Veterans

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.

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.

"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)

The Iraq Veterans Memorial

Gold Star Families Speak Out · Military Families Speak Out · Iraq Veterans Against the War · North Texas Vets · Veterans for Peace · Soldiers of Today and Yesterday · GI Special · United for Peace and Justice · Brave New Foundation

Inspired by the AIDS Quilt, the Vietnam memorial, and the New York Times biographies of the 9/11 victims, Robert Greenwald and Brave New Foundation, in partnership with numerous Iraq veterans groups, are creating a living online memorial to U.S. soldiers killed during the Iraq war. The Iraq Veterans Memorial will bear witness with the video testimonies of family, friends, co-workers, and military colleagues of those lost.....

Keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2006, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) did more for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on his first day in the Senate than the man he ousted, George Felix Allen, did in the entire previous Congress.

Going unnoticed in the frenzy of Democrats assuming control of Capitol Hill and George W. Bush seeking to plunge the country deeper into the Iraq quagmire, Webb introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, legislation that will provide the newest Veterans with educational benefits like those received by men and women who served in the three decades following World War II.

Cover photo of latest Esquire mag. What sadder commentary on Bush's Wars of Aggression?