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RE: Letter to Olean (NY) Times-Herald Editor
Bob:
That's a model
letter we could all emulate to advantage! Just facts, no arm-waving,
intent and meaning unmistakable.
Bravo!
Ted
Rockwell
Below is a letter I E-mailed to the
Olean (NY) Times-Herald Editor.
The editorial to which I refer is
at:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=386&dept_id=444925&newsid=6907854&PAG=461&rfi=9
I
am sick of seeing apparently responsible journalists falling for Rokke's
baloney.
=============================================
Mr. Jim
Eckstrom
Editor of The Times Herald
Dear Editor:
Your Sunday
editorial said that your "early reaction was to look for holes in his story, to
somehow discern a way to discount the claims of Dr. Doug Rokke as an anti-war
quack enlisted by the mobilizing peace movement in the country." I think that
you should have looked harder.
"Dr. Rokke, a nuclear physicist and major
in the Army Reserves, was a hand-picked Army expert on cleanup of radioactive
debris..." Actually, Dr. Rokke's doctorate is not in physics, much less nuclear
physics. He was not hand-picked. In my opinion, he was not then and he is not
now an expert on cleanup of radioactive debris. He came to active duty for the
Gulf War along with thousands of other Army Reservists. He happened to be on the
scene when Army civilians from Rock Island Arsenal came to the battlefield to
recover damaged US armored vehicles.
"Looking more like a rumpled
professor (actually, that’s exactly what he is)...." He was for a couple of
years an assistant professor of environmental science at Jacksonville State
University, Alabama, but never gained tenure. Using my definition of "is," he is
not a professor. However, most times I have seen him, including when he was in
military uniform, he was rumpled.
"He said DU caused many of the more
than 206,000 cases of Gulf War Syndrome reported by veterans of the Gulf
War...." He has no proof of this statement because no proof exists. This is
despite the efforts of many experienced, dedicated, highly qualified
researchers, both inside and outside the Department of Defense, who continue to
look for such proof, not only for depleted uranium, but also for many other
substances.
"Dr. Rokke said it’s a travesty that, despite the increased
use of depleted-uranium ordnance expected in the almost-imminent conflict, U.S.
military gas masks and protective clothing are useless in keeping out DU
particles." Actually, it is a travesty that you printed this blatantly false
statement as if it were true.
"The Pentagon denounces Dr. Rokke as a liar
and insists soldiers are safe from DU exposure." No one at the Pentagon, myself
included, ever publicly labeled Dr. Rokke as a liar, to the best of my
knowledge. However, I do assert that our soldiers are "safe from DU exposure."
Some soldiers struck by friendly fire still have DU particles in their bodies
with no observable effect on their health. Physicians determined that leaving
these DU particles in these soldiers was preferable to the surgery required to
remove them. The Army and Veterans Administration continue to monitor their
health.
"The professor, Army officer and veteran of two wars (Vietnam
being the other) [has] rapidly developed cataracts and kidney problems..." DU is
incapable of causing cataracts. Uranium is capable of causing kidney problems,
but this effect has a threshold and is a chemical, not radiation, effect. I
suggest that the amount, if any, of DU in Dr. Rokke's body is nowhere near this
threshold and challenge him to prove otherwise. Your implication that DU caused
these alleged ailments are easily refuted if you check the medical
literature.
"Why hasn’t the effects of DU and it alleged connection to
Gulf War Syndrome been more widely reported?" Try a Yahoo search and you will
find that it has been widely reported here and around the world.
"With
the Pentagon unwilling to discuss the matter there are few credible sources, so
the story dries up." My experience is that the Pentagon is always willing to
discuss this issue; call the Army's Public Affairs Officer. Responsible
reporters do their homework and most discover that DU is not a significant
health risk. Maybe that is why "the story dries up." Many credible sources
exist. Just for starters, look at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
regulations on allowable uranium exposure. You are not trying very
hard.
"One wonders how U.S. troops feel about the potential exposure to
DU." Ask them. Ask Gulf War veterans whose use of DU against the enemy defeated
that enemy. Ask these same veterans how they felt when their DU armor deflected
enemy munitions and kept them alive. Ask the current soldiers and Marines how
they would feel if they didn't have DU munitions and had to watch enemy armor
deflect their munitions. DU munitions and DU armor win our battles, often when
nothing else would be effective, and saves American and American allies lives.
DU is not a significant health hazard on the battlefield unless, of course, you
are the enemy.
"The military isn’t doing itself any favors if it’s
beginning to see troops as expendable parts that are secondary to newer and
better ways to kill the enemy." This remark is uncalled for and is an insult to
the thousands of people who devote their professional lives to protecting the
health of the soldiers of the best Army in the world. It is an insult to our
combat commanders who do everything possible to fight and win our battles with a
minimum of American casualties.
For your information, I have a doctorate
in nuclear physics, am a board-certified health physicist, am a veteran of
combat in Vietnam, and, for the last seven years of my military career, was the
Army Radiation Safety Officer.
With the slightest of effort is this
Internet age, you could have easily poked "holes" in Dr. Rokke's "story." I know
enough about journalism to think that you didn't make much of an effort. Perhaps
you had already made up your mind before you started writing and only pretended
that you gave it some thought.
Sincerely,
Robert Cherry, Ph.D.,
CHP
Colonel, U.S. Army
(retired)
=======================================