[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 25 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H711]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MEDICAL ISSUES AFFECTING OUR SOLDIERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Petri). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. 
McDermott) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, listening to the last speaker here on the 
floor, I almost had the feeling he was a Member of the minority, as 
though enforcing the rules was something that on his side there was not 
the possibility to do.
  But I digress. I really came here to question the war. I have 
questioned the war in the past, and I really am here to stand and 
question what the Pentagon is saying and not saying about medical care 
and about medical issues affecting our soldiers.
  The Pentagon has claimed no ill effects from the use of depleted 
uranium. I have piles and piles of information that comes out of the 
Defense Department or the War Department, whatever one wants to call 
it, that says that there are no problems with depleted uranium. Over 
the weekend British newspapers reported that the British Army, the 
British Army, our allies, are telling their soldiers in Iraq that DU, 
depleted uranium, can cause ill effects. They give them a card that 
tells them that they can go and have their urine checked, and they have 
a right, they should ask about it if they are having any problems 
whatsoever.
  Now, one has to wonder about our War Department sending our troops 
out there into war and continually denying that there are problems with 
depleted uranium in the face of the effects that we have seen among 
Iraqi women and Iraqi babies in southern Iraq as a result of the 1991 
Gulf War. A 600 percent increase in leukemia among children, a 600 
percent increase among women delivering children having deformed 
babies, 600 percent, and our government continues to decide that they 
can say there is no problem.
  Now, the Brits, for whatever reason, are more honest with their 
troops. They are not saying there is not danger out there. They are 
saying there is danger and here is how they can check to see if it is 
bothering them.
  I know as a doctor that the evidence is not conclusive. The issue 
needs to be studied. It needs to be directly gone after to find the 
answer.
  Today I picked up the newspaper. One can learn a lot, as Yogi Berra 
said, if one reads the newspaper. If people read the newspaper today, 
there is a story about a G.I. from Tennessee, a nice young kid from 
Tennessee who went to war and got his shots like everybody else and 
nearly died from an anthrax vaccination. We have had arguments with 
sailors and Marines and soldiers for the last couple of years that 
there were some problems with the vaccinations. But, in fact, no, no, 
no, we are told they are going to war, they have got to have one of 
these. And the fact is that we now have the evidence that some of the 
fears of our troops were legitimate. Just because somebody is a 
corporal or a private or a lance corporal does not mean that he does 
not understand or that he cannot be right. One does not have to have a 
colonel's eagle on their shoulder or stars for a general to be correct. 
And we have treated our troops as though it was in their minds or, I do 
not know, some explanation.
  This young man has not recovered yet, but his medical claim is still 
pending. They do not want to blame it on the vaccination even though it 
happened right after. And there are other stories. I could go on with 
stories. But they remind me of my experience since 1968 in the Vietnam 
War when we sprayed defoliant all over the trees and it fell down on 
the troops and everybody said Agent Orange is no problem, Agent Orange 
is no problem, and we really did not deal with post traumatic stress 
disorder.
  On Thursday night when I got home I finished up what I was doing, and 
I turned on the TV at 10 o'clock, and I caught a program called Without 
a Trace. It is a story of a young man who comes back from Iraq. His 
business has gone to pieces because his brother has not been a very 
good businessman. His girlfriend is having a relationship with her 
boss. And he is pretty depressed, and he goes out and gets involved in 
a couple of armed robberies and tries to straighten his life out. That, 
my friends, is post traumatic stress disorder, and it is coming as the 
100,000 people come home. We must be prepared to deal with that and 
acknowledge it when we see it. It is our duty to the people that have 
served for us.

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