It took the better part of two decades, but a panel of scientists has finally confirmed that health issues related to the 1991 Gulf War are real, and not figments of the imagination.

The nearly 175,000 U.S. soldiers who served in that war — and who have been suffering since the early 1990s — didn’t need a group of scientists to tell them their aches and pains are real.

The science panel only came into play after a mandate from Congress, whose members wanted to get to the bottom of the Gulf War Syndrome mystery. Now, the mystery has been solved.

The maladies suffered by Gulf War veterans are a direct result of exposure to two chemicals, one used to protect soldiers against the effects of nerve gas, and the other used to ward off desert insects.

But another question is still hanging out there — why did it take an act of Congress to get help, and perhaps some closure and peace of mind, for the brave men and women who answered the call of duty in the Gulf War?

The short, blunt answer is that this nation’s leaders are quick to call young men and women into the service of their country, but once that service has been completed, those leaders are woefully slow in offering help to the veterans who so desperately need it.

Last March, the Pentagon quietly changed the military’s definition of what is, and what is not, a combat-related injury. The rules are much tougher now, which means men and women injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are having a much more difficult time getting the medical attention they need.

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Take, for example, the injuries suffered by Army Sgt. Lori Meshell. She was forced to dive for cover during a mortar attack while on duty in Iraq. In the process of seeking cover, she shattered a hip, and crushed bones in her back and knee.

She has since had the shattered hip replaced, and reconstructive surgery on the knee. More surgeries are needed — yet, under the Pentagon’s new definition of combat-related injury, her wounds don’t qualify her for medical payments. She’s now on the hook for tens of thousands in medical bills.

As is Marine Cpl. James Dixon, wounded twice while on duty in Iraq, once by the blast of a roadside bomb, and later while in proximity to a land-mine explosion. He suffers from a brain injury, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. But the Pentagon doesn’t want to pay his medical bills.

Those are just two examples of thousands of soldiers wounded in combat zones, but who now face daunting medical bills because the military no longer considers those injuries battle-related.

When the new policy started leaving wounded soldiers on their own, the Disabled American Veterans reacted with expected outrage, calling the new policy a “shocking level of disrespect for those who stood in harm’s way.”

We’ll take that sentiment a step further, and call the military’s attitude about wounded veterans shameful.

Using the Pentagon’s new injury standard would mean that a soldier injured while training for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan would not receive the same medical care as a soldier wounded in the combat zone. That notion is, quite simply, preposterous and outrageous.

Our government is morally and ethically obligated to offer medical care to any and all who wear the uniform — no matter how or where the injury occurs. To do anything less is the worst form of disrespect.

Once these wounded heroes come home from one war, they shouldn’t have to fight another war to get the medical help they need — and have earned.

December 1, 2008