Re-posted from Telesur English, with many thanks. A timely reminder from intrepid journalist Abby Martin of The Empire Files at Telesur of the many ways the US Government has abused and exploited military servicemen and women since the time of WWII by enrolling them non-consensually in classified, experimentation programs for the testing of deadly bio-weapons, chemical weapons, physical weapons, and then refusing them medical care for harm caused. These have included radiation exposure, lobotomies, Sarin gas, Agent Orange, depleted uranium shells.
Hard-hitting and panoramic, this overview with historic war footage offers grim evidence of long-lasting US Government policies of private exploitation and abuse of soldiers propped up by public facades of gratitude for their service–exploitation as reported by many in the military that continues today. Which raises the question: who or what are we supporting when asked to “support the troops”?
For the whole article, please visit Telesur. Excerpt and video below.
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WATCH: The Empire Files: Used & Betrayed – 100 Years of US Troops as Lab Rats
U.S. government denies 80 percent of insurance claims from veterans of the first war on Iraq, even though one similar program cost less than a third of a warplane. An estimated 250,000 servicemen are expected to endure lasting effects from their service there.
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers were also exposed to Sarin gas during the two wars, not because the Iraqi army used it, but because they were ordered to destroy stockpiles and then breathed it.
Officers told their subordinates to disregard the alarms meant to inform them it was time to evacuate. The Department of Defense admitted in 2015 what had happened.
Depleted uranium shells, intended to maximize destruction, have also poisoned both civilians and servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cancer rates in Iraq skyrocketed after the invasions, as did rates of birth defects in hospitals in Fallujah, one of the cities hardest-hit by these toxic shells.
Politicians espousing the mantra of “support the troops” are not the friends of servicemen, Martin claims, “but their greatest enemy.”
Source: Telesur
