http://thedailylight.com/articles/2007/09/07/dailylight/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter2.txtTo the Editor,
The mistreatment and betrayal of our Iraq and Gulf War veterans know no boundaries. I have written about how the VA is no longer reporting cancer cases to registries. Today, I’d like to focus on the effect of depleted uranium on the unborn babies, spouses and fertility of Iraq War and Gulf War veterans. Army Pamphlet 700-XX was written in 1995 as a part of a 12-hour course to warn of the dangers of DU exposure. This was replaced with Training Support Package TA-031-DUAT-001, which condensed this training to 20 minutes and greatly minimized the effects of depleted uranium. The results of this deception are — of the 697,000 troops who served in Gulf War 1 nearly half have filed claims with the VA, with a 40,000 backlog. You can imagine, with more than 1 million troops having rotated through Iraq — as well as private contractors —the medical nightmare that looms.
My focus today, however, is the horrific birth defects that torment the babies of veterans of this war. The circumstances of veterans of Gulf War 1 and Operation Iraqi Freedom are similar, with the exception of the multiple deployments our troops see today. Reporting of health concerns of our troops are non-existent, although more than 26,000 have been evacuated for non-combat illnesses. Children of Gulf War vets have twice the number of chromosomal birth defects as the general population — particularly agenesis of the kidneys and spina bifida. They have three times the number of heart defects. They are born with brain tumors and develop leukemia soon after birth. Gulf War vets are three times as likely to have a baby with Goldenhar’s syndrome, in which only half of the face develops. Male veterans report three times the national average of stillborn and miscarried babies. Depleted uranium settles in the sperm cells and can stay there for years.
An anecdotal study done by a survey of 10,051 ill veterans performed by Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm Association found that 51 percent of spouses were ill and 22 percent of children. Since Gulf War Syndrome may take from two to five years to appear due to the nature of exposure to depleted uranium, most of these families are not covered by the VA/DoD health insurance. Since the VA/DoD has made every effort to suppress and cherry-pick its research, we may never know the true extent of the harm of exposure to depleted uranium or the various vaccines that our soldiers are exposed to. Please write your Congress members and request they reinstate research into the health effects of this illegal war.
for my friend,Monkeyman.
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