War could destroy our health
Slick lies boost
the alliance
Truth is not only the first casualty of war: it is put through a thousand agonies at the hands of propagandists. And no lie goes down as well as a really big lie.
So we should not be too surprised that the screeching headlines about Saddam's alleged 'environmental terrorism' following the major oil leakage in Kuwait tumed out to be an elaborate fabrication, and a fairly effective ploy to win naive
*green" elements away from the anti-war movement.
Far from Saddam having tumed on the pumps to create the huge oil slick polluting the
Gulf, the Observer revealed on January 27 that the leak was the result of an American bombing strike against the Kuwaiti terminal - and that in the process, the US planes damaged a British Tens of thousands of hospital workers will come under intense pressure as soon as the ground war gets under way in the Gulf, and the flow of casualties begins.
Management have been preparing to implement Operation Granby', a detailed package of proposals to make up to 7,500 NHS hospital beds available to military casualties from the Gulf. But the plans raise as many questions as they try to answer.
The Granby plan covers only five days of ground war, because planners have assumed the war would be over within this space of time. There is no provision for the creation of further space if it continues and the casualty count is higher than anticipated.
It also deals only with beds. making no proposals for the additional staffing that will be required in order to care for the
UPDATE submarine hiding beneath one tanker, and nearly killed agents of the Special Boat Squadron swimming on a secret operation underwater!
For many who have closed their minds to the human tragedy being caused by the massive allied bombing of Iraqi cities and military targets, the emotive pictures of cormorants and other wild life in the Gulf caught up in the oil slick was able to stir up anger and hostilly against the alleged culprit - Saddam.
As the actual perpetrators of the disaster, and with much of Vietnam still suffering the prolonged ecological dislocation from the systematic and deliberate US raids to defoliate its forests, it ill-behoves anyone in the State Department to denounce anyone else for "environmental terrorism".
service
severely ill casualties. While most health regions and districts have hundreds of beds closed for lack of cash, others have closed them for lack of nursing staff: and though some extra nurses might be expected to respond to an appeal to help care for war casualties, it is by no means certain that sufficient numbers of staff with the right qualifications would be available.
It is likely that existing staff will be pressurised to cancel holidays, and work long hours of overtime: others will be diverted from their usual wards to care for the wounded, leaving NHS services in chaos.
Another huge question mark hangs over the issue of funding: ministers have told NHS managers that they should spend money as necessary to care for the casualties, and claim it back later. Yet anyone with any ex-
Media lles attempt to confuse activists
In fact the war - and the oil slick, possibly even bigger than the many already created by US oil corporations around the globe - does threaten long-lasting environmental damage to the Gulf, which has already suffered the consequences of the Iran-Irag war. As a relatively shallow, closed sea, the Gulf is especially vulnerable to pollution.
How cynical, therefore, of the US forces to bomb Kuwaiti oil installations - part of the in perience of this goverment's attitude to the NHS will think twice before believing that a blank cheque is really on offer: the likelihood is that districts and regions will find themselves lumbered with huge debts, forcing even more rounds of cuts in services.
The arrival of large numbers of severely burned and otherwise badly injured troops could stretch every aspect of health provision to the limit: the Brad ford football stadium fire a few years ago was enough to exhaust all blood supplies in the North of England. 7,500 Gulf casualties could strain the Blood Trans fusion Service to breaking point.
At each point management will be pressurising health workers, many of whom oppose the war, to make sacrifices as "professionals", while the health unions, like the rest of the labour oclallat Work: NO GULF WAR OUI UF THE GULF frastructure of the very country they are supposed to be liberating! The US forces are clearly sticking to the letter of the statement by the Kuwaiti royal family who insisted - from the seclusion of a luxury hotel thousands of miles from the fighting - they would be happy to see their country reduced to rubble, so long as Saddam is driven out and they can take over again.
movement, stay tactfully silent on the issues.
In some hospitals, health workers against the war have begun to organise ad-hoc meetings to discuss the issues, and show that while they will not refuse to treat patients they do not support the Tory war effort. Successful meetings and protests have been held in Oxford, Manchester and at the London Hospital.
It is important that similar initiatives spread to other hospitals, getting the message over to the public that while the government prepares to pour limitless funds into the Gulf war-chest, the war effort could mean an end to most routine medical treatment. The old slogan of "beds, not bombs has never been more appropriate.
Harry Sloan