Full Version: 150,000 Disabled Gulf War Vets?
I am having a night. A water pipe burst, my back is out, and my 1 year-old refuses to sleep. I have been watching late late night television and I must admit I saw an infomercial that made me think of buying something. In short (I know too late) my judgment may be horrifically off, but I saw our local conservative radio guy on local TV this Am and he had an ex-military guest (Colonel somebody) who questioned why we do not pay more attention to what he called the real costs of the Gulf War.
Are his numbers horribly skewed? Do they include numbers that distort the total figure of casualties? I mean if we took two million people today and had them live normal lives, would their disabilities be high in ten years?
Anyway. These to links frighten me. One because of its assertions. The other because of the details. Soldiers for the Truth
The Fallout of War
By Richard Leiby
This article has a high estimate of 573,000
The approved rate of disability claims (160,000) from the war so far is almost 28% compared with a high of 9.6 from the Vietnam War.
Thoughts? Comments?
Are his numbers horribly skewed? Do they include numbers that distort the total figure of casualties? I mean if we took two million people today and had them live normal lives, would their disabilities be high in ten years?
Anyway. These to links frighten me. One because of its assertions. The other because of the details. Soldiers for the Truth
The Fallout of War
By Richard Leiby
This article has a high estimate of 573,000
The approved rate of disability claims (160,000) from the war so far is almost 28% compared with a high of 9.6 from the Vietnam War.
Thoughts? Comments?
Unless I am totally missunderstanding this (which is a distinct possibility 
) I think they are referring to Gulf War Syndrome - which has been in many cases disabling to those that suffer.
The latest thing I saw was, I think it was in US News and World Report, that there is some thought that there were whiffs of Seron gas around the battlefield. Whether this was a result of Saddam's purposefully doing this (he does have a history of using gas) - or as a result of bombing of places where the gas was stored, is unresolved.
But to the vet so affected, where it came from is immaterial. I don't think this has been killed with silence, I have seen quite a bit of material on it but I think no one knows for sure the cause.
Sorry to hear about your bad night. Having a one year old - yes, I remember that
) I think they are referring to Gulf War Syndrome - which has been in many cases disabling to those that suffer.The latest thing I saw was, I think it was in US News and World Report, that there is some thought that there were whiffs of Seron gas around the battlefield. Whether this was a result of Saddam's purposefully doing this (he does have a history of using gas) - or as a result of bombing of places where the gas was stored, is unresolved.
But to the vet so affected, where it came from is immaterial. I don't think this has been killed with silence, I have seen quite a bit of material on it but I think no one knows for sure the cause.
Sorry to hear about your bad night. Having a one year old - yes, I remember that
I thought this one would spark some debate. 
The point that this figure shows to me is that we underestimate the cost of the last war by citing the extremely low casualty number during combat. And this does not take into account that morale should be improved this time and we would have to take on the Republican Guard in urban fighting.
The point that this figure shows to me is that we underestimate the cost of the last war by citing the extremely low casualty number during combat. And this does not take into account that morale should be improved this time and we would have to take on the Republican Guard in urban fighting.
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