Gulf War Syndrome stats withheld

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

--- JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> >- --- jbrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> >> Roughly 110,000 Gulf War vets are registered with
> >> the VA and DoD for Gulf War illness--the gov't
> >> admits about 25,000 are sick.  I haven't seen
> >> a peep about this from the left.
> >
> >Yoshie:
> >Then, you haven't watched _Hidden Wars of Desert
> >Storm_ (Dir. Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy)
> 
> Yes, there's a lot of good stuff out there on Gulf
> War Syndrome, as well as 
> plenty that's questionable.  I meant that the
> anti-war movement is not using 
> U.S. casualties in the last war as an argument
> against a new all-out war with 
> Iraq.  In other words, we're letting the myth of the
> 'war without U.S. 
> casualties' stand.

I disagree.  The Gulf War Syndrome studies (of various
qualities, as you note) have been out there and made
use of by activists against the sanction and the
proposed war on Iraq.  If you do see a shortcoming in
this regard around you in your town or among the
activists you know, however, it's up to you to take an
initiative in correcting the problem.  You, being in
the Labor Party, are rather well placed to begin
making the correction soon, among one segment of
activists.  Bring it up at the convention!  


> Of course, if the main cause is depleted uranium
> weaponry, these people would 
> be victims of what the military calls 'friendly
> fire.'  Guess they're not 
> referring to the class war.

I'm not sure if I get your drift here.  In my opinion,
that war affects poorer workers -- disproportionately
of color in the USA -- more harshly than the better
off has been a staple of anti-war and anti-imperialist
arguments, as it is poorer workers who join the
military and become foot soldiers (rather than career
officers).

Yoshie

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! News - Today's headlines
http://news.yahoo.com