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Rummy on the Anthrax Vaccine
Excerpt from Secretary Rumsfeld Remarks to the Newspaper Association of America/American Society of Newspaper EditorsQ Mr. Secretary, hi. Iâm Marilyn Thompson, currently with The Washington Post, about to move to Lexington, Kentucky, to be editor of the Herald Leader. SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh. I thought you were going to move The Post to Lexington. (Laughter.) Q (Laughs.) No, I donât think so. SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh. I got that mixed up there. (Laughter.) Is Don Graham here? Where is he? Just kidding. (Laughter.) Q I have a question about the anthrax vaccine policy. Senator Bingaman has written to you asking you to review this policy in light of the absence of -- the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and in light of the disparate treatment of soldiers across the nation who have refused this. And Iâm wondering what youâre doing to review this policy, if anything, and if you feel that there should be a more uniform treatment of military personnel who refuse. SEC. RUMSFELD: I take it the issue is that the armed forces had a procedure whereby people who were -- at least in the last three years -- people who were moving into combat zones where there was a concern about the use of chemical or biological weapons were required to have the anthrax shots. And I believe that the policy which existed, and which I endorsed, was the right policy. If you have a unit of people that are depending on each other and they have different skills, it puts everybody at risk to the extent you go into combat with some people having had the protection and other people not having that protection. So the logic of it seemed to me to be sound. The concern that existed on the part of our armed forces about the use of chemical weapons was so great that our folks literally got into these protective suits every day in hot weather and performed their functions because they believed that that was the appropriate thing to do. Second, we found, as I recall, several thousand sets of Iraqi protective suits south of Baghdad -- Iâve forgotten the name of the city -- which indicates that they had prepared their forces to function in a combat zone where chemical weapons would be used. We know they also used those weapons. So it would seem to me -- the anthrax policy and the protective equipment, it seemed to me to be a proper decision. Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-24 |
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