Apropos of our post this morning about the danger the Middle East poses for American troops, comes this: A decorated Gulf War veteran on federal death row has filed a clemency petition with President Bush, heavily relying on the brain damage he suffered as a result of his exposure to nerve gas during the war.

Louis Jones Jr. is scheduled to die by lethal injection March 18 at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. He has exhausted his appeals....

After the trial, a Dallas researcher who has studied veterans of the 1991 war against Iraq concluded that Jones suffered from a severe form of Gulf War Syndrome from exposure to sarin nerve gas and other toxins....

Jones' attorney filed a clemency request with Bush in December, seeking a life sentence without. Jones has also written personally to the president, admitting his crime and expressing remorse....

Jones grew up in Chicago and spent 22 years in the military before retiring in 1993 as a master sergeant in the Airborne Rangers. His honors included a meritorious service medal, a Southwest Asia service medal with three bronze service stars, a Kuwait liberation medal, badges for marksmanship and parachuting, and a good-conduct medal, according to his plea for clemency.

But, the petition says, Jones was a changed man after returning from the Gulf in May 1991. "It solves the mystery that was at the heart of the trial: how and why someone with the background and character of Louis Jones could have committed such a horrible crime," the petition says....

A recent study of Gulf War Syndrome indicates that some people's genetic makeup leaves them more vulnerable to even low levels of nerve gas, according to the clemency petition. The research was done by Dr. Rogene Henderson at the University of New Mexico, on a grant from the Pentagon. A blood test done on Jones in January shows he lacks a common enzyme that would have helped his body metabolize nerve gas, said Jones' lawyer, Timothy W. Floyd.