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Die Weltwoche Magazine - December 2003

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"meals felt like broken glass, beverages like acid": Gulf War veteran Kirt Love, 2001.

The battle of the veterans
Martin Kilian

Numerous Americans, who fought in the Gulf War, warn

of a military strike against Saddam Hussein. Who are the

people, which the Iraqi Tyrannen actually loose will want,

but, face the government Bush with highest skepticism?

A second campaign against Saddam Hussein? "knowledge

it which? If Rumsfeld and Bush want their war absolutely,

they are to go first - at the point of the troops, which

kommandieren her, in front in the first vehicle ", the former

Gefreite Kirt Love says. Entruestung swings in its voice. "I

am a veteran, Bush is it not."

Kirt Love, the Gulf War veteran. Before twelve years it pulled

into the battle against Saddam; since then is its life

zerbroeckelt, apart by the piece pleases. It lives in the

Shenandoah valley in Virginia, now sits it in the high-speed

restaurant of a shopping centre in awaiting ISO castle,

without taking somewhat to itself. Meal and drinking do

pain, because Kirt Love at the mysterioesen Gulf War

syndrome suffers.

O, it is indignant. Sometimes its voice becomes thereby

cutting, and verachtung pours to verachtung for the war

gentlemen and Buerokraten of the American military machine,

to which he belonged once from it. "the whole disgusts me on",

says Kirt Love. One must introduce oneself it: From 567000

American GIs, which released 1991 Kuwait, 307000 visited

a veteran hospital for medical treatment. Almost 200000 veterans

submitted a request for inability to work.

But nobody knows, whereby they are gotten sick. In the pentagon

is whispered, some pretended its diseases. Which increases

embittering veterans enormously. Again war against Saddam?

Not for the lost brigades of the disabled veterans. Who is healthy,

would like to pull perhaps again into the war. Clear finally the pig in

Bagdad. But of a recent battle in the Iraq nobody is inspired.

In June 1991 one gave them in honours a victory parade in

Washington. After the inglorious home coming Viet Nam

veterans should American krieger this time being entitled be

received. Impressing was the marching-up. 83 combat aircraft

thundered over the Constitution Avenue south the white house.

The chains of the battle tanks cut notches into the warm summer

bitumen. Most modern weapons were issued, so that the merry

could admire the equipment of their armed forces. 800000 Americans

saeumten the way of the parade. The president removed the

marching-up. Before beginning of the parade it had laid down a

wreath on the hero cemetery Arlington. He hopes, "this mark was

the last mark", the president had said.

Now is the son of the president at that time of the commanders

in chief. And again war lies in air. From a "last mark" no speech

can be; instead a new edition of 1991 threatens. "why we were

allowed it 1991 do not hunt?", ask veterans. "we were except us",

describe Kirt Love the moment of the armistice. It fought in that

division, which rolled up in an evasion maneuver Saddams troops.

"eight o'clock in the morning there, when the armistice entered

into force, but we were far from Bagdad, Saddam yet had killed

and did not ask ourselves, what to hell is loose." In the Iraqi desert

Love observed, how Egyptian and British troops further-fired still

ten minutes. "everywhere furious cries were to be heard." But the

war was - mean too early, like many veterans - to end. And Saddam

had survived.

Suspicions are boundless
The ex sergeant Kevin Gregory would be to be quite had for a

further war against the dictator. Also it regards the armistice at

that time as an error. "we were annoyed, when we stopped,

because we wanted to bring the war nevertheless to a good end."

They displaced the parade long, veterans. Because on the

euphoria to have triumphed to be and only 378 American

pleasures to deplore have alive, disillusionment followed. Many

became ill. And nobody knew why. Steve Robinson, as a member

of American special forces in the Gulf War, leads that national

Gulf was resource center, an approach place for malade veterans,

in Silver jumps in the State of Maryland. It knows its doubts. "lean,

say patient veterans off a second war" he. They looked at themselves

and said: "cannot go back my God, we nevertheless and still times

make, although people were not at all supplied as I." Their suspicions

are boundless. Perhaps their health was ruined, because they were

suspended traces by Iraqi chemistry weapons. Perhaps they trouble

pain, because they were thereby, when Saddams poison was hunted

of American specialists into air. Or because the depleted uranium

of armor-piercing American ammunition contaminated its bodies.

