Iraq War Affects Troops' Mental Health - Not a word on DU
FPF: US Military Headline 29 July 2005
NOT ONE WORD ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM: POSSIBLY THE WORST WAR CRIME IN HISTORY
by Henk Ruyssenaars
FPF - July 29th 2005 - It has always to be taken into account what the source is. Since the source in this case is not an independent survey or investigation, but the US Army's surgeon general presenting his own figures and what he says are 'facts'; one ought to be very suspicious. In cases like these - i.e. the military investigating the military - the truth is always the first victim and reality shows every time to be much worse than the information offered may indicate.
This information is another indication that something is terribly wrong with the illegal* quagmire war and occupation of Iraq.
The biggest danger however, not only in a war zone, and one of the main reasons for a ffurther future health disaster, is not even spoken about: the global poisening with radio-activity via the used ammunition.
Since 15 years by the US and it's killing allies used depleted uranium in weaponry and ammunition is poisening the earth through wind and water, spreading genes deformation, death, illnes and mental health problems.
And this disaster is only beginnening: the half life - meaning that after a certain time fifty percent (50%) of the deadly radiation is left.
In this case of used Uranium-238 in ammunition, that is 4 billion years.*
Official Pentagon Military Insider Newsletter today*
Iraq Effects Troops' Mental Health
WASHINGTON - Thirty percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home from the Iraq war, the Army's surgeon general said Thursday.
The survey of 1,000 troops found problems including anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an inability to concentrate, said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military medical officials. A smaller number of troops, often with more severe symptoms, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious mental illness.
The 30 percent figure is in contrast to the 3 percent to 5 percent diagnosed with a significant mental health issues immediately after they leave the war theater, according to Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a military psychiatrist on Kiley's staff. A study of troops who were still in the combat zone in 2004 found 13 percent experienced significant mental health problems.
Soldiers departing a war zone are typically given a health evaluation as they leave combat, but the Army is only now instituting a program for follow-up screenings three to six months later, said Kiley, speaking to reporters at a breakfast meeting.
Screenings of 1,000 U.S. soldiers who returned from Iraq to their home bases in Italy last year found that three to four months later, 30 percent of them had some mental health difficulties - a much greater incidence than expected. Kiley attributed that to post-combat stress problems taking time to develop once the danger has passed.
Only about 4 percent or 5 percent of troops coming home from combat actually have PTSD, but many others face problems adjusting when they come home, Kiley said.
Such problems are sometimes more acute in members of the National Guard, who return to a civilian job when they leave active military duty, Ritchie said.
Military medical officials, however, cautioned against people reading their data as suggesting the war had driven so many soldiers over the edge. Instead, they characterized the anxiety and stress as normal reactions to combat, seeing dead and mutilated bodies, and feeling helpless to stop a violent situation.
Still, such reactions can lead to problems with spouses and children, substance abuse and just day-to-day life, they said.
Truck drivers and convoy guards in Iraq are developing mental health problems in greater numbers than other troops, Ritchie said, suggesting the long hours on the road, constantly under threat of attack, are taking their toll.
The military has about 200 mental health experts in Iraq, grouped in what the Army calls "combat stress control teams." These teams are at many posts around the country and talk with troops after battles, try to prevent suicides and diagnose troops who should be evacuated from of the country because of mental health problems.
"They are worth their weight in gold," Kiley said of the teams.
An inquiry into the mental health of soldiers serving in Iraq found an improvement in the mental health and morale in 2004 over 2003. The military made its report on the inquiry public last week.
The report said the number of suicides in Iraq and Kuwait declined from 24 in 2003 to nine last year.
Historically, mental health problems have always been a part of warfare, and was looked at systematically when shellshock cases accounted for significant losses during World War I.
Ritchie said mental health cases ebb and flow during a war, and suggested they are sometimes connected to a soldier's sense of success of the larger war effort. During the Korean War, cases increased when U.S. forces were losing ground but decreased as the situation improved, she said.
[enditem]
The article above - from US Military.com - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/77yzy
FPF: No wonder all people get problems - they are permanently poisened too: "In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects."
Writes one of the best specialists in the world on DU - Leuren Moret: Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets: 'A death sentence here and abroad' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/659x4
Professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki report - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6ljxa
FPF - Global Pew Poll: the 'Radio Active Image of the United States' - A nation and it's global War of Terror + Uranium half life - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bsf66
DU: Possibly the Worst War Crime in History - Url.: http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/?p=592
Annan: 'The war in Iraq is illegal' -BBC - Url.: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661134.stm
''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report:
''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7
Iraq War Body Count - Url.: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/8zhvo
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/bcz4l
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
*The Dutch author this far has worked abroad 4 decades for international media as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism: you harvest what you sow! - At present - like other honest journalists - 'Persona non Grata' in his native - but now neocon - Netherlands' :-)
Anybody who dares to say anything critical of the US neocons or their ongoing Holocaust's in Iraq and Palestine is ignored; socially and journalistically made 'killed'. - the Netherlands is a 'neocolony' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/qpny
*Corporate News Media: Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe
*Impeachbush.org is mobilizing a massive impeachment contingent at the huge September 24, 2005 anti-war March on Washington. Assemble at 12 noon at the White House. The plans of the impeachment movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cex28
*Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
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NOT ONE WORD ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM: POSSIBLY THE WORST WAR CRIME IN HISTORY
by Henk Ruyssenaars
FPF - July 29th 2005 - It has always to be taken into account what the source is. Since the source in this case is not an independent survey or investigation, but the US Army's surgeon general presenting his own figures and what he says are 'facts'; one ought to be very suspicious. In cases like these - i.e. the military investigating the military - the truth is always the first victim and reality shows every time to be much worse than the information offered may indicate.
