190526 Polemic - Interaction of People, Health, Environment and War

-1. Environment, 2. Health, 3. Operations in Hot Zones, 3.1. Venezuela, 3.2. Congo, 3.3. Pakistan, 3.4. Syria, 4. Mephitic. Previous Week 190519-Polemic.

Topics: POWs, Surgical Safety, 1918 Flu, HIV, CBRN and other weapons/ tactics of war, Famine, Bread, Chlorine, Secrecy

-1. Environment: The Military Is the Largest Single User of Fossil Fuels. Elizabeth Warren Wants to Change That, 190519-Polemic-1.

-2. Health: Treat Guantanamo Detainees in the United States. Military Considers Sweeping Changes to Surgical Safety Programs. U.S. Army’s Tweet Prompts Stories of Harmful Effects of Military Service. Military Families Face ‘Unlivable’ Conditions in Installation Housing Around the Country.

            -2.1. Death from 1918 Pandemic Influenza During the First World War: A Perspective from Personal and Anecdotal Evidence, military censorship might have minimized mortality figures; The Spanish Flu and Wartime Secrecy: Creation of a Global Pandemic, 190526-Vaccine-6.1. 181209-5, <ADDED 180311-180304-3.3>3, 180114-2.2.

-3. Operations in Hot Zones:

            -3.1. Venezuela. <ADDED 190526-181209-4>.

            -3.2. DRCongo. <ADDED 190526-180513-1.1>. 190526-Vaccine-3.1.

            -3.3. HIV has spread before in conflict zones with its poverty, lack of sanitation and access to medical care, rape as a weapon. Now Pakistan is experiencing that, Rogue Doctor' Gives Hundreds of People HIV with Contaminated Needle, About 500 People Test Positive for HIV in Pakistani District, HIV Outbreak Sparks Panic in Southern Pakistan, Pakistani Children Worst Affected in HIV Outbreak, Medical Investigation: How Did 494 Children in One Pakistani City Get HIV. This will not help distrust of medicine, and likely to support conspiracy theories. 190526-7. <ADDED 190526-180513-1.1 -180422-1.1>.

            -3.4. US Says Assad May Be Using Chemical Weapons in Syria Again^$. U.S. Says Signs Syria May Be Using Chemical Weapons, Warns of Quick Response. Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons by the Assad Regime in Northwest Syria. U.S. Yet to Find Evidence of New Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria^$. US Probes Suspected Chlorine Attack. Syrian Doctor Describes Latest Alleged Chemical Attack as US Mulls Response. | There are also indications of a scorched earth strategy [Tweet, Tweet]. Wheat As a Weapon of War in Syria, Why Syrian Bakers Are Still Making Bread in Spite of the Civil War, going to great lengths to preserve a little bit of normalcy. Coda: The Battle Against the Evidence.

-4. Mephysis (Mephitic + Physis): Biological and Chemical (Radiological, Nuclear) have been increasingly misleading terms on the topic of toxicity in the environment and health threats in the context of military operations and planning. There are a number of threats that are not covered by CBRN and biothreat to include: deception, disinformation, pollution of air land and water, smoke from fire, infectious disease, chronic sequella, PTSD, STD’s, stress, accumulative doses, poor dental care, poor sanitation, iatrogenic, scorched earth, famine, pestilence, UXO found years later, storage and manufacture of weapons and components, disease vectors, lead in soil and people, herba and biocides, depopulated areas, food borne disease, forced migrations, hindering of medical care, poisoned water, contaminated blood and other medical supply, attacks on public health infrastructure, lab accidents (or sabotage) <ADDED 190324>6 <ADDED 190303>11 -181111-VCP-II-USA>, <ADDED 180923-180408-5.4>4, and gubergenic (government harm), etc. The combined terms were chosen because it is largely unfamiliar and its definition is close enough to adapt to Polemic. | Third of Companies Got Mail Threats in Past Year While Biological Screening Doubled. | Popcorn not recommended, NatGeo Hot Zone, 180729-11.

Snapshot of 190526-Polemic. editor@warontherocks.com

Whenever environment and people intersect politics spontaneously generated. Even more so when ¹the environment and military intersect.

It seems that some people did not know that being a ²prisoner and military service in general are bad for health. The question come up again if ^2.1 wartime secrecy lead to the 1918 flu pandemic.

^3.1Venezuela and the ^3.2DRC remain the top choices of where not to have a war if one want to avoid infectious disease. ^3.3Pakistan still ranks high as a poverty and warlike area that is not a good place for children. Syria remains the top choice for use of ^3.4chemical weapons to stay in power.

BioChem is becoming increasingly dissatisfactory as a term to convey the idea of biosphere threats in an operational area. CBRN and biothreat do not cover the full range of threat and consequences. Considering ⁴Mephysis (Mephitic + Physis). Another possibility is an acronym: BCNRTBSSSICSPUAMG.