I asked Garth about this. "We had an armed agent who came into the hospital and opened an aluminum briefcase with a silenced Beretta [sub-machine gun] who identified himself as a defense intelligence agent and said to stop our work," he told me. Were there witnesses? He said yes but wouldn't supply their names. "Frankly, I don't want to discuss this because it detracts from what we're talking about," he said.
That's a matter of opinion. What's sad is that the vets are buying into such conspiracy theories. One of those vets is the 37th's Dan Topalski, who was told by Nicolson's lab that he and his wife were positive for MF. Topalski is terrified for himself and his spouse, and the other 37th vets are terrified for him. I called Topalski and told him that the nation's most eminent MF researcher, Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo, said he didn't think much of Nicolson's work. But Topalski told me that Lo was one of the government conspirators. "He was employed by Tanox Biosystems of Houston as their resident medical expert," he told me, "where he developed MF for warfare use." His source for this information? "Nancy Nicolson," he replied. "They both worked there in 1988."
Tanox informed me that they had never heard of either Lo or Nicolson. They claim their only research is in developing allergy treatments, and indeed they hold patents in this area. Nancy Nicolson, according to The Mail on Sunday, the British newspaper that interviewed her, also likes to talk about how Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited her, how the pope gave her a gold ring, and how her family has enough money to bring down the American economy.
The Mystery Solved
Of the many reasons the media perpetuate Gulf Lore Syndrome, one is that reporters- -and readers--love a mystery. Indeed, a Nexis search in November found 630 stories referring to the "mystery" of GWS. The allure of a mystery is often such that it refuses to die no matter how much light is shone on it. So it is with GWS. But there is no mystery.
Why are there so many sick Persian Gulf vets? First, because there are so many Persian Gulf vets, period. Take 697,000 vets, add their spouses and children, and you have a pool of well over a million people. In such a pool you're going to have every illness in the book. Because modern medicine is not an exact science, you're also going to have a certain number of illnesses for which no firm cause is identified.
"Among approximately 697,000 people over a period of several years, there will be poorly understood ailments and a number of obscure diseases," as the October IOM report put it. The question is, Are Gulf War vets having these illnesses at an extraordinary rate? The flat answer is: no--no more deaths (except vehicle accidents), no more cancers, no more birth defects, no more miscarriages. Persian Gulf vets have these problems because everybody has these problems. The difference is the media have convinced them that a neighbor's miscarriage is just a miscarriage, but their miscarriage is GWS.
Indeed, for all the talk of the "commonality" of symptoms of GWS, I have compiled a list of over 100, including hair loss, graying hair, weight gain, weight loss, irritability, heartburn, rashes, sore throat, kidney stones, sore gums, constipation, sneezing, leg cramps, insomnia, herpes, and "a foot fungus that will not go away." It is no exaggeration to say that every ailment any Persian Gulf vet has ever gotten--or that anybody has ever gotten--has been labeled a symptom of GWS.
According to Dr. Edward Young, former chief of staff at the Houston VA Medical Center, one of the three centers set up to investigate ailments among Gulf War vets, "We're talking about people who have multiple complaints. And if you go out on the street in any city in this country, you'll find people who have exactly the same things, and they've never been to the Gulf." In an interview with the Birmingham Daily News, he said, "It really rankles me when people stand up and call it 'Persian Gulf Syndrome.' To honor this thing with some name is ridiculous." Although Young later asked that the comments not be printed, the American Legion, the most powerful GWS lobbying group, got hold of them and complained to the VA. The VA unceremoniously yanked Young from his position, later citing his lack of compassion. As Shays staffer Robert Newman told me, "Nobody wants to go against vets; it's a very strong lobby." Amen.
Yet it's an oversimplification to say that vets are having exactly the same symptoms as anybody else. They appear to suffer more from illnesses commonly associated with stress--that is, psychosomatic ones.
Doctors have long understood that one can induce symptoms in many people by giving them reasons they should feel sick. David Murray, now with the Statistical Assessment Service in Washington, D.C., used to demonstrate this by telling his social anthropology students they might have suffered minor food poisoning at lunch and that, if so, they should go to the nurse's office. "Within five minutes there would be shifting of seats and belching and one or two people would walk out the door," says Murray. "Eventually a third of the class would have left or be complaining of illness."
Nothing enrages activists--or many sick vets--like suggesting that Gulf War vets are suffering psychosomatic illness. Responding to the Presidential Advisory Commission's conclusion, Denise Nichols told The New York Times, "I am appalled that after five years [the government] is still busy denying physical damage...this is not stress."
But "psychosomatic" does not refers to the symptom; it refers to its origin. You can get diarrhea because you're worried about tomorrow's final exam or because you ate a week-old taco. In the first case it is psychosomatic; in the second it is organic, meaning it came from some source other than stress. In either case, you're sick. Telling someone their symptoms are probably psychosomatic isn't an insult; it's just an explanation. Nor is there anything exotic about it; stress-induced symptoms--often more severe than organic ones-- have been experienced by nearly everyone.
What is the source of this GWS stress? That has been muddled by the misapplication of the term, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), coined to explain psychological (including psychosomatic) problems of Vietnam vets who had trouble adjusting to civilian life. Nightline, in October, said GWS couldn't possibly be PTSD because this wouldn't explain why vets' wives were sick.
Exactly right. What the vets and their wives are suffering is what I call current traumatic stress disorder. It isn't their experience in the Gulf that is haunting them, but rather what they're seeing on Nightline and other TV shows, what they're reading in the papers, what they're hearing from congressional demagogues and from activists, and finally what they hear from their fellow vets in conversations and Internet chatter. The Gulf War vets are sick for the same reason Murray's students became sick. They are bombarded with the message that they ought to be sick.
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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!!!