Everything is not as it seems -
new Gulf War Undiagnosed Illness
ruling has little effect
When you read the Federal Register notice on Gulf War Illness
you have to read between the lines on what VA is saying.
Of course they can extend the time on compensation for Gulf
War vets, its just that VA will make sure that almost no one files
under "Undiagnosed Illness". 13,027 out of 280,623 filed for this.
That is .4% of the total Gulf War veterans trying to get compensation.
About 3,384 got that rating. Which is the basis of this decision.
What about the Gulf War Review, Congress and others backed
away from Environmental Agents on the content. So in order for
VA to produce this as a rag they ended up letting Deputy Director
Steve Sloane do this from home so that no one could influence it
before publication.
However, Mark Brown has made it clear he wants NO input on
the content. Which means he just wants to cite the IOM report on
Gulf War and Health: Physiologic, Psychologic, and Psychosocial
Effects of Deployment Related Stress which has no recommendations
for Gulf War vets at all. Just OIF. That is more important than two
Gulf War researchers looking for vets to particpate and the $1,000,000
Gulf War tissue repository looking for donations.
Worse yet, VA leaned on the VA Gulf War Biorepository in Tucson to
go silent. To keep them out of the Gulf War Review and keep this
a hidden asset. This sounds like several people stepped in for a
variety of reasons to poison this. VA, Congress, and the RAC.
The RAC is running in silent mode trying to produce its annual report
to Congress hoping to somehow upset the balance even though its
tunnel vision has only made things worse. In the end they will make
superficial recommendations that benefit it's present and past members
while once again ignoring outside ideas from veterans not on the RAC.
VA and DOD are firmly in control dolling out scraps. The members
of the RAC are willing to settle for scraps even if it means failure.
What matters is what do we do for the 300,000 plus Gulf War vets
who need help in all of this. How can we give them hope in 2008,
and start some kind of treatment program now instead of 10 years
from now. Not by begging for scraps or settling for leaving things
in place as they are.
So two people met with Sec. Gordon Mansfield and got him to agree
to allow more vets to file as "Undiagnosed Illness". How many out there
will be told by a VSO to do it, and how many will be granted if VA
doesn't use the term "Undiagnosed Illness" in a C&P exam with Gulf
War vets? 25% get the rating that filed, but how many of those filed
early on and how many file on that today. This is a one percent of one
percent, that's spitting in a bucket.
This is a ploy to make Gulf War vets think that something is being done
when in fact nothing is being done. We need a larger shift in policy, this
decision by VA is a stall tactic while in the background things are getting
worse. No new clinic, no new treatments, and status quo at VA EA
on how we are to be handled. Much less the Gulf War Review.
I know better that this is not enough, and that others know this but
will settle for scraps. What do you think?
Sincerely
Kirt P. Love
Director, DSBR
