by James Glaser
May 3, 2002

There are a couple of things in this life that really get me ticked off. Number one is listening to George Bush go on about how evil Saddam Hussein was for gassing some Kurds. Well did George ever wonder why he did that or if he did that. There is a 1990 Pentagon report that lays the blame for that gas attack on Iran, but George doesn't want to hear that. Even if it was Saddam so what, he most probably didn't like those Kurds and so he gassed them. Big deal as that gas attack still pales when you compare it to how we sprayed twenty million gallons of chemicals on our own troops in Vietnam. Yes, on our own men and women, not the enemy like Saddam is supposed to have done. I can understand using chemicals on the enemy, maybe it is against the rules of warfare, but I can understand it. I cannot understand doing it to your own troops. You guys in the service remember this, your officers will walk over your dead body to get a promotion and just maybe it is your dead body that gets it for him.

Yes I am still harping on that because not only was I one of those troops, but it brings me to the other thing in life that really ticks me off and that is going to the Minneapolis Veterans Hospital. Asking for help from the very government that made me sick from spraying chemicals on me and in the only water I had to drink, really pisses me off. Also to see a really dedicated staff, like the one at the VA get their budget cut all the time and see veterans from every war get the shaft, really galls me.

John Erickson lived down the road from my house, he was a Marine in WW2. John was at the "canal" and was on the first plane to drop troops off in Japan. John was stationed at Nagasaki where we dropped one of the big ones and the radiation levels were still in the hot zone when John got there. For over 50 years John tried to get compensation for his many medical problems, breathing was the worst one for him. You never met a man more proud to be a American that John, but he could never figure out why this American Government wouldn't help him. Then last year about a month before he died he came over to tell me that he got his "comp." John died before he got his first check.

At one time there were tens of thousands of "atomic vets." Those veterans that took part in atomic bomb research and were made sick because of exposure to massive doses of radiation. Just recently has our Government decided that these men that were used as guinea pigs should be compansatited for all their years of suffering. Of course about 95% of them are dead now. Remember it is all in the timing.

What really got me going for this column was my last trip to the VA. I was in to see a doctor about this "peripheral neuropathy" that I have, that causes me to lose all feelings in my feet and hands. ( of course you have of had to complain about this within 365 days of exposure to Agent Orange to get compensation) but they will still treat me. Nice of them Huh? This time the Doctor asked me " have you had your kids tested for this?" Seems that no other doctor was willing to tell me that this illnesses could be passed down to my offspring. Maybe they just forgot.

There are two other illnesses they have told me about and those are Spina Bifida and now "acute myelogenous leukemia". Both of these can be passed to the children of Vietnam vets exposed to"Agent Orange". Now get this, now that women Vietnam Veterans are most all passed the child bearing years they come out with this "women Vietnam veterans reported significantly more children with birth defects among their first born following Vietnam service" You ever hear that on Dan Rather? Really wanted to get the word out huh?

American Military Officers will walk over your dead body to get a promotion and now they will walk over your dead child's body to get one too.

If you know any Vietnam Vet, these are the illnesses that the VA accepts as service connected for Vietnam Veterans exposed to Agent Orange. 1 Chloracne (must have occurred within one year of exposure to Agent Orange). 2. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 3. Soft Tissue Sarcoma 4. Hodgkin's disease 5 Porphyria Cutanea Tarda 6. Multiple Mycloma 7. Respiratory Cancers 8. Prostate Cancer 9.Acute and Subacute Peripheral neuropathy (must appear within one year of exposure of Agent Orange) 10. Type 2 Diabetes It has taken over thirty years for the Government to approve all of these, so the proof is overwhelming or they wouldn't of posted them.

Have any of you wondered if those depleted uranium tipped warheads they use now, might get our troops sick? I am to the point now that I would bet the military doesn't even care. You ever wonder why the commanding General for the war in Afghanistan is stationed in Florida. Weird huh? Well if you have a family member in the service or that was in the Gulf War, then get on the net and go to google and type in "depleted uranium shells" and start reading.

I myself have seen rows of Gulf War Vets in wheel chairs at the VA Hospital in Arizona. (with, sad to say, their parents pushing them around) All of these men were from the same unit, all had a similar sickness, and the VA was telling them all, that it was just in their heads. I am extremely embarrassed to tell you, that when the war is over our Government is not afraid to shit on the troops.