Critical Gulf War Illness Research Killed

It was not among the news releases featured at the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) PR page, but yesterday’s news that treatments and cures for Gulf War illness took yet another hit by the DVA’s cancellation of a $75 million contract with UT Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas) is nothing but bad.

The contract establishing a dedicated enterprise for Gulf War Illness research was codified in a "memorandum of understanding" signed on April 21, 2006.

Writes Scott Parks at the Dallas Morning News:      

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ cancellation of a $75 million contract with UT Southwestern Medical Center could mean the end to the Dallas university’s research into treatments and cures for Gulf War illnesses.

UT Southwestern epidemiologist Dr. Robert Haley told The Dallas Morning News that he and a team of 200 colleagues from eight universities are five years ahead of anyone else engaged in the painstaking research into why 200,000 healthy soldiers went to the Persian Gulf in 1990-91 and returned to civilian lives of chronic illness.

‘Without the VA funding, discovery of a treatment is very low,’ Haley said.

The DVA statement on the defunding is typical bureaucratic blather. From Scott Parks, see: VA offers statement on Gulf War illnesses. No need to even quote from the DVA statement. How about a real explanation?

As usual, Paul Sullivan and Veterans for Common Sense are all over the story. And Sullivan blasts the DVA in Parks’ piece.

Paul Sullivan, 46, married and a father of two, served as an Army cavalry scout in the Persian Gulf. He came home with chronic lung ailments and has been working as a veterans’ advocate for more than 15 years. He is considered a particularly credible critic of VA policies because he worked for the federal agency from 2000 to 2006.

‘Dr. Haley’s work is absolutely essential,’ said Sullivan, who serves as executive director of Veterans for Common Sense in Austin. ‘Now, with the VA’s premature cancellation of the contract, time is being lost and that entire institutional knowledge at UT Southwestern is being lost.’

A thought for President Obama, but if you are insistent on escalating and persisting with bullshit wars started by George W. Bush and supine Democrats, how about taking care of the veterans who fought them? In fact, why not all who served, period.