Which always it Malaise caused: Never more!

Would the soldiers of a new war be better prepared? "I believe not",

say Steve Robinson. Still "incorrect chemical schutzanzuege" were

used. Regularly Robinson receives the telephone calls of active

soldiers. "you want to know, what them to do to be able to protect

around itself." By any means it is not anti-American "or against a

war", but it knows evenly that 1991 errors were made, says Robinson.

It advises the callers to pay attention also to the false alarms of the

chemical measuring instruments. "the gas mask touches down no

matter, whether it is a wrong or genuine alarm."

Robinson does not want to exclude that some veteran through-

slammed later than civilian, because he had been poisoned in

the war. Or otherwise somewhat, something unknown, so far

puzzling spoiled it. Veterans actually released. There murder-

end married men in the garrison are away Bragg in North Carolina.

Three of the four, which killed their wives in this year, had served

in the Gulf War. Of America mass murderer number one, the ex-

Gefreite Timothy McVeigh, was also a veteran of the Gulf War.

Before it killed and for it was executed 168 humans in Oklahoma

town center with a truck bomb, it had friends entrusted, actually it

after the return of the Gulf War of a psychological consultation to

submit had been supposed itself.

John Muhammad, the sniper of Washington, is also a Gulf War

veteran. Its former wife states, who war has him strongly changed.

And in Arizona the veteran Robert Flores shot recently three of

his professors. "you are ready to advance toward your creator?",

Flores asked its victim Barbara Monroe. Then it forced away three

times. After the Gulf War the life for Flores had become the curse.

Heavy disturbances of the digestive tract tormented it daily. For

it responsible the veteran made "the wind direction, when pioneers

blew up ammunition and shelter, in which nerve gas stored". Thus

it was located in its farewell letter.

High degree of ready for violence shank
There are not accurate numbers over the act of violence of Gulf

War veterans. Perhaps the acceptance is, it was inclined to force,

only one invention moves American fancy. From many Viet Nam

veterans it meant also, they were psychologically disturbed and

a danger for the public. On the other hand the neurologist and

psychiatrist William Baumzweiger mean, veterans of the Gulf War

exhibited "a very high degree" from ready for violence shank.

Baumzweiger is specialized in the treatment ill veterans. Not to

exclude that it receives soon new patients.

"the schutzanzuege do not function, the alarms also not - the

veteran sees Eric Gustafson after a repetition from 1991", fears.

It sits at the desk of its small office nearby the congress building

in Washington. It served at a pioneer brigade, and it is convinced,

"that we for 1991 the correct made". A recent war Gustafson faces

nevertheless with substantial skepticism. Together with other war-

critical gulf veterans it created therefore the group of veteran for

Common scythe. They collect signatures of veterans against a rash

war in the Iraq.

Its experiences move Eric Gustafson still. Hautnah he experienced

the fright of the modern war. "Kuwait town center after release, the

Highway of death, this incomprehensible destruction, the blood bath -

it was indescribable", says it. The veteran meets the "traditional

peace movement" nevertheless with critical distance. "you say this

and say that to respond without many humans or American values

thereby." Gustafsons a avowed goal is it to clear the Americans up

over the consequences of a new war. Above all, which concerns the

Iraqi population. "other Iraq" is to it because of the heart, "that Iraq,

which is besieged doubly: of Saddam as of the restaurant sanctions ".

The small people evenly.

As far as it can judge Eric Gustafson, the reactions veterans mixed

on an invasion the Iraq are. Former combat troops are rather for it

since they were encouraged in their faith at that time "on the correct

side" to have confessed. Many are however disappointed: "we did

these terrible things on the battleground to march and Saddam at

power leave around thereafter simply up and of it", explain to Gustafson

their tendency. It leans back. "the idea to begin a war to kill in order

to loose-will Saddam, and ten thousands from Iraqis to is in principle

wrong."

The former Gefreite Gustafson, US Army, 864. Pioneer combat

battalion, 1. Corps, considers according to the dilemma: Saddam

would be loving it gladly, "loosely however as and at which price?"

Rumsfeld and the falcons seem Gustafson "unbelievably naively".

