December 31, 2002 14:35

Will The U.S. News Media Wake Up?

By Robert L. McMahon

After months of silence and inattention, the mainstream U.S. news media has finally begun paying attention to the critical health issues surrounding a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq - a subject that we at SFTT.org have been warning about throughout the year just passing.

It is a welcome - if belated - development.

Reporter Scott Peterson of The Christian Science Monitor wrote an informative article on Dec. 20, 2002, concerning the health threat from depleted uranium (DU) munitions fired during Gulf War I 11 years ago ("A Silver Bullet's Toxic Legacy").

Then, three days later on Dec. 23, 2002, Cable News Network and other publications picked up an Associated Press report aired examining the impact of Sarin exposure on our troops during Gulf War I ("Research: Low Doses of Sarin May Have Long-term Effects").

And just this week, Reporter Richard Leiby of The Washington Post had a detailed and informative article on Dec. 30, 2002, "The Fallout of War," that not only discussed in heart-wrenching detail the ailments suffered by Gulf War I veterans but noted - for the first time in a major national newspaper - the paradoxical health statistics that the 1991 war generated.

Leiby interviewed Steve Robinson of The National Gulf War Resource Center and examined in detail Robinson's analysis of U.S. government health statistics:

In his view, the numbers demolish the notion of a clean or easy Gulf War I victory:

* Estimated Gulf War I veterans: 573,000;

* Number who have proved, to the satisfaction of government doctors, that they had a service-related medical problem: 160,000.

This comes to nearly 28 percent - a rate of approved medical disability claims exceeding those of World War II (6.6 percent), Korea (5 percent) and Vietnam (9.6 percent).

For too long, the mainstream news media has been asleep at the wheel regarding these issues, and one would think that if anybody who wanted to make a case against rushing into a war with Iraq would rush to analyze the tragic aftermath of the first Gulf War.

As president of SFTT.org, I wrote a letter to several major newspapers and network news organizations on Dec. 26, 2002:

"For the coverage this debate has received the newspapers, magazines and television journalists alike have been largely asleep regarding one glaring statistic from the first Gulf War: Our DoD and Veterans Affairs departments are paying out medical disability payments to 159,238 Gulf War veterans. Have all of you not seen this glaring paradox?

"Gulf War I has been hailed as a great victory and success because our military performed spectacularly. The generals leading the effort were former company commanders and lieutenants during Vietnam, and seemed to have learned the lesson of overwhelming power and resolve. They kept American casualties to a minimum, or so everyone thought."

One could suppose that this may be attributable to the downward spiral in math skills as a whole within the last 30 years, but even a 5th grader can grasp the absurd numbers Gulf War I generated: 100 hours of a ground campaign, 148 Americans KIA, 467 wounded, over 32,000 combat air sorties were flown, and we had over 690,000 U.S. troops in the region.

Yet, if we only had 467 wounded, why is the VA paying disability claims to 159,238 veterans of that war? Could it be the 320 tons of depleted uranium (DU) dust that littered the battlefield? Could it be our own carelessness in disposing of some of Saddam's chemical weapons? Maybe the rushed-to-market vaccines we gave to over 100,000 troops?

My letter continued:

"We here at SFTT are doing this part-time, have no budget of consequence, no Pulitzer Prize or Emmy-winning journalists on staff and no network roundtable with which to dazzle a TV viewing audience. The only thing we have is a fire in the belly passion about issues that will have direct consequences for our men and women in uniform should they be placed in war's indiscriminate and dispassionate crosshairs."

Our message to the national media is this: There are 159,238 veterans out there from Gulf War I who are afflicted by "something" that happened to them as a result of their service. How about asking a few questions? Maybe the parents and spouses of the troops preparing for Iraq would like to know what sort of a battlefield on which their loved ones may fight. They deserve to know that the Iraqi Republicans Guard will probably not be the most insidious enemy they will face.

Robert L. McMahon is President of the Soldiers for the Truth Foundation. He can be reached at rmcmahon1@rcn.com