Gulf War Syndrome - MOD gives in after 16 years
Friday, 12 October 2007, was a landmark date for Veterans of the first Gulf War suffering from Gulf War Syndrome, wherever they are in the world..
Defence Minister Lord Drayson said today that the Ministry of Defence(MOD)had not handled this issue well from the beginning.
He said : "The department was slow to recognise the emerging ill- health issues and to put measures in place to address them. We have apologised for this and I repeat that apology today."
This is a staggering climbdown by the MOD which had insisted for 16 years that Gulf War Syndrome did not exist. This is a fundamental part of what is The Gulf Conspiracy.
The MOD had previously taken the stance that the gulf war illnesses were too varied to be called Gulf War Syndrome. This announcement today knocks that assertion on the head and furthermore ratifies 1 of the 3 R's, namely Realisation, Recompensation, Recommendation of the independent inquiry into Gulf War Illness carried out by Lord Lloyd of Berwick. This independent inquiry reported in November 2004, and since then, the Government has paid lip service to The Lloyd Report.
At the start of this year, in January 2007, wartime forces sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn branded the "endless" legal wrangling over payments to veterans of the first Gulf War a scandal.
On 8 May 2007, a poll of 121 MPs from all parties found that more than 70 per cent thought that the Government’s actions towards ex-Service people suffering from Gulf War Illnesses had been very poor or inadequate.
Dr Blockbuster has been calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to implement the recommendations of The Lloyd Report and clearly this is the FIRST POSITIVE STEP in that direction.
Defence Minister Lord Drayson said the MOD had written to veterans to tell them they can use the label Gulf War Syndrome and that the MOD are now working with experts to develop a rehabilitation programme.
We shall follow the development of this rehabilitation programme closely but the Governemt could best put money where it's mouth is by following the recommendations of The Lloyd Report and RECOMPENSING VETERANS
Lord Craig had this concise summary in The Lloyd Report in November 2004:
Lord Craig (Lord Craig of Radley, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Chief of the Defence Staff throughout the Gulf War) said that the absence of closure after so many years was now indefensible. “A little magnanimity” was called for, and an “imaginative one-off approach”.
Both in the US and UK, there are billions of dollars going into research into the causes of Gulf War Syndrome after 16 years. I read again and again the words of politicians and some so-called experts denying that Gulf War Syndrome exists because the soldiers exhibit different symptoms. I heard this again from the Veterans Affairs Committee again last week
After 16 years can those people read these words: The vaccinations were the greatest contributing factor (note: greatest not only) to Gulf War Syndrome. Why the soldiers exhibited different symptoms was because their immune systems had been weakened / damaged. Gulf War Syndrome is akin to Aids. No one dies from aids, their immune sytems are "shot" and they die from whatever disease/virus etc they meet because the body has no defence mechanism. You can read some of the control group back up here
What the Veternas need is not vast sums spent on further research, but compensation and total medical care, at no cost. Is that such a big ask? Is it?
Dr Blockbuster is on a film mission to disseminate the news and flush out this gulf conspiracy, and I applaud the work of Meryl Nass MD working tirelessly for Veterans.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Why not help Todd Sanders here
2.You, please, can keep the pressure up on Gordon Brown to implement "Lloyd" by signing
THIS PETITION ON GULF WAR SYNDROME
3. Forward The Petition link to 5 people in your address book.
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