PTSDs: a telling phone call - Democratic Underground

donsu

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Tue Dec-27-05 12:48 PM
Original message

PTSDs: a telling phone call

Wash. Journal had a section on vets suffering from PTSD: do they really have it? if they have it are they getting good medical care? is the VA doing it's job well?, etc etc.

the very first phone call was from an Iraq vet who was rightfully upset over the way the bushgang treats vets. and he said he has PTSD, radiation, and some other injures to his body. the host, no callers, picked up on that and said RADIATION? the talk just went on about PTSD.

I think this phone call should be immortalized.

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BikeWriter

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Tue Dec-27-05 12:55 PM
Response to Original message

1. Sure radiation, just like we had Agent Orange exposure.

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TheDebbieDee

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Tue Dec-27-05 12:57 PM
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2. Radiation poisoning resulting from prolonged

exposure to the depleted uranium in either the tanks or the armour piercing rounds that's used by the US Army now.

What's more,I read an article last week (don't remember where) that speculated that the Director of the Veteran's Administration left the job recently when it was found that a research study pointed to the fact that prolonged exposure to depleted uranium causes Gulf War Syndrome. The departing Director knows that the VA is too underfunded to take care of the vets that are suffering symptoms of the syndrome.

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TheWraith

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Tue Dec-27-05 01:57 PM
Response to Reply #2

6. Depleted uranium doesn't produce radiation.

That's why it's "depleted," it's had the primary radioisotopes removed. Even normal uranium produces little to no gamma radiation, which is the harmful kind. The only thing it does produce is alpha particles, which can't even penetrate skin and have an absurdly short range. Uranium is really only dangerous if it gets vaporized, and can get into the lungs. That might produce a small radiation hazard, but you'd probably have much bigger problems with heavy metal poisoning. The latter is more likely the cause of some of the health complaints.

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donsu

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Tue Dec-27-05 01:04 PM
Response to Original message

3. the point is that our troops have been and are being poisoned by DU

the bushgang is trying to suppress this info.

the point is that this vet caller said 'radiation' as if it was the common cold. and as if it was a common condition of his companions.

radiation is lethal!

radiation doesn't go away.

radiation can be spread via seamen, vaginal fluids.

agent orange is horrible. DU radiation is worse.

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flamin lib

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Tue Dec-27-05 01:37 PM
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4. Don't get me wrong, DU is bad boogie and probably worse than

Agent Orange, but from all the research I can find it isn't about radiation. DU is a heavy metal and like all heavy metals is stored in the body and screws up a lot of organs. It's worse than lead, mercury or platinum poisoning. When a DU round strikes armor a lot of it vaporizes into ultra fine dust and can be inhaled or absorbed into wounds or mucus membranes.

If I'm completely wrong, be gentle and help me find the sources that back up the radiation danger.

This isn't flame bait, I promise.

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TheDebbieDee

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Tue Dec-27-05 01:45 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. Thanks for the info. I had no idea how

DU works, I only know that prolonged exposure causes chronic illnesses and birth defects.

Not only are tens of thousands of American soldiers being exposed to DU in *'s war, but countless hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians as well!

Who will take care of our soldiers and these civilians when they become ill (if they haven't shown symptoms yet, they will be soon)? What about the thousands of children in Iraq and the US that will be born, are being born, with birth defects?

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TheWraith

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Tue Dec-27-05 02:01 PM
Response to Reply #4

7. You're precisely correct.

The danger from radiation is basically zero. DU is a heavy metal risk, not radiation.

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