
Can now fight their disability claim denials, and appeal
This newly published report on Gulf War Illness
Points to evidence that strongly and consistently
Links anti-nerve gas medications and pesticides
These former soldiers were exposed to overseas
But they still now face an already overburdened VA bureaucracy
Which is woefully behind in processing so many claims from Iraq
Our new leadership in Washington must now somehow address this
Or soon, who will want to defend us, if our nation comes under attack
Finally, this week — after enduring 17 long years of baffling and incurable ailments that they blamed on exposure to nasty chemicals and untested anti-nerve-gas agents— our veterans of the Persian Gulf War were finally vindicated.
Veterans of Operation Desert Storm can now finally feel justified after a congressionally mandated panel this week announced that the mysterious and often maligned ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ is in fact, a legitimate medical condition. This panel concluded the syndrome is most likely associated with a combination of anti-nerve-gas pills and exposure to pesticides. Exposure to nerve agents, smoke from oil well fires, vaccines, and other neuro-toxic agents may also have contributed.
This new 450-page report from the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses points to evidence that "strongly and consistently indicates" that a combination of anti-nerve-gas medicine — pyridostigmine bromide pills — and toxic pesticides used to ward off desert insects — permethrin and DEET — are linked to Gulf War Syndrome.
This new report now finally supports the estimated 210,000 soldiers who have endured a variety of unexplained ailments after their tours of duty in the Gulf ended: fatigue, headaches, joint pain, rashes, breathing difficulty, forgetfulness, circulation problems, and cardiac troubles.
But this new support for them also comes as waves of thousands of injured Iraq war soldiers are already flooding Veterans Affairs hospitals with traumatic brain injuries, missing limbs, and claims of PTSD.
The Research Advisory Committee recommended that the "highest priority be given to research directed at identifying beneficial treatments for Gulf War illness." To date, no cure has been found, their symptoms persist, and medical treatment consists of only relieving their symptoms.
Regardless of what happens next, the many valiant soldiers who were derided or rebuffed all these years after insisting that their maladies stemmed from their time in the Persian Gulf finally now have new support for their arguments.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has, of course, already declined to discuss this new report. And funding for research into the treatment of their many illnesses has been cut over the last eight years.
But I sincerely hope that the new Administration will consider this one of their many priorities, as it soon takes over a government bureaucracy, and an entire nation, in such dire straits today.
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Thanks for posting this.
CarolHawks
Be always safe,
Karen
timely information, well done
Newfie Hugs, Rose
It is very distasteful for anyone to label another "a whiner".
Those who sit at home and had not gone to wars have no idea how it could affect soldiers emotionally. Soldiers who had gone to wars to defend their own countries should not even have to prove anything to the public. The self-sacrifices said enough volumes of their heart and souls. It is sad to find that they are not being appreciated and supported by the government in a way that they so deserve, and why do they have to prove anything at all? Has anyone gone to wars and know the agonies that the soldiers felt?
Sandie Angel :o(
An eye-opening poem - well said and finely penned!!
Best regards,
Lance
Love,
Tiger Lily
Georg
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tx., Karen Lynn. :( >tears! <
Bless you for writing this Ed! Jasmin Horst
Fee
I hope they are not forgotten,
stan
Walt
larry
(((HUGS))) and love, Karla. :(
You are an Eagle Eye for sure.
Much peace, love, and light,
Amber "V"