BY MEGAN ARNEY
In a move aimed at bolstering Washington's efforts to justify its bellicose stance toward Iraq, the Pentagon announced December 15 that it would begin to vaccinate the entire military - 1.4 million troops on active duty and another 1 million reservists - against anthrax bacteria. The vaccination is set to begin in mid-1998 with the 100,000 U.S. troops who are in the Persian Gulf, on the Korean peninsula, or slated to be deployed in those regions.

Anthrax has never been used in warfare. Nevertheless, U.S. war officials assert that at least 10 governments may have biological weapons. "The current world threat environment and the unpredictable nature of terrorism make it prudent to include biological warfare defense as part of our force protection planning," declared the Pentagon's press release on the vaccinations. "Our goal is to vaccinate everybody in the force so they will be ready to deploy anywhere, anytime," said Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, who is in charge of implementing the inoculation.

Washington has an armada of warships in the Persian Gulf, as well as 29,000 troops in the region. Since the end of the 1990 - 91 assault on Iraq, the U.S. rulers used a seven-year-long embargo to squeeze the government in Baghdad, in hopes of toppling it and installing a regime that better serves Washington's interests in the oil-rich region. The embargo, which is estimated to have killed over 1 million people, is supposedly to be kept in force until a U.S.-led United Nations inspection team deems Baghdad does not have weapons of "mass destruction."

Imperialist provocations continue
Using the excuse of looking for anthrax and other so-called weapons of mass destruction, the UN inspection team is demanding that Baghdad open any and every building to them. So far, the Iraqi government has refused, saying it is a question of national sovereignty.

The chief UN inspector, Richard Butler, did report that the UN snoops have gained access to a number of "sensitive sites," and added that they had not found any "genuine information on suspected germ warfare programs," according to the Associated Press.

Nevertheless, Secretary of Defense William Cohen asserted December 15 that Baghdad could have produced enough anthrax to fill six missile warheads. An unidentified Iraqi government official replied that Baghdad "does not possess even one gram of that biological .. material," according to an information ministry spokesperson.

Washington stepped up the sensational reports on anthrax and its effects during the Clinton administration's war preparations last month. On November 16 Defense Secretary Cohen went on TV holding up a five-pound bag of sugar and warned that an equivalent amount of anthrax could kill half of the population of Washington, D.C.

Although Washington's most recent attempt to launch a military air strike against Iraq in mid-November failed, the Clinton administration has kept up the pressure to justify the continued embargo and possible future assaults on the Iraqi people. There have been a plethora of news articles and opinion pieces in the big-business media on the use of anthrax and other chemical weapons of "mass destruction," as well as a Defense Department report titled, "Proliferation: Threat and Response" in November.

Anthrax is a disease that normally afflicts animals, especially sheep and cattle. Anthrax spores can be produced in a dry form that, when inhaled by humans, cause severe pneumonia and death. Michigan State Department of Health has manufactured anthrax vaccine for the Pentagon since 1964, and some veterinarians and others who work with animals have used the vaccine since the early 1970s.

Although the germ has never been unleashed on a battlefield, during World War II London tested anthrax bombs on Gruinard Island, off the coast of Scotland. The bacteria killed sheep up to 250 yards downwind, and Gruinard's soil was rendered unusable. Access to the island was denied until 1990.

When the anthrax inoculation idea was first floated several years ago, reported the Washington Post, military tops raised hesitations given the increasing illnesses suffered by U.S. soldiers after the Gulf War, which may have been caused by one or a combination of several vaccines. The U.S. military also gave initial, but not complete, doses of the anthrax vaccine to about 150,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in the Persian Gulf during the 1990 - 91 assault, according to the New York Times.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported December 7 that in November the Clinton administration issued new guidelines for targeting Washington's nuclear arsenal. For the first time U.S. nuclear strikes can be called in response to the use of chemical or biological weapons.  
 
 
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