Perot: Government must solve Gulf illnesses soon

ATLANTA - An impending second war against Iraq makes it urgent for the government to find a scientific explanation for mysterious illnesses reported by Gulf War veterans, former presidential candidate Ross Perot said Saturday. <br> <br> Soldiers who served in the 1991 war have complained of memory loss, anxiety, fatigue, balance problems, muscle and joint pain and a higher likelihood of birth defects in their children. <br> <br> Perot has joined some Gulf veterans in criticizing the government, particularly under President Clinton, for being slow to investigate the illnesses and for dismissing them as simply stress-related. <br> <br> ``They have to solve this problem now, before we go after Saddam Hussein, or there&#39;s going to be another big dose of it,&#39;&#39; Perot told the National Gulf War Resource Center conference. <br> <br> Perot has paid for research by Dr. Robert Haley, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, that has suggested exposure to toxic substances is to blame for the Gulf illnesses. <br> <br> The resource center is a private umbrella group for veterans. It honored Perot, a Texas billionaire who lost presidential bids in 1992 and 1996 and founded the Reform Party, at its annual conference in Atlanta. <br> <br> To cheers and whoops from an audience of about 200, Perot praised Gulf soliders for being persistent in seeking treatment and government benefits for their unexplained injuries. <br> <br> ``Yours is a classic case of people who went over, served, sacrificed and got the worst possible type of wounds,&#39;&#39; he said. ``The nice thing about a bullet wound, at least, is that you can see it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> He also pledged to press the Pentagon to award Purple Hearts to Gulf soldiers with serious illness. The government has acknowledged a scientific link between Gulf service and higher rates of Lou Gehrig&#39;s disease. <br> <br> The speech by Perot came a day after federal Veterans Affairs officials admitted there were flaws in a study that concluded Gulf soliders who were exposed to nerve gas in Iraq were less likely to die than those who were not exposed. <br> <br> The Pentagon has said about 101,000 soldiers were exposed to deadly gases when a chemical weapons depot in Khamisiyah, in southern Iraq, was demolished by U.S. engineers following the allied victory. <br> <br> The resource center claims 130,000 Gulf veterans remain sick. <br> <br> Perot said he had high hopes for a new panel formed by VA Secretary Anthony Principi to investigate Gulf War illness a panel designed to include veterans of the war. <br> <br> He said the Clinton administration should have directed top experts at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rather than the Pentagon, to probe the illnesses. <br> <br> ``This group&#39;s mission was to dismiss these health problems as stress and ignore wounded soldiers,&#39;&#39; he said. ``You don&#39;t leave the wounded behind, right? Somehow all that got off track after this war was over.&#39;&#39;

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