Gulf War veterans now have an inkling of hope from a federal government agency after the way the Defense Department has treated them.

Again and again Pentagon officials have denied that Iraqi chemical and biological weapons were responsible for veterans’ health problems. The reports from the Pentagon and a White House panel repeatedly claimed that wartime stress was a likely source of the health problems.

A study by the General Accounting Office, an investigative branch of Congress, criticizes the Pentagon’s investigations into Gulf War Syndrome. More than 80,000 Gulf War veterans have sought medical checkups from the government.

But how can wartime stress be cited as the cause of birth defects in the children of many gulf vets?

In addition, the Pentagon last year said 20,000 troops might have been exposed to the nerve gas sarin after the demolition of an Iraqi ammunition plant. The Pentagon, in this particular case, finally admitted something after overwhelming evidence from the soldiers’ video cameras forced it to.

But the syndrome affects many more than those 20,000 and, with the way the Pentagon has been, it appears the veterans won’t get help from the government for years.

This is the same treatment received by the Vietnam veterans who were exposed to agent orange.

Are the gulf war veterans who must pay for treatment going to have to wait until they are 50 to get help?

We hope not.

We hope the report from the General Accounting Office will speed up actions by the Pentagon and the White House on the matter of gulf war syndrome.

It’s about time some organization in government took action on the situation.