Matters of Opinion

In an editorial today, The Buffalo News calls for belated action on treating Gulf War veterans who suffer from the constellation of maladies that has come to be known as Gulf War Illness. It's real. It says so right here.

Clearly, the desire of the Pentagon and its masters to put an end to the Vietnam Syndrome — the fear of the American people to commit to any real war — led to Gulf War   Syndrome. The Gulf War was, as wars go, very quick, very successful and, we thought, fought with a minimum of sacrifice on our part.
There can be little question that the desire to maintain that take-away from the Gulf War, the foolish idea that there is such a thing as a no-muss, no-fuss war, was a major motivation for the denial practiced by officials of the Bush, Clinton and Bush administrations.

Elsewhere:
- The Chicago Tribune's health blog, Judith Graham's Triage, writes about the unconscionable delay: "Their complaints are met with cynicism and a 'blame the victim' mentality that attributes that health problems to mental illness or non-physical factors," said the committee's scientific director, Roberta White, dean of Boston University's school of public health.
- Time magazine's The Skimmer summarizes it thus: If you don't want your kid to join the military, have them read the latest report on the health of Gulf War veterans, released by a congressionally mandated panel earlier this week... The panel found that millions of dollars in funding for GWI research had been misappropriated, despite the fact that the illness afflicts nearly 25% of the 700,000 soldiers who fought in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia 17 years ago.
- In The Los Angeles Times, columnist Tim Rutten points out: It would be convenient to regard neglect of the Gulf War vets as an anomaly, but the discomforting fact is that it's all of a piece with this country's historic maltreatment of its returning service men and women. The government, usually extravagant in its rhetorical gratitude for military service, has been miserly when it comes to making "the thanks of a grateful nation" material.
- The Albany Times-Union gets right to it: It took just 100 hours, some 17 years ago, for U.S. troops to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in the culmination of what's come to be known as the Persian Gulf War. Yet it took six years, until a report that was released earlier this week, for a government all too capable of denial to conclude that Gulf War illness is very real indeed. Talk about obstacles to a mission. Talk about resistance in the trenches.

-- George Pyle/Editorial Writer