‘US combat troops returning from Iraq face major health peril’

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/August/focusoniraq_August150.xml§ion=focusoniraq

PARIS - US combat troops traumatised by their experiences in Iraq may suffer long-term damage to their physical health, as well as known risks to their mental well-being, the British magazine New Scientist warns.

“Veterans will be paying the price of combat for decades to come,” it says in its next issue, out on Saturday.

Doctors are already familiar with the psychological impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the modern name for shell shock, a term coined in World War I.

People with PTSD can suffer from grim flashbacks, wild mood swings, bouts of depression, insomnia and anxiety, are prone to drug and alcohol abuse and are likelier to die of accidents, overdoses and suicide.

But evidence is also emerging of a link between PTSD and physical disease, and the symptoms may emerge years after trauma, New Scientist says.

[indepat]

1. And it won't be over over there until the mission is completed

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. We are killing our own people. Sound familiar??

[Megahurtz]

3. It's Great to Finally Hear Someone Acknowledging This:

"But evidence is also emerging of a link between PTSD and physical disease, and the symptoms may emerge years after trauma, New Scientist says."

[Megahurtz]

4. And Kick. n/t

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. how long is Depleted Uranium going to remain in the shadows

.
.
.

as long as

or longer

than Agent Orange

and other toxins military personnel seem to be guinea pigs for . . .

????????

[TomClash]

7. Bingo! nt

[txindy]

10. That's what I always think of, too

I'd rather not, but it's inevitable.

[bonzotex]

13. good current article on DU and soldiers

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2298/

Matthew, 31, decided that since he’d spent much of his time in Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he’d better get tested too. It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.

Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits.

So far Victoria Claudette, now 13 months old, shows no other genetic disorders and is healthy, but Matthew feels guilty for causing her deformity and angry at a government that never warned him about DU’s dangers


...Bastards, I'm skeptical about some of the most alarmist claims on DU but there's no doubt it's poisoning our soldiers and civilains the world over AND this admimistration is covering it up desperately.

[PunkPop]

6. This unnecessary war will be costing all of us for decades to come.

But especially those who were unfortunate enough to risk life and limb for the criminal syndicate running the US government.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4443368

Waging the trillion-dollar war

By Linda Bilmes The New York Times
MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2005


CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts The human cost of the more than 2,000 American military personnel killed and 14,500 wounded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan is all too apparent. But the financial toll is still largely hidden from public view and, like the suffering of those who have lost loved ones, will persist long after the fighting is over.

The cost goes well beyond the more than $250 billion already spent on military operations and reconstruction. Basic running costs of the current conflicts are $6 billion a month - a figure that reflects the Pentagon's unprecedented reliance on expensive private contractors.

Other factors keeping costs high include inducements for recruits and for military personnel serving second and third deployments, extra pay for reservists and members of the National Guard, as well as more than $2 billion a year in additional foreign aid to Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey and others to reward their cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the biggest long-term costs are disability and health payments for returning troops, which will be incurred even if hostilities were to stop tomorrow. The United States currently pays more than $2 billion in disability claims per year for 159,000 veterans of the 1991 Gulf war, even though that conflict lasted only five weeks, with 148 dead and 467 wounded.

[Inland]

8. "They knew the risks when they signed up."

It's right there in section 2398-7b(a), "Risk of Being Abused by Asshole President for Political Purposes).

[cal04]

9. Returned Iraq soldiers face 'physical, mental risks'

US combat troops, traumatised by their experiences in Iraq, may suffer long-term damage to their physical health, as well as known risks to their mental well-being, the British magazine New Scientist warns.

"Veterans will be paying the price of combat for decades to come," it says in its next issue, out on Saturday.Doctors are already familiar with the psychological impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the modern name for shell shock, a term coined in World War I. People with PTSD can suffer from grim flashbacks, wild mood swings, bouts of depression, insomnia and anxiety, are prone to drug and alcohol abuse and are likelier to die of accidents, overdoses and suicide.

But evidence is also emerging of a link between PTSD and physical disease, and the symptoms may emerge years after trauma, New Scientist says. Soon-to-be published research by New York Academy of Medicine epidemiologist Joseph Boscarino found "stark differences" in physical health among veterans with PTSD as a result of combat and those with non-combat PTSD. Dr Boscarino revisited a US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) study into the long-term health of 18,000 Vietnam veterans.

He was surprised to discover that those with combat PTSD were much likelier to die from heart disease and cancer than those with non-combat PTSD, New Scientist says. The big difference cannot be explained by differences in smoking habits and Dr Boscarino suspects that the blame may lie with high levels of stress hormones which disrupt the immune system.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1445628.htm

[Skittles]

11. the effects go far beyond the soldiers

try having a parent, sibling or kid with PTSD - it is painful

[meganmonkey]

12. And VA hospitals are being closed

:(

These folks are getting screwed.