THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406110009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940613 LENGTH:
Indeed, everyone in Washington realizes the unprecedented nature of the proposed payout. Rep. G. V. ``Sonny'' Montgomery, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee and main sponsor of the bill, has stated bluntly, ``We cannot always wait on research.'' Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown, a disabled veteran, has called the move ``unprecedented'' and ``revolutionary,'' but he is supporting it.
{REST} To qualify, a Persian Gulf war veteran would have to be examined by a Veterans Department doctor and be certified at least 10 percent disabled. Brown estimated a typical payment could be $166 a month, and the cost of compensation at $45 million per year.
Known to some as Saddam's Revenge, Gulf War Syndrome is a malady that almost defies description. The symptoms often have very little in common. Some veterans report weight loss and insomnia. Others report weight gain and fatigue. The other reported symptoms range throughout the body: hair loss, diarrhea, nausea, unexplained swelling, difficulty breathing, unexplained headaches.
The claimed causes of these complaints are various. Oil-well fires, reaction to the antidotes soldiers were given to immunize them against possible Iraqi chemical-warfare attacks, and other causes. Some have claimed there really were Iraqi chemical attacks and that news of them was suppressed. But if that were the case, then large numbers of soldiers in certain units would have been affected, not people scattered throughout the force, as the Gulf War Syndrome appears to be. It also wouldn't make much sense to use chemicals that didn't have effect until months or years after the war was over.
``I wouldn't call this a syndrome at all, because to me a syndrome is a disease,'' says Dr. Barry Rumack, a retired Army Reserve officer who is a clinical professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a specialist in poison control. ``There is no relationship between the events purported to have occurred there (in the gulf), actual or potential, and these illnesses.''
Virtually no medical evidence has emerged that the reported symptoms are related. Indeed, the British Defense Ministry has just rejected claims that their soldiers were exposed to chemical-warfare attacks in the gulf. ``We have no evidence to support the claim that a medical condition exists that is peculiar to those who served in the gulf conflict,'' according to Surgeon General Sir Peter Beale in the British medical journal Nature.
``We've looked very carefully for common exposures,'' according to Virginia Stephanakis of the Army Surgeon General's office, ``and we can't find (similarities) of any sort. The soldiers were in different places in Saudi (Arabia) at different times and doing different jobs.''
None of this should be taken as a slur against veterans who served and say they are suffering. The complaints could have sources other than claimed exposure to chemical agents, such as stress, and deserve to be investigated. The complaints could be utterly unrelated to gulf service. In any randomly selected group of 600,000-plus people, there will be unexplained ailments.
Politicians, unfortunately, have little interest in science. They survive by handing out piles of money to large numbers of people. The president may see these payments as a way to shore up his shaky relations with the armed forces. Whatever the motive, this bill, if it passes, will set a potentially expensive precedent, and political science will have won out once more.
by CNB