Gulf War II Syndrome?

[SLClemens]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1091487,00.html

I hope that our soldiers were not given the same vacinations as the Brits, but I suspect they were the same. I wonder if this in part accounts for the enormous numbers of servicement sent home sick? If the WMD threat was cooked up, as I suspect it was, this will have been an extreme disservice to those suffering Gulf War II Syndrome if medical evidence shows a trend.

 

[jimnyc]

With Saddam's history of using chemical weapons, and much of the same unaccounted for, you think we should have sent in troops unprotected?

 

[SLClemens]

Originally posted by jimnyc
With Saddam's history of using chemical weapons, and much of the same unaccounted for, you think we should have sent in troops unprotected?

This depends on the honesty of our intelligence. In 1991 Iraq's chemical and biological weapons potential was vastly more than in 2003 yet he didn't use them. Maybe education our soldiers about the risk and then giving them the choice of vacinations would have been better? The problem was that, considering the case we made to the UN, the army couldn't very well turn around and say "well, maybe vacinations aren't so necessary this time." What I do think, however, is that we need a very thorough investigation of the long-term effects of these vacinations and be ready to pay the necessary compensation to troops that have suffered Gulf War Syndrome. It's simply appalling how many soldiers have reported mysterious illnesses following Gulf War I, and I fear that Gulf War II will yield similar results.

Does anyone know if soldiers currently getting sent over are still getting such vacinations?

 

[jimnyc]

I'm not sure who's getting them now and who isn't. I just think it was a proper decision at the time to err on the side of caution.

The problem here is the vaccine, not why it was used.