Cancer in Iraq vets raises possibility of toxic exposure

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/198240.php

Cancer in Iraq vets raises possibility of toxic exposure
By Carla McClain
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.26.2007
advertisementAfter serving in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago — and receiving the Bronze Star for it — the Tucson soldier was called back to active duty in Iraq.
While there, he awoke one morning with a sore throat. Eighteen months later, Army Sgt. James Lauderdale was dead, of a bizarrely aggressive cancer rarely seen by the doctors who tried to treat it.
As a result, his stunned and heartbroken family has joined growing ranks of sickened and dying Iraq war vets and their families who believe exposures to toxic poisons in the war zone are behind their illnesses — mostly cancers, striking the young, taking them down with alarming speed.
The number of these cancers remains undisclosed, with military officials citing patient privacy issues, as well as lack of evidence the cases are linked to conditions in the war zone. The U.S. Congress has ordered a probe of suspect toxins and may soon begin widespread testing of our armed forces.
"He got so sick, so fast"
Jim Lauderdale was 58 when his National Guard unit was deployed to the Iraq-Kuwait border, where he helped transport arriving soldiers and Marines into combat areas.
He was a strong man, say relatives, who can't remember him ever missing a day of work for illness. And he developed a cancer of the mouth, which overwhelmingly strikes smokers, drinkers and tobacco chewers. He was none of those.
"Jim's doctors didn't know why he would get this kind of cancer — they had no answers for us," said his wife, Dixie.
"He got so sick, so fast. We really think it had to be something he was exposed to over there. So many of the soldiers we met with cancer at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center) complained about the polluted air they lived in, the brown water they had to use, the dust they breathed from exploded munitions. It was very toxic."
As a mining engineer, Lauderdale knew exactly what it meant when he saw the thick black smoke pouring nonstop out of the smokestacks that line the Iraq/Kuwait border area where he was stationed for three months in 2005.

[slipslidingaway]

1. Thanks K&R...

"But I am convinced something very wrong is happening over there. Is anyone paying attention to this? Is the cancer ward still full?" she asked. "I would hate to see another whole generation affected like this, but I'm very afraid it will be."

:(

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. Gee...wouldn't have anything to do with Depleted Uranium, would it?

And heaven only knows what other shit they're being exposed to over there!:grr:

So sad. Here we go again.

They will NEVER admit they poisoned the soldiers. They still refuse to take responsibility for poisoning Vietnam soldiers with AGENT ORANGE!

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. From the march in St Louis last weekend:

[Richard D]

3. Not to mention. . .

. . . depleted uranium.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. We've been talking about depleted uranium here since 2004

nice to see the corporate media is starting to catch up

[dailykoff]

6. The mouth cancer is probably from all the DU dust in the food

or maybe just from breathing it. DU = depleted uranium

[fed-up]

7. what about experimental weapons of destruction? due to nat'l security they won't divulge info...nt

[Colorado Progressive]

8. My Vietnam vet Dad died last year of prostate cancer....

I will never believe that isnt what killed him.

How sad to think it is happening still.

[Karenina]

9. Possibility?

POSSIBLILTY of toxic exposure??? Ya think??? K&R.