DATE: Tuesday, October 28, 1997             TAG: 9710280019

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

GULF WAR SYNDROME BAD MEDICINEFEW REPORTS REVEAL PERVASIVE INCOMPETENCE, YET THE SOLUTION PROPOSED IS NOT TO FIX WHAT'S BROKEN.

When a nation goes to war, it puts its military personnel in harm's way. It shouldn't do so carelessly.

When casualties occur, the nation also has a duty to minimize the damage and to avoid behaving carelessly. The latest reports on the handling of Gulf War Syndrome show that the government has failed in its duty to bind up the nation's wounds.

For years, military personnel suffering a range of ills have claimed that something they were exposed to during their service in the Persian Gulf made them sick. Their claims were often dismissed as combat stress. Yet a variety of toxic agents was present that might have played a part, including chemical weapons and pesticides. In at least one case of poisonous friendly fire, American personnel unwittingly unleashed Iraqi chemical weapons on themselves.

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., who ran the recently concluded House investigation, says the federal government has had ``a tin ear, a cold heart and a closed mind'' regarding Gulf War Syndrome. A White House report has also faulted the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Among the charges are a lack of due diligence and a ``pervasive inclination'' to ignore evidence. Pentagon and Veterans Affairs investigators are accused of arrogance and myopia. In a development that is now standard practice in Washington, logs concerning chemical weapons detection efforts that were allegedly lost have suddenly turned up.

The House report essentially pronounces Defense and Veterans Affairs incompetent and recommends that the problem be given to someone else, possibly the National Institutes of Health. Defense Secretary William Cohen acknowledges past errors but argues that the Pentagon is getting better.

Unfortunately, the sufferers aren't getting better. Of course, the real causes may be manifold and a comprehensive truth may never be known. A complex environment with burning oil fires, chemical weapons, exotic diseases and the vaccines and pesticides to combat them doesn't lend itself to a single, simple answer.

But an objective, scientific investigation whose results can be relied on shouldn't be too much to ask. Maybe for the sake of the victims, another agency ought to be given the job. But that isn't the only issue.

From nuclear tests in the '50s through Agent Orange and Gulf War Syndrome, the government's record has included callousness, cover-up, lost or falsified records, bad science and lazy medicine.

Making Gulf War Syndrome some other government agency's problem doesn't address the institutional ills identified in the House report. And Secretary Cohen's inclination to let the usual suspects have another whack at it fails to inspire confidence.

These reports persuasively demonstrate that things are wrong with the way the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, which are charged with safeguarding the health of our warriors, are doing their jobs. The solution is neither to trust them nor to get a third entity to duplicate their efforts. The solution is to acknowledge that the system is broken and figure out how to fix it. KEYWORDS: GULF WAR SYNDROME

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