Because stand for Saddam Hussein with the back now to the wall,

and Iraqi commanders "defend their homeland". Perhaps they

would therefore throw "their chemical arsenal" into the battle. "that

could entail a high number of American dead ones and surely very

high Iraqi losses." Why those of veteran for Common scythe to

caution advise. Nothing over-hurried! War only in the extreme

emergency and after Absegnung by the United Nations! An international

coalition, asks beautifully! And above all for the fact it ensures that the

GIs is protected against chemical weapons.

But, Gustafson says, needed it "the voices of those, those already

once on this battleground was" - to veterans as it or Joyce Riley,

which served now in the Gulf War as a nurse in the rank of a

captain and a spokeswoman of the American Gulf War Veteran

Association is, a veteran lobby in Versailles in the State of Missouri.  

It does not take a sheet before the mouth.   The president is it a

Graeuel.   Hello world:  Ask against George W.   Bush rise!  

The war prevent!   Clearance for interpretation does not give it

with Joyce Riley.   On the other hand!   Punktum!   She did not

speak "with only one veterans, which is for this war".  

Joyce Riley believes to have been manipulated, 1990 by the older

Bush.   Voluntarily it announced itself to the kommiss.   "I have the

president trusted, when he said, the Iraqis Kuwaiti babies from the

incubators would have thrown.  "which proved later than lie.   But

the entire Gulf War was "a fraud".   Who already would have

suspected 1991 that the government Reagan chemicals and bacteria,

under it spleen fire, had supplied at Saddam and had knowingly

watched, how Saddam Iranian troops guest?  If Rumsfeld states

today to know of it nothing is a "absolute lie".   Joyce Riley speaks

is very certainly, audibly accumulated annoyance.   Her married

man David suffers from the Gulf War syndrome.  

Mysterioese diseases?  "nothing", says Riley, "embitters to veterans

more than the conception of puzzling diseases.  "which happened,

is nevertheless obvious.   The causes are well-known:  doubtful

inoculation.   Poisonous gas.   Depleted uranium.   White the devil,

which flowed into the bodies veterans or which they inhaled.   And

because of these lies and suppressions grassiere now in the army

the distrust.   "the troops are not lucky", maintain Riley.   It talks

with active soldiers, "even with members about special-purpose

forces".   Protection from chemical attacks?  "absolute none! 

"1991 was defective many schutzanzuege.   Why thus should the

soldiers trust the war gentlemen this time?  "credit since that time

a religious arousing experience had?"  The nurse Joyce Riley feels

rear.   "99 of 100 veterans says to me that they do not support,

maintain a new war" them.   Corrosive disappointment drips from

its sentences.   We were used for heating, want to say them.  

Turning turn of the model officer

The former flight physician David Wiggins would agree it.   A star

of the army was he.   On rank POINT was to 23 under one thousand

cadets at the time of the conclusion because of the army academy

west.   Afterwards it completed a medicine study and worked on the

renowned walter Reed Armeehospital in Washington.   "I was a

model officer", say Wiggins.   Until it in February 1990 in the office

of its commander appeared and military service wehrdienstverweigerung

for conscience reasons requested.   "I carried out a 180-Grad-

Kehrtwendung and paid the price for it.  "

Despite its request Wiggins was shipped in December 1990 to

Saudi Arabia.   It stepped into the hunger strike.   In the Christmas

Eve 1990 the general staff chairman Colin Powell visited the troops.  

Together they sang at the end of the Weihnachtsgottesdienstes "let

peace on ground connection be".   A "bizarre scene", remembers

Wiggins.  

In January 1991 doctor undressed Wiggins from protest against

kidnapping his request on a road crossing in Saudi Arabia up to

his long pants, on which the military police removed him for psychiatric

observation.   After a healthy spirit had been certified to it, the army

placed it before a court-martial and ejected it.   "I am ashamed for

our politicians, who want to pull again into a war", say the physician.  

 And who in this war fights, the interests by David Wiggins one do

not represent.  

Also Charles Sheehan Miles rejects a new war.   Already on principle.  

After the end of the Gulf War the tank soldier refused the military service.  

One day in February 1991 remained sticking in its head.   An American

tank brigade fired at an Iraqi convoy, on which a tank truck with gasoline

exploded and poured burning fuel over the following vehicle.   Iraqi

soldiers sat in it.   Sheehan Miles watched, how the Iraqis burned.  

