Do you believe there is Gulf War Illness, and is it our governments fault?

Back in 1995, 20/20 or 60Minutes did a report on the DoD's investigation in Gulf War Syndrome. Turns out, there were numerous weapons caches that were destroyed but the winds changed and almost all Marines in Kuwait were now downwind of all of these chemical weapons cache disposal sites. The VA always claims ignorance.

I think that any and all countries that had chemical weapons and had them blown up and leeched into the ground or scattered to the winds is suspect in unknown nastiness that especially affects outsiders. Add to that burning vehicles, depleted uranium, oil fires, poop fires, and critter bites......etc, etc. I remember the GI clinic at Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC) having a cute sign that read "We want your poop!" They collected ???? samples and got bacterial samples that were previously undiscovered. Everyone remembers the smell that accompanied the running of their water. It was worse than the morning after "All You Can Eat Taco Tuesday." EPA regulations weren't high up on the "Saddam Do" List. Add to that the Mummy movie sized shamals that lasted 5 days and left your exposed flesh like weeping, pink goo. It's amazing any of us lived. Not to be cold hearted , but it was the same for the poor Vietnam veterans. Agent Orange? You can drink that stuff like Kool-Aid! If you worked with MEK (cleaning solvent) in the 60's and 70's (80's?), that stuff didn't even require you to wear gloves! It does nothing to the human body but will consume vegetation? Nuclear bombs! All those soldiers walking towards the blast! Winds shift and now thousands of Americans develop crazy cancers in Nevada and New Mexico along the recorded wind directions. Nothing to see there either. Wait until the majority of veterans/civilians die off from "non-specified" causes and then acknowledge the risk. It wasn't until a few years ago that the VA got SLAMMED with the backlog with AGENT ORANGE cases. They took their sweet time on that one. I've had so many surgeries related to my bowels and the Army and VA says it is normal. 8 surgeries and recurring infections and colon staplings are normal and I draw 0% disability. I just want someone to give me a diagnosis of "poopy old man butt mystery boo boos from far away places" so at least their lack of a proper term for what is messing with me doesn't mean that my problems don't exist! I'm here to tell you, on a pain scale of 1-10......colon staplings are the 10! I just got my lower back carved open 3 days ago and that pain was a 6. I don't care what they call it, just name it something!

Is Gulf War Illness real? Yes I believe so. Is it our government's fault? I don't know and I don't know if we will ever really know.

My ship deployed to the Red Sea during Desert Storm and I've heard of vets from the same battle group being diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome/Illness. I personally have suffered some of the symptoms on the list almost from the time we came home. IBS, chronic fatigue, memory loss, etc. Is it Gulf War Illness? I don't know and I've never been ready for them to poke around on me to find out. The whole thing has a bad stigmata as if it's in our heads, etc. PTSD is real but look at the stigmata attached to it. I know several Desert Storm vets who've said the same.