This information is another indication that something is terribly wrong with the illegal* quagmire war and occupation of Iraq.
The biggest danger however, not only in a war zone, and one of the main reasons for a ffurther future health disaster, is not even spoken about: the global poisening with radio-activity via the used ammunition.
Since 15 years by the US and it's killing allies used depleted uranium in weaponry and ammunition is poisening the earth through wind and water, spreading genes deformation, death, illnes and mental health problems.
And this disaster is only beginnening: the half life - meaning that after a certain time fifty percent (50%) of the deadly radiation is left.
In this case of used Uranium-238 in ammunition, that is 4 billion years.*
Official Pentagon Military Insider Newsletter today*
Iraq Effects Troops' Mental Health
WASHINGTON - Thirty percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home from the Iraq war, the Army's surgeon general said Thursday.
The survey of 1,000 troops found problems including anxiety, depression, nightmares, anger and an inability to concentrate, said Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and other military medical officials. A smaller number of troops, often with more severe symptoms, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a serious mental illness.
The 30 percent figure is in contrast to the 3 percent to 5 percent diagnosed with a significant mental health issues immediately after they leave the war theater, according to Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a military psychiatrist on Kiley's staff. A study of troops who were still in the combat zone in 2004 found 13 percent experienced significant mental health problems.
Soldiers departing a war zone are typically given a health evaluation as they leave combat, but the Army is only now instituting a program for follow-up screenings three to six months later, said Kiley, speaking to reporters at a breakfast meeting.
Screenings of 1,000 U.S. soldiers who returned from Iraq to their home bases in Italy last year found that three to four months later, 30 percent of them had some mental health difficulties - a much greater incidence than expected. Kiley attributed that to post-combat stress problems taking time to develop once the danger has passed.
Only about 4 percent or 5 percent of troops coming home from combat actually have PTSD, but many others face problems adjusting when they come home, Kiley said.
Such problems are sometimes more acute in members of the National Guard, who return to a civilian job when they leave active military duty, Ritchie said.
Military medical officials, however, cautioned against people reading their data as suggesting the war had driven so many soldiers over the edge. Instead, they characterized the anxiety and stress as normal reactions to combat, seeing dead and mutilated bodies, and feeling helpless to stop a violent situation.
Still, such reactions can lead to problems with spouses and children, substance abuse and just day-to-day life, they said.
Truck drivers and convoy guards in Iraq are developing mental health problems in greater numbers than other troops, Ritchie said, suggesting the long hours on the road, constantly under threat of attack, are taking their toll.
The military has about 200 mental health experts in Iraq, grouped in what the Army calls "combat stress control teams." These teams are at many posts around the country and talk with troops after battles, try to prevent suicides and diagnose troops who should be evacuated from of the country because of mental health problems.
"They are worth their weight in gold," Kiley said of the teams.
An inquiry into the mental health of soldiers serving in Iraq found an improvement in the mental health and morale in 2004 over 2003. The military made its report on the inquiry public last week.
The report said the number of suicides in Iraq and Kuwait declined from 24 in 2003 to nine last year.
Historically, mental health problems have always been a part of warfare, and was looked at systematically when shellshock cases accounted for significant losses during World War I.
Ritchie said mental health cases ebb and flow during a war, and suggested they are sometimes connected to a soldier's sense of success of the larger war effort. During the Korean War, cases increased when U.S. forces were losing ground but decreased as the situation improved, she said.
[enditem]
The article above - from US Military.com - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/77yzy
FPF: No wonder all people get problems - they are permanently poisened too: "In a group of 251 soldiers from a study group in Mississippi who had all had normal babies before the Gulf War, 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects."
Writes one of the best specialists in the world on DU - Leuren Moret: Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets: 'A death sentence here and abroad' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/659x4
Professor, Dr. K. Yagasaki report - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6ljxa
FPF - Global Pew Poll: the 'Radio Active Image of the United States' - A nation and it's global War of Terror + Uranium half life - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bsf66
DU: Possibly the Worst War Crime in History - Url.: http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/?p=592
Annan: 'The war in Iraq is illegal' -BBC - Url.: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661134.stm
''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report:
''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7
Iraq War Body Count - Url.: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/8zhvo
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/bcz4l
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
*The Dutch author this far has worked abroad 4 decades for international media as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism: you harvest what you sow! - At present - like other honest journalists - 'Persona non Grata' in his native - but now neocon - Netherlands' :-)
Anybody who dares to say anything critical of the US neocons or their ongoing Holocaust's in Iraq and Palestine is ignored; socially and journalistically made 'killed'. - the Netherlands is a 'neocolony' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/qpny
*Corporate News Media: Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe
*Impeachbush.org is mobilizing a massive impeachment contingent at the huge September 24, 2005 anti-war March on Washington. Assemble at 12 noon at the White House. The plans of the impeachment movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cex28
*Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
-0-
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