[Peace-discuss] Re: [arkin] LA Times Today: A Hazy Target

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

The continued focus on potential Iraqi chemical, biological, and radiological 
threats while at the same time we know as verfied that U.S troops are 
completely unprepared for this type of combat (GAO reports, Eric Taylor's 
CATO Institute report, DAIG reports, unit training records, and troop 
comments) and while medical care is woefully inadequate to provide medical 
care for over 160000 Gulf War I (August 1990 - November 1991) is disturbing. 
Then we have U.S. previous and intended use of uranium munitions that have 
left and will compound a trail of contaminated air, water, soil, death and 
illness. As the Army officer order to clean up the previous DU mess I can 
only implore that DU be banned because we cannot clean it up, that medical 
care be provide for thousands of "all" previous DU casualties, and that 
environmental clean up be done as possible. Today U.S. military weapons and 
techniqiues along with those of our foes have left a trail of adverse health 
and environmental effects that cannot be resolved.  When U.S. leaders and 
British leaders claim that a country can be rebuilt after destroying its 
infrastrucure and comtaminating air, wate, and soil and causing thousands 
actually millions of collateral damage casualties (children, women, men) we 
must acknowledge that these leaders of the the world have gone mad.

dr. doug rokke
Vietnam War and Gulf war combat veteran

**
Supporting the Troops
Dr. Doug Rokke

As war looms while the sons and daughters of our nation are deployed for 
participation in combat we must consider how to support our troops. Today, 
first hand experience, numerous reports and congressional hearings have 
verified that gas masks and chemical protective clothing that are essential 
to survive when Iraq, United States, or British forces use weapons of mass 
destruction are defective and will not protect the health of our troops. 
Numerous reports also verify, just as during Gulf War I, that training and 
education is inadequate to enable our troops to operate effectively and 
survive during combat. As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) 
confirmed Gulf War I casualty count exceeds 221000 on disability and over 
10000 dead we must reconsider the potential casualty count from any Gulf War 
II combat actions.   During Gulf War I we blew up Iraq's chemical and 
biological stockpiles and nuclear reactors that the U.S. gave him. We 
destroyed Iraq's infrastructure. Consequently we left Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi 
Arabia a toxic wasteland exposing Gulf War I warriors to a toxic soup that 
has devastated their health. We know based on actual reports and current 
experience that medical care for Gulf War I casualties is ineffective and 
thus we can expect the same inadequate medical care for new War II 
casualties. During Gulf War I the United States military used depleted 
uranium munitions that contaminated air, water, and soil and that have left a 
trail of death and illness. We must ban the use of depleted uranium (DU) 
munitions, provide the mandated medical care for "all" DU casualties, and 
clean up the DU contamination.  VA Secretary Tony Principi recently asked 
President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld what the expected Gulf War 
II casualty count may be and given the current state of medical care he 
suggested that it is critical that we reconsider combat actions in the Iraq 
and Kuwait because that region is a toxic wasteland due to Gulf War combat 
actions. If we go into combat once more with defective equipment, inadequate 
training, and a broken medical care system thousands more of America's finest 
sons and daughters will become disabled. If we use 'SHOCK AND AWE" as planned 
we will devastate God's earth and cause unacceptable collateral damage.  As a 
combat veteran I must urge that we support the troops by ensuring that 
defective equipment is replaced, essential combat education and training is 
completed, effective medical is available, and that before we engage in 
combat that a viable threat to our nation's sovereignty exists.  The 
technology of war has exceeded our capability to resolve the health and 
environmental effects of war. THEREFORE WAR IS OBSOLETE. We must do what is 
right for God and the citizens of the world. In conclusion, "Supporting the 
Troops" means keeping them home and out of harms way. PEACE MUST REIGN ON 
EARTH!

***
By David H. Hackworth
 
Last month, Mike Wallace informed the nation on "60 Minutes" that our troops 
in the Gulf region don't have sufficient training or the right protection and 
detection gear to survive an Iraqi chemical or biological attack. Not exactly 
breaking news to the readers of this column or DefenseWatch magazine, which 
has been warning us for months not to allow a replay of the 1991 Gulf War 
mistakes - which, according to a November 2002 Veterans Affairs report, has 
so far killed or disabled almost 180,000 Desert Storm vets (August 1990 - 
October 1991 participants).  
       
The "60 Minutes" story was backed up by a congressional General Accounting 
Office report blistering the top brass for rushing our troops into harm's way 
without doing their sworn duty: making sure they were good to go. It seems 
their precious deployment timetable is more important than their grunts, who 
might soon be dispatched into a potentially poisonous caldron - to destroy 
Iraq's chemical and biological weapons - without the right gear.   
       
Although the Pentagon brass were too into escape-and-evade tactics to find 
the time to do an on-camera interview with Mike Wallace, a senior 
congressional aide, speaking off the record, said: "While of course I'm not 
able to disclose anything 'classified,' you should know your story is 
absolutely on-target. The classified facts regarding our preparedness for 
chemical or biological warfare are a lot worse than '60 Minutes' reported." 
       
Wait a minute! If a Senate aide on the outside of the inside loop knows the 
score, surely the military brass, the aide's senator boss and at least a 
platoon of his peers also know that - unlike Desert Storm, where the vast 
number of deaths or disabilities were accidentally self-inflicted by U.S. 
bomber- and/or engineer-zapped Iraqi chemical munitions blowing downwind and 
striking our troops - our sons and daughters now sharpening their bayonets 
are in even more jeopardy this time around from Iraqi horror weapons that 
will be intentionally zeroed in on them.
       
Yet - to their everlasting shame - not one of these guardians of our republic 
has stood tall and publicly sounded off about this life-or-death issue. 
What's happened to the spirit of John F. Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage"? 
Have those we trust to protect and run our country all suddenly been struck 
dumb, or - worse - have they chosen the easy wrong over the hard right by 
burying their integrity in a bunch of classified files?
       
And apart from "60 Minutes," what about the press? Why hasn't our Pentagon 
press corps - supposedly our country's lead hunting dog - nosed around and 
reported this story? The clues were all there, and the GAO report wasn't 
exactly classified. Not only did every congressional office get copies, so 
did the media. There is also DefenseWatch editor Ed Offley's repeated offers 
to share the evidence he receives on a daily basis from the very worried 
warriors who'll be hung out to do the dying in a death so horrific and 
painful it haunts them day and night. Surely our media should have sniffed 
that something was terribly wrong, especially after an NBC 
(nuclear/biological/chemical) sergeant passed out at an air-conditioned 
Pentagon briefing while demonstrating how well the protective gear works.
       
Military pals now deployed in Iraq doing dangerous behind-the-lines missions 
have told me that almost every Iraqi oil well along the Turk border is wired 
with demolitions to replicate the lung-searing, apocalyptic horror show we 
saw when the Iraqi army blew the southern wells as they pulled out of Kuwait 
in 1991. 
       
Other pals, computer commandos in the various head-sheds who eyeball all the 
reports coming in from the field, confirm this information and add an even 
more sinister twist: some of the wells have bio/chem weapons rigged to go off 
when they explode. 
       
Surely our brass hats, the ultimate recipients of the commo, know that the 
prevailing wind in Iraq is from north to south - from the Turk border over 
Baghdad to Kuwait - right in the face of our advancing troops. And surely 
they know the real status of our troops' inability to shield themselves while 
on the go from these deadly agents.   
       
Let's hope that "60 Minutes" sparks a chain reaction, and that the mothers 
and fathers of America rise up and demand that our soldiers not be needlessly 
sacrificed.