Afterwards it could not sleep any longer.   With the war it was finished.  

With all war.   Sheehan Miles in an office spent the remainder of its

service.   With Eric Gustafson he brought veteran for the Common

scythe into being.  

Kirt Love, the veteran from the Shenandoah valley, is not Pazifist.  

It leads war.   For itself, for its ill Mitveteranen, against those, to which

it puts the awkwardness of its life to the load.   In the Gulf War it was

in the middle in it and in front to.   "he experienced, says Bizarre

things" Love.   And boy, he had luck!   "I was convinced Saddam,

of its gas weapons use would make.  "before the Abmarsch to the

gulf the Gefreite Love" loaded body bags "on trucks.   For those GIs,

which would not return from the battleground.   "I said to my superior: 

Sergeant, I can have one body bag with my initials?"  The Sergeant

 did not find it merry.  

When the war began, the chemistry weapon warning devices

deflected. Love threw itself several times into its schutzanzug. In

May 1991, when the battle was struck, it watched, how Iraqi

ammunition shelters were demoliert by American blowing up

masters. "talked about the chemical weapons stowed away there."

Was the danger conscious to the soldiers? "O no, we were not

warned." Notion lots experienced fairy taleful fireworks: "the

chemicals burned down in different colors." A mad Trip! Later the

pentagon, Kirt Love stated 35 kilometers from the breakup had been

distant. "with it there was not even one and a half one kilometers;

you could run there."

Already superseded, Love became ill in the spring 1993. "I could

eat nor drink neither and had unbelievable pain." Meals felt to "like

broken glass, beverages such as battery acid". Soon adjusted

themselves "joint pain, memory disturbances, Migraenen and

neurological problems". Love lost the feeling in hands and feet,

felt neither cold weather nor warmth, still pain. "I did not have

notion, which that was, and of Khamisiyah I had never heard."

In the Iraqi Khamisiyah American pioneers had destroyed a

chemical weapon camp Saddams. According to groups of

veterans thereby over 100000 American soldiers were exposed

to the agent sarin. Khamisiyah became the symbol. Because

Khamisiyah was everywhere. In the dust of the depleted uranium

Khamisiyah, in the dark clouds of the burning Kuwaiti oil fields,

was in the Anthrax vaccine. When Kirt Love joined the alleged

puzzle, rage overcame him that both the pentagon and persistent

the existence of specific diseases Love as terrible betrayal of the

Golfkriegern denied, did not only feel the veteran Ministry.

Conspiracy theories erbluehten like poisonous flowers. Accusations,

some of it abstrusely, flew direction Washington, where the

bureaucracy rejected first each connection between the ill

veterans and their war service, in order to finally grant after

years, the symptoms would require detailed investigation.

Each month a 103-Dollar-Scheck

In June a scientific advisor committee of the veteran Ministry in

a report determined, the diseases could "not sufficiently by the

employment stress, war trauma or psychiatric diagnoses such

as post office trauma tables stress being explained". Kirt Love

was the rejecting answers of the veteran Ministry already 1997

wrong and turned directly to the white house. He could hardly

work, was poor and felt miserable. One granted it a ten percent

versehrtheit, paid off by a monthly check at a value of 103 dollar.

"my case is one of hundred thousands", says Love.

Toughly it has into the one permanent guerilla war against

the bureaucracy bit itself, an American Michael Kohlhaas,

which places OF information act of requests for the publication

of secret documents with the help of the Freedom and which

bureaucracy nervt. The fact that a new war stands against

Saddam on the agenda of the president can hardly seize Love.

"I must live each day with my illness and would not like not that

it is issued, says this 21 or 22-jaehrigen Kids, which would pull

into the war later like me" it. At all it does not think anything to

use American soldiers of ring around the globe "for the control

of the world". They are not to protect the United States, more.

On a sheet paper paints Love small circles. They represent

different groups of veterans and various authorities. Somewhere

in the midst of the Kringel the ex-Gefreite Kirt Love, a tiny

foreign body in a tangle of gear wheels, but by all means no

individual case is.

"I am always nervous, and my body behaves, as if race it with

300 kilometers per hour... I tremble and sweat... Fear conditions

and depression control my life ", wrote a Gulf War veteran

arrested because of homicide Steve Robinson?

Description of condition one abgewrack