Our View: Vaccine decision is fair
Monday's court ruling that members of the military cannot be forced to accept anthrax vaccinations was the proper decision, balancing as it does the necessity of military discipline and the civil rights of our Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen.
At the heart of this decision is a law passed by Congress in response to the still-mysterious Gulf War Syndrome that continues to afflict veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. After thousands of veterans of that war began suffering unexplained illnesses, Congress passed a law in 1998 allowing members of the military to refuse certain experimental drugs. That was a reasonable response by Congress ---- to this day, researchers are unsure as to what causes the various maladies afflicting those who served in the Persian Gulf War. There was widespread speculation that the Gulf War Syndrome was caused by exposure to Iraqi biological or chemical weapons, or perhaps even as an unintended side-effect of inoculations intended to safeguard our troops.
While there's no proof that either of these potential causes was behind Gulf War Syndrome, the still-recent memory of American armed forces being unwittingly ---- and unwillingly ---- exposed to radiation in the 1950s as part of Cold War military research was enough for Congress to institute this new protection.
And Congress left the military command a loophole in the event of unanticipated bio- or chemical weapons development that might precipitate the need for mandatory inoculations: The president simply has to declare that the inoculation or drug in question is necessary.
Given that neither President Bill Clinton nor President George W. Bush has seen fit to declare the anthrax inoculation mandatory, members of our armed forces have been well within their rights under that law in refusing to take them.
Locally, several Marines and sailors have been prosecuted for refusing to take the anthrax inoculations that were ordered in 1998 by then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Nationally, hundreds refused ---- citing rare but potentially dangerous side effects. Many were drummed out of the service after conviction, their military careers cut short but what can now only be seen as unlawful prosecutions.
Good military discipline and order rely on respect for law along the entire chain of command.
While the brass may have believed the anthrax order was legal, and that there was no choice but to prosecute those who refused to obey it, that is clearly not the case any longer.
The best way to restore good morale and proper discipline is for the Pentagon to immediately abide by this court decision. Current courts martial proceedings against any and all service members for refusing the anthrax vaccine should be immediately dropped; convictions already obtained should be set aside.
And any former service members kicked out based on their refusal to take the anthrax shot ought to be welcomed back to duty ---- to waste their training, skills and patriotism by chasing them from the service for merely defending their legal rights is a waste this nation cannot afford.