To help avoid/avert confusion, if this discussion continues here, it might help to better understand an oft-used phrase.
Here's the Wiki page about Gulf War Syndrome (GWS):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_syndrome
As you'll see, this term was initially used to describe the ill-health symptoms experienced by soldiers who participated in the 1991 Gulf War.
Physicians (military and civilian) were still trying to 'get their act together' about how best to treat these people when US-led military conflicts occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Soldiers who were stationed in these two countries and experienced ill-health symptoms were
initially categorized as having GWS and treated with GWS-learned medical protocols, but physicians learned fairly quickly that the symptoms from the later 2 groups didn't exactly fit the existing definitions/treatment protocols.
More recently, physicians realized that the symptoms and illnesses reported by soldiers stationed in Afghanistan differ from those stationed in Iraq. What makes the task of separating the differences more difficult however, is that many soldiers were stationed in
both Afghanistan
and Iraq.
What makes the task most difficult, though, is that a majority of soldiers served multiple tours of duty in one or both places.
Ex.: Did Soldier X develop lung infections in Afghanistan, but only during his/her second tour, a time period when we see lung infections spike? Or did the lung infections develop because s/he already was diagnosed with early-stage COPD* during his/her tour in Iraq?
There exists true distinction between people who served in/around 1991 as having the GWS diagnosis, and those who, most unfortunately, came later.
At this point in time, using the term GWS as an umbrella term to discuss this awful topic on ESMB is reasonable enough. But when reading the US Army-generated bulletins, DoD policies, and other GWS-related medical literature, please note that in some documents GWS
only means the 1991 group, not those who served later or in different places.
The US soldiers who served in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, along with their military and civilian physicians, don't all agree that GWS is the proper term for the illnesses from which they suffer. With so many overlapping ill-health symptoms reported by so many soldiers it's extremely challenging to all directly concerned, which almost guarantees that it's near-impossible for those not directly concerned.
What remains true, however, is that every reasonable person wants these people returned to good health.
By way of simple comparison, those here who were involved with the Los Angeles sea org in the 1970's have entirely different recollections than those who were in the Australian sea org in the 1990's.
Here's a single-post thread that will also help to better understand a portion of this topic:
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?34019-Book-Recommendations&p=879891&viewfull=1#post879891 It's a very long post, but if you read it all and then think a 'purif' will help in any way, please let me know.
JB (*COPD = Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)