In response to my blog post last night a friend writes:
“Three years ago next month, I lost my 39-y-o nephew to brain cancer. He was an army vet who served two tours in the Balkans — pre 9/11 – 2001 — and one )”stop-lossed”) tour in Afghanistan thereafter. During the latter, especially, he was bombarded by atmospheric effluent from the notorious ‘burn pits’ used there (and in Iraq) for disposal of everything the army declined to recycle. (How un-green of them!). The medical dots are as easy to connect as they are impossible, legally, to prove. He was as much of a combat fatality as the 13 U.S. service members blown up in the recent Kabul homicide blast. It just took him longer to die.”
“Throughout the debacle of the past two weeks, not a day has gone by without my angry, frustrated tears about my nephew’s life cut so tragically short. He left behind a wife and two pre-school-age children. I considered him a close second-son to my own one-and-only. My sorrow remains an ever-open wound.”
Another veteran writes: “I’d rather have lost both of my legs than my life that I’m slowly forfeiting due to ALS, most likely caused by months under oil wells in Desert Storm and burn pits in Iraq. Obscured fact is that those who sere in the military (whether deployed or not) are 60x more likely to get it [ALS]. Though they (obviously) don’t advertise it, the VA considers it presumptively service connected — no muss or fuss unlike agent orange or anything else. I’m only 52.”
And the government and its war propagandists associated with Conservative, Inc., especially FOX News, claim to be soooooooooooooo concerned about “our heroes.” Yeah, so concerned that you have never heard a peep about these issues on FOX or anywhere else.
2:58 pm on September 2, 2021
