The Pentagon Has Had Its Shot

Deputy Defense Secretary John P. White concedes that until now the Pentagon has done too little to identify the origins of the mysterious ailments reported by thousands of veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. White continues to insist nonetheless that “the Defense Department is, effectively, the only place” further research into the problem should be conducted. That effort will now see the team investigating Gulf War illnesses expanded from 12 to 110 people. But this step-up comes late in the day, and hardly excuses the years in which the military, while going through its investigatory motions, clearly did not take very seriously the maladies reported by Gulf War vets or search vigorously for causes. That sluggish record inspires little confidence that the Pentagon can be counted on finally to resolve this mystery.

An independent investigation, like that recommended by the staff of a presidential advisory panel although not favored by the panel itself, would have a credibility that the Pentagon lacks. For it was the Defense Department that first denied, then minimized what appears to be an unusual prevalence of illnesses among soldiers who fought against Iraq. It was the Defense Department that did not discover until last summer that thousands of troops--the latest estimate is as high as 20,000--might have been exposed to toxic chemicals and nerve agents when an Iraqi munitions depot was blown up in March 1991. Indeed, until then the Pentagon had insisted that U.S. forces had never been exposed to such chemicals, this despite a widely circulated classified report by U.N. investigators saying that some exposure may have occurred.

By resisting an independent investigation the Pentagon seeks to continue to control what information will be dug out of its files, what interviews will be conducted and what facts will be made public, in the same way it tried to control the flow of information during the Gulf War. Those who may have been made ill as a result of their service deserve better than that. The Pentagon shouldn’t be left to investigate itself. An independent inquiry is needed.