Gulf War Syndrome

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In 1990 the United States deployed 700,000 soldiers into and around the region of the middle east known as the Persian Gulf. The U.S. wanted to stop the progression of Iraqi forces who were invading the oil-rich neighboring country of Kuwait. When Iraq Surrendered to the Allied forces on March 5th they had been completely swept out of Kuwait. The United States only lost one-hundred-forty-eight men while Iraq’s losses where estimated around 100,000 men. Little did the United States know that the effects of this war effects would be much more extensive than one-hundred-forty-eight soldiers lost in battle. Ever since the war ended the Veteran Association and the Pentagon have been getting reports of reports of many varying illnesses. These illnesses have fallen onto the soldiers who bravely fought in the Gulf War. I believe that the Gulf war Syndrome does indeed exist. Furthermore I believe that the United States is just as much responsible for giving their soldiers this disease as the Iraqi nerve gas, oil fire smoke and post war stress. Lots of evidence has been presented yet many in this world don’t believe that this syndrome exists. Many experts believe that these illnesses ( Gulf War Syndrome) don’t exist. Including a ranking doctors in the pentagon. Dr. Stephen Joseph says this about the blight, “We found that there was no single hypothesis that could explain the symptoms of such a large # of people. The soldiers are suffering from stress related problems. Of the diseases they contracted, such as cancer or Lou Gehrigs disease, would have occurred whether or not the soldiers had gone to the gulf.”,. ( Brumley p 8) Dr. Joseph is a highly prestigious doctor working on the syndrome for the pentagon. He graduated from Harvard and has been assigned to many high profile jobs in the pentagon. The U.S. government doesn’t know what to believe so they granted a fifty million dollar grant to pay for illnesses believed to be caused by a mysterious syndrome. Although many don’t believe it this syndrome does exist and it has many different causes. Of the 700,000 men and women who served in the Gulf war 170,000 them have been hospitalized since 1991. 10,000 of them filed disability claims. And it is estimated that 35,000 ( Cary, Peter p, 33-34) more will fill out these disability claims. This average is much higher than the average number of hospitalizations of civilians....

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..., petroleum smoke from the nearby oil fires and post war stress. I also believe that the U.S. Government did a poor job of handling this problem. Men and woman who volunteer their lives for pride and for their country have been severely mistreated by the U.S. Government and deserve a apology.

WORKS CITED

Barnes,Elizebeth. 1992 Nursing Drug Handbook . Houston: Heath 1992,

Brumley, Al. “ Frontline Targets Gulf War Syndrome”. Dallas Morning News. 1998 Jan 20: 8

Bullman, Tim. “ Mortality among U.S. Veterans of the Persia”. New England Journal of Medicine 20 1992: 45-47.

Cary, Peter. “ The Gulf War’s Grave Aura”. U.S. News and World Report 1996 July 8: 33-34.

Compion, Ed MD. “ Disease and Suspicion after the Persian Gulf War”. New England Journal of Medicine. 20 1992: 67

Fowler, Rebecca. “ Sick Veterans”. World Press Review. 1996 May:9-10.

Liu, M. “ Tracking the Second Storm”. Newsweek 1994 May 16:56-57

Schmitt, Eric. “ Special White House Panel Rejects Chemical Exposure as Coarse of Gulf war Illness”. New York Times. 1997 January 8th: 1.

Shannon, Philip. “ Once Healthy, Her Pain is Reminder of Gulf War Service”. New York Times 1997 January 2: 3.

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