By Dave Lindorff

On Oct. 13, the New York Times ran a news story headlined
“Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange,” which was sure to
be good news to many American veterans of the Indochina War. It
reported that 38 years after the Pentagon ceased spreading the deadly
dioxin-laced herbicide/defoliant over much of South Vietnam, it was
acknowledging what veterans have long claimed: in addition to 13
ailments already traced to exposure to the chemical, it was also
responsible for three more dread diseases—Parkinson’s, ischemic heart
disease and hairy-cell leukemia.

Under a new policy adopted by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the VA
will now start providing free care to any of the 2.1 million
Vietnam-era veterans who can show that they might have been hurt by
exposure to Agent Orange.

By Dave Lindorff

Agent Orange, the herbicide used as a weapon by US military forces
in Vietnam for nearly a decade to defoliate vast stretches of inhabited
forest and jungle in an effort to deprive the Viet Cong and North
Vietnamese forces of both cover and a supportive populace, has long
been known to have caused a large number of serious and debilitating
diseases, many of them passed on to children of those exposed. But now
it also appears to cause a peculiar blindness among American
journalists.

To honor those who served
- and died in the line of duty.

Georgia 1st Congressional District Democratic candidate Bill Gillespie and State Party Chair Jane Kidd were in Savannah on Monday fighting for vet benefit increases and challenging Republican John McCain's lack of support on veteran issues. Way to go Jane and Bill, our troops need all the help we they can get. Its time to start taking care of our veterans when they come back and provide them the educational opportunites and medical care they deserve.

The Pentagon is slated to release a suspected toxicant in Crystal City, Virginia this week, ostensibly to test air sensors.

The operation is just the latest example of the Defense Department’s long history of using service members and civilians as human test subjects, often without their consent or awareness.

Gas chambers in Maryland

Wray C. Forrest learned about the US military’s human-testing program the hard way. In 1973, the Army sent then 23-year-old Forrest to its Edgewood Arsenal chemical-research center in Maryland, promising patriotic service and a four-day work week.

Instead, he became one of roughly 6,720 soldiers used as Edgewood Arsenal test subjects between 1950-1975.

Our veterans are being cheated out of the very things they fought for: their rights. Have you ever wondered why most veterans couldn't get care from the VA, couldn't get their educational benefits, couldn't get jobs with the government, etc., etc., etc.

Well, the truth of the matter is that there has been a systematic denial of benefits starting with the veterans of the Vietnam War. Your government has betrayed you! For instance, are you aware that there are codes written on your Honorable Discharge that make it anything BUT honorable? No, you won't find the codes on YOUR copy--they're on the copy scanned into government databases: the copy that government agencies use to deny you your earned benefits! Don't believe me? Then watch this video, and then comment.

"The Iraq Veterans Memorial is an online war memorial that honors the members of the U.S. armed forces who have lost their lives serving in the Iraq War. The Memorial is a collection of video memories from family, friends, military colleagues, and co-workers of those that have fallen."

More beans, another sampling of how we're all gonna go broke under Bush's multi-trillion dollar tab... Amy Goodman interviews Linda Bilmes, Havard professor whose study caused the VA and Pentagon to "re-calculate" how wounded US service personnel are counted.

Hidden Costs of War: Long-Term Price of Providing Veterans Medical Care Could Reach $660 Billion - Over 200,000 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at Veterans Affairs medical facilities thus far, with 900,000 still deployed on active duty. A new study from Harvard University predicts that the cost of medical care and compensation benefits for returning veterans will skyrocket once those troops return home... (more)

I reported on Wednesday about Jonathan Schulze, the 25-year-old Iraq war Veteran from Minnesota, who committed suicide after being denied immediate treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at two Veterans Administration medical facilities.

Fortunately, Democrats are now in charge of the Congress and action is already being taken.

Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), the Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, is looking into the incident and sent a letter this week to VA Acting Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Michael Kussman. In the letter, Akaka asked for an expedited analysis of the events preceding Schulze's death, as well as a description of what actions the VA is taking to ensure that delays for vital mental health care do not occur in the future.

Update: Iraq Coalition Casualties is reporting eleven more US military fatalities in the past two days, death total now 3097... meanwhile the "Pentagon alters how wounded are calculated"...

Oops, the truth seeped out on a VA website. If anyone's keeping count, Iraq Coalition Casualties is reporting 50,743 total casualties. That's 3,086 dead plus 47,657 non-mortal casualties (injured, crippled for life, diseased, or mentally infirm).

Agency Says Higher Casualty Total Was Posted in Error - By DENISE GRADY, NYT
For the last few months, anyone who consulted the Veterans Affairs Department’s Web site to learn how many American troops had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan would have found this number: 50,508. But on Jan. 10, without explanation, the figure plummeted to 21,649... (more)