Where is the media reporting on the 220,000 casualties from the first Gulf War? Cursor points us to Stanley Heller's article in Media Monitors, titled The 220,00 Casualties No One Speaks About.

The major media will talk about holes in the Administration case on Iraq, weaknesses in the accusations about Halabja, and even occasionally an article about sufferings of Iraqi civilians. What they won't talk about is the huge number of U.S. casualties from our first Gulf War. In two articles in the Washington Post in mid-January David Brown said that 1600,000 Gulf War veterans may be in "less than optimal health since the war". He talked about "muscle aches" and "stress". He could not bring himself to mention the "D" word, as in "Disabled". The VA officially reports that 159,238 soldiers who were in the Gulf in 90'-91' are disabled. Of that number over 111,000 are 10% or more disabled. According to the report 8,000 Gulf War vets have died. The report that mentions all this came out in September, but I don't know of one U.S. newspaper that has mentioned it.

The scary thing is no one is talking about the contamination still present in the region, and more troops are being dispatched there as we write.

We’re led to believe that Gulf War casualties were minimal. At the close of the fighting in 1991 less than 800 were killed and wounded. But first a trickle and then a river of American soldiers have gotten sick. The enormous numbers of casualties is not confined to soldiers who fought in the Gulf War. The V.A. has awarded disability to another 60,000 soldiers who went into the Gulf countries after the war was over. These are considered "theater" veterans. 2,000 of Gulf War "theater" veterans have died. This is very alarming. It means that the Gulf area (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) is still highly contaminated. The chief suspect is DU, "depleted uranium".

After describing "depleted uranium," Mr. Heller closes with this:

DU isn't the only culprit suspected in Gulf War illnesses. There's also the PB pills that were supposed to ward off some effects of sarin gas. There's the anti-anthrax shots that soldiers were forced to take. These "medicines" that got many GI's sick immediately and are thought to be part of the toxic mix that disabled so many soldiers. Obsessed with a quick triumph and low body counts the U.S. military fought the Gulf War without calculating the long term effects on its soldiers of its hi-tech weapons and "miracle" pharmaceuticals. Now the politicians are again sending the troops in harms way. U.S. parents will be gambling that the military brass that failed so wretchedly in Desert Storm will this time protect the health of their sons and daughters. The odds are poor. If the war starts Iraqi soldiers and civilians will be the main casualties, but U.S. soldiers will likely also pay a steep price for "victory".

This whole article leaves us pretty speechless. Suffice it to say, we are one parent who's not about to take the gamble.