March 17, 2003

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

On February 16, 2003, Sixty Minutes and Mike Wallace produced a report with a bottom line conclusion that based on "US military sources and Congressional sources," "American troops have neither the proper equipment nor the proper training to survive a chem-based attack." Mr. Wallace also stated that "these sources simply don't believe the optimistic words about it coming from the Pentagon."

Given the reputation of Sixty Minutes and Mike Wallace over the years for reliable reporting, it is respectfully suggested that you, as our Commander-in-chief , owe the armed forces and the American people more than general assurances or conclusions through your spokesman. There are reportedly serious problems relating to a very high percentage of defective equipment and inadequate training, documented by Army Audits last year and much more recently in the General Accounting Office confidential briefings of members of Congress. The reports from the Kuwaiti theatre by the troops that have come to Sixty Minutes before and after the February 16th report provide an in-the-field currency that demands a factual response.

The war against Iraq is the most telegraphed conflict in American history - from your Cabinet Secretary briefings to the material provided the mass media. On February 8, 2003, you have directly stated: "We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons". Moreover, although the vulnerability of US troops to such weapons is far less than that of World War I soldiers with their mass formations, the subsequent differences in deployment, strategy, and asymmetrical, overwhelming force changes equations but not the requisite state of readiness.

There is a historic good reason for readiness in practice. Tens of thousands of US soldiers were exposed to serin gas when US forces blew up Iraqi munitions dumps in 1991. Well documented is the sale of raw materials to the Iraqi regime in the nineteen-eighties by US corporations, under Department of Commerce export licenses, for its chem-bio arsenal. (Senate Banking committee report, 1994). As you know so well, the Reagan and first Bush administrations viewed Saddam Hussein as a US ally against the revolutionary regime in Iran, and supported him accordingly.

Clearly your administration recognizes it is on notice. There can be no surprises.

Congressman Christopher Shays, the Republican of the House National Security Subcommittee, told Mike Wallace the following: "We've had 12 years now to deal with it, and it's clear that we haven't. We're still hearing from people out in the field that they're not getting this equipment yet and they're not trained for it. It is a fact that a vast majority of our troops are not properly trained in biological and chemical warfare."

Sixty Minutes also reported about inventory systems that are broken and about Congressional investigators finding that "429 of these brand-new $200 protective suits were sold on ebay by the Defense Department for just $3 a piece." Beyond Army Audits of large amounts of defective equipment is the issue of decontamination gear and water. Some of us have received feedback from troops in the Kuwaiti field which raise doubts concerning this issue that have not been allayed even at this late date. Mike Wallace also referred to a General Accounting Office report that pointed to very few military doctors who know how to treat chemical or biological sickness.

To Pentagon assurances that recent readiness moves have rectified past undeniable deficiencies, Mike Wallace responds with the program's wrap-up: "No, they do not know what to do, according to the GAO's top bio-chem investigator, who briefed key members of Congress this past week. The GAO would not let him talk to us on camera, but he told the Congress that what the Pentagon told Sixty Minutes is simply not true, that despite the Pentagon's recent push to prepare, training, protection equipment and decontamination plans still fall far short of what US troops would need to survive a chemical or a biological attack".

We ask that you not send troops into a theater facing a potential bio-chem attack, without a guarantee that:

a. Our soldiers have been adequately outfitted with working equipment that will enable them to survive bio-chem attacks.

b. Our soldiers have been given adequate training to enable them to use their equipment and protect themselves in event of bio-chem attack.

c. Support equipment and resources to deal with a bio-chem attack (including decontamination gear and water) are provided and maintained in adequate measure.

Unless 60 Minutes is gravely mistaken -- and that prospect seems most unlikely, given the source and the underlying reports upon which Mike Wallace relied - it appears impossible for you to make these assurances at this time.

In enlisting, our troops agree to risk their lives to protect the nation. In exchange, it is a leadership responsibility to insure that our troops are given every opportunity to survive. This does not seem to be the case in the area of bio-chem warfare preparedness.

In addition we are urging immediate and thorough Congressional investigations.

Sincerely,

Vice-Admiral Jack Shanahan, USA, Retired
Colonel David H. Hackworth, USA, Retired
Colonel Carl Bernard, USA, Retired
Steve Robinson, Executive Director of the National Gulf War Resource Center