he shortest and what appeared to be the least costly — in terms of American lives and suffering — war in U.S. history was over on February 27, 1991, when the ground assault against Saddam Hussein’s forces ended, just 100 hours after it had begun, in a resounding victory for the allied army.The official tally was 293 dead and 467 wounded, a total of 760 U.S. casualties.
Over the ensuing years, however, some 100,000 Gulf War veterans of virtually all ranks and branches of service stepped forward with evidence of harm sustained as a result of their service.
In most cases, these adverse effects were not discovered until long after they left the Persian Gulf. But when veterans described their symptoms — aches and pains, chronic and disabling fatigue, bleeding and hemorrhaging, blurred vision, diarrhea, memory loss, inability to concentrate, dizziness, blackouts, fever, rashes, nausea, and birth defects in offspring, among others — instead of receiving help from the Defense Department, they encountered a stone wall of denial.
And so it was that for years, veterans suffered and died from the chemical and biological weapons to which they were exposed during the brief but intense Gulf War, neglected and all but forgotten by the nation they had served.3 According to one estimate, by June 1997, more than 4,200 Gulf War veterans had perished from various sicknesses. In case after case, those who were seriously physically ill were told their problems were “in their heads,” that they were suffering from “stress,” and that the treatment was psychiatric antidepressants and other drugs.
Continued...
| Previous | Glossary of Scientology Terms | Contents | Next |
| Your view on this Scientology Website | Scientology Related Sites | Bookstore | Church of Scientology Freedom Magazine |
editor@freedommag.org © 1999-2008 Church of Scientology International. All Rights Reserved.
