Jemison told me there are even wilder numbers in circulation, "numbers that we not only can't corroborate, but can't even figure out the source for." He cited the case of reserve Air Force nurse Cpt. Joyce Riley, director of the American Gulf War Veterans Association, who says she contracted GWS from her patients. She made a speech saying 10,000 to 12,000 Persian Gulf vets have now died. Her speech has since been posted on the Internet. She also says that the U.S. government invented not only the biological weapons that cause GWS but the AIDS virus as well.
For the Gulf vets, rumor is often their reality. Thus two months before this article even appeared, activists were calling vets and telling them not only that it had appeared but providing allegedly exact quotes. Brian Martin called to berate me for having written that despite his claims of being sick he was able to mow his lawn. "That's bullshit," he said. Yes, more so than he knew. In late December, I debated Denise Nichols on a Denver talk show. She said Christian Toulious was very upset with me for having "twisted" his words around. Yet the first time I ever quoted Toulious is in the article you're reading, which had just gone into galleys the day before. The only Toulious quotes it contained coincidentally related to Denise Nichols and consisted of "She's great," and "She's awesome!" I wonder which quote she thinks is twisted?
I later called Toulious, who confirmed he had heard my article had appeared and had misquoted him. He apologized for having been angry at me and says that he's now become utterly exasperated with the rumor mill. "I just have two words for all these people," he said. "Prove it." Wise words, indeed.
Post Gulf, Ergo Propter Gulf
Much of what drives the GWS myth is the simplest of fallacies: that if something happens after a given event, it must have been caused by that event. The GWS fallacy works like this: The vets were obviously healthy when they went to the Gulf, or they wouldn't have been sent. Now they're sick. Therefore it must have been something in the Gulf that made them ill.
Appearing on Nightline, Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) invoked the fallacy repeatedly with such statements as: "They were totally healthy when they went over to the Persian Gulf. No problems whatsoever. They come back and all of the sudden their children are [born] defective, they can't have children, or they [the children] die."
So what happened to these vets? It depends not just on whom you ask, but what day you happened to ask them. Consider just the headlines from some of the stories authored or co-authored by Hanchette:
"Experimental Drugs on Gulf Troops Rapped by Panel"
"Key to Gulf War Syndrome May Be Flies"
"Doctor Says Gulf Illnesses Stem from Vaccines"
"CIA Document: Scud Fuel May Be Involved in Gulf War Illnesses"
"U.N. Intelligence Representatives Show Iraq Could Have Spread Deadly Aflatoxin"
Just can't make up our minds, can we? It's not uncommon for a vet or activist or reporter to insist that one thing is absolutely, definitely the cause of GWS, and later to insist that something else is absolutely, definitely the cause. Sometimes the media or activists will even use a sort of shotgun approach.
Nightline's GWS show in October, which left no doubt that GWS was both real and spreading, first indicated the cause was nerve gas. That nerve gas symptoms couldn't possibly spread from person to person was apparently considered inconsequential. The Nightline reporter then proceeded to blame pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills the vets had taken. Then it was exposure to fumes from oil wells. Again, neither of these could possibly cause symptoms that are communicable, but that too seemed not to matter.
Vets and their families will often be influenced by these shifting fads, as in the case of Michael Adcock, the Persian Gulf vet who died of cancer. In May 1993, the fad cause of GWS was multiple chemical sensitivity, and that month Adcock's mother, Hester, told The Washington Times, "Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I believe Michael died of multiple chemical exposure" in the Gulf. She cited oil well fires, fresh paint on vehicles, and lead in the diesel fuel used in lanterns and heaters. Six months later the fad cause of GWS was nerve gas, and Mrs. Adcock testified before Congress, doubtless sincerely, that her son's disease was from nerve gas released by a Scud missile the day before his first symptom of lymphoma appeared.
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|8.12.10 @ 4:30PM|#
Twenty years have come and gone now since the 2nd August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by neighboring Iraqi Forces.
Despite the colossal scale of the mystery illness sustained by coalition forces we are no nearer to any definitive answers on the cause, this situation is disgraceful in this day and age and automatic denials by American and British Governments on this subject matter can only point to the existence of a international cover up.
nfl jerseys|11.16.10 @ 3:42AM|#
fcctet
|6.14.11 @ 11:16PM|#
HI just so you know.. My Daughter was born in Germany,, Her Father did not go over there.. Thank God. Would have been worse I am sure.But he did receive the Shots.. He wanted to go so bad..God Love him. My Husband Never Puked Green stuff. NOpe and He can't even defend or deny this because he is DEAD!!! Died just four years after the Gulf War.. How he died matters not.Mr Reporter.,Cause you,, Some Or All would just say Yeah Right natural Causes.. BUT know this. I did puke up Bright Green stuff once while over there.. Only it was because my Appendix was about to rupture.. I was 3 1/2 months pregnant at the time for our fourth child. NOw you can sit there and Say your BULL Mr.reporter.. I have already forgot your name.. But my daughter was born with not just one but two birth defects..She was a very sick baby and has had several Surgeries... NOW I say. Did she imagine this.. Is she faking.. Well why don't you talk to her Doctors and find out.. Her ailments continue.. Recently she just had to have a Mass removed from her left breast. Not cancer the Doctors say. Thank God...But she is to continue her breast exams and contact as soon as another appears.. Why should a 18 year old Teen have to do this.. Tell me sir. And was it my imagination that my little angel as sick as she is.. Was what do you care.. Was the healthiest baby out of 8 other women I met while being with my husband in Germany. Very Sick..One and Half pound babies or sometimes the baby did not make it. Tell me did we imagine that. My daughter was lucky she was born with all her limbs.. She has one that is missing but that was internal. Yeah she is working towards being a Healthier adult now then when she was a child. And yet I must worry every time the phone rings and It says Children's Hosp on the caller ID.. You can all live in denial.. And I will live in my imaginary world.. Where Just six months after my husbands death I had to take my precious baby girl to her first operation.. Where I walked the floor worrying I was going to loose my Baby girl after just loosing my husband... Where I saw the Fear in my daughters eyes when she came out of the recovery room.. and she asked am I dead now like my Daddy.. Yeah I am imagining all these things.. YOu know the funny part. My husband never believed in the Gulf War illness either. Well Now he is no longer here to care.. Sometimes I wish I was not either.. Cause I sure miss him.. He was an innocent just like his daughter only her Gave his Life to his Country Only not in battle.. And you and others Well who cares right. Tell me can you give me one bit of scientific evidence that proves my daughters birth defects are genetics.. Seeings how NO one else in my family has them.. . Sorry.. I know this won't get posted. But I feel better now. UGH!!
|1.21.12 @ 3:41AM|#
They came out in 08 and admitted GwIllness is real. Arent you an ass.Why did the chemical alarms pop all the time? Oh they blew up a chemical COMPLEX. Look up sequiline. I hope this writter was fired, cause he is full o shit!!!