[Peace-discuss] reply to news gazette letter to the editor from AIC Stephens

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

The following is my response, with supporting documents, that I sent to AIC 
Stevens, USAF, who wrote a letter to the Editor of the News Gazette that was 
published in the December 29 edition.  

Airman Bryan Stevens 
PSC 9 Box 0027
APO, New York, NY 09123-0027

Dear Airman Bryan;                          December 29, 2002

    Greetings from Illinois and Happy New Year.  I read with great interest 
your letter to the editor that was published in the Champaign News Gazette on 
December 29. Thank you for writing. Your willingness to support the rights of 
the AWARE protesters to protest is to be commended. During October 1967 I 
took the same oath you did recently "to defend the constitution of the U.S. 
against all enemies both foreign and domestic" and to obey the orders of 
those above me. However, those orders must be legal. Any combat action that 
we take must be based on a verified threat to the actual security of the 
United States and not for economic or political reasons.  I am a combat 
veteran of both the Vietnam War and Gulf War I (40% disabled from Gulf War I 
combat related injures) and also have been called already to come back on 
active duty for Gulf War II. They need our entire team but we are all 
disabled from previous combat injuries.  I served in the USAF during Vietnam 
and have been in the Army since 1980. During the Gulf War, I was on the 
theater medical command staff as a member of the 12th Preventive Medicine AM 
team, a member of the famed 3rd U.S. Army Medical Command's "Bauer's 
Raiders", the health physicist on the 3rd U.S. Army Depleted Uranium 
Assessment team, and also a member of the 3rd U.S. Army Captured Equipment 
team.   I worked for General Tsoulos, General Brown, General Franks, General 
Schwartzkopf, and General Pagonis. During 1994-1995 I was the DOD /DA 
depleted uranium project director.  I have held ranks from E1 (Airman) 
through O4 (Major) and I am in line for LTC.  My expertise is combat 
emergency medicine, as I was a combat medic and medical team leader (Super B) 
in the infantry for 3 years, NBC or WMD, combat operations, and medical 
intelligence. I have also taught counter-terrorism for years to law 
enforcement.  In civilian world I was/am a university professor of 
environmental engineering, a physicist, and school teacher. I am sorry but as 
a Army officer who has been involved in all aspects of the Gulf War I and 
also involved during all planning phases for Gulf War II since 1995 I must 
tell you that from my professional and ethical perspective the upcoming Gulf 
War II is completely unjustified. The primary public reason for going to war 
is to disarm Iraq.  That means to eliminate all of its weapons of mass 
destruction while we, the U.S, retain and continue use our own on military 
personnel and civilians. Heck, we already blew Iraq's WMD's up years ago. The 
U.S. Senate has verified in the Riegle report (extract enclosed) and recent 
new Iraqi report (enclosed) that the United States military and civilian 
companies gave or sold Iraq the WMD's that they used with our full knowledge 
and consent on Iranians and Iraqi Kurds. We made a movie: "Thanks of a 
Grateful Nation", that documents the efforts of Jim Tuite, a good friend,  in 
preparing that report for the U.S. Senate. Iraqis then made more WMD's from 
our provided stuff that they used on us during Gulf War I. During December 
1990 we decided at the command headquarters to blow up Iraq's WMD's in place 
(Schwartzkopf's autobiography "It Does not Take a Hero" page 390) resulting 
in incomplete destruction and consequent release of  WMD's on military and 
civilians with serious adverse health effects and lasting.  We then blew up 
over 105 more WMD sites right after the completion of the ground war 
releasing lots of WMD's all over on everyone. Scott Ritter (Major, USMC, 
UNSCOM) then went in and blew up the rest until 1998. DOD officials continue 
to lie about why Scott's UNSCOM team left Iraq in 1998. They say Iraq forced 
them out and stopped the inspections.  That is absolutely wrong! U.S. DOD 
officials ordered Scott's United Nations teams out of Iraq so they could 
launch Operation Desert Fox. Scott Ritter is a good friend of mine and I 
helped train some of the inspectors.  Scott is telling the truth in spite of 
overt retaliation against him by DOD officials.  Retaliation against any 
military officer, government employee, or civilian who tells the truth is 
also occurring. We also used pesticides with terrible health effects (see 
enclosed report).  The U.S. also used and still is using depleted uranium 
munitions, our own dirty bomb and a weapon of mass destruction in violation 
of international law (see enclosed report). Iraq just like Afghanistan (see 
enclosed congressional report) is all about control of oil nothing more 
nothing less. Gulf War I was based on Iraq invading Saudi Arabia  and that 
Iraqi soldiers had committed numerous atrocities in Kuwait, that we never 
verified as specified to justify Gulf War I. . We actually baited Iraq to 
invade Kuwait. Kuwait was part of Iraq until England took it away and set up 
Kuwait by force years ago to control oil shipments. The U.S. and England have 
maintained combat actions, bombing and killing anything that they deemed a 
threat within the "No Fly Zones" for years. That includes children and women. 
According to Dr. Hans Von Sponek, of the United Nations, the United Nations 
never authorized those actions or the "no fly zones".  The last issue is the 
removal of Saddam from power. That action is illegal according to 
international laws and treaties, but, the U.S. ignores laws and treaties 
anyway. The sanctions have been a disaster for all civilians per WHO and UN 
and many NGO's.  The consequences of the Gulf War are described in my invited 
talk in the U.S. Senate (enclosed) and Major Denise Nichol's (USAF, Ret.) 
analysis (enclosed) of the recent VA Gulf war casualty report.  Now you are 
about to go to war in a contaminated region with defective equipment (M40 
series gas masks) and defective MOPP suits. The M 40 series mask pops of the 
face when you move your jaw or get sweaty. See enclosed congressional 
directive to DOD's Sec. Def. Rumsfeldt that this still ignored. I would not 
use the M40 series mask for anything because your life will depend on it and 
it is defective.  When is the last time you qualified with a rifle? How many 
rounds did you fire?  If you think that you will not ever have to fire a 
weapon in combat you are flat wrong. So is the war justified? NO!!! Are U.S. 
troops prepared for war and is equipment operational? NO!!! The U.S. General 
Accounting Office Reports (GAO -03-137T  dated 1 October 2002 and numerous 
other reports) verify that U.S. troops are not prepared and equipment is 
defective. Does Iraq posses a offensive capability that can threaten the 
United States? No, as verified by our work during the 3rd U.S. Army Captured 
Equipment project, intelligence documents, and UN assessments as cited in 
"Newsweek" article about September 25. Iraq does not even possess adequate 
defensive capabilities. You do not need to use any classified information to 
derive these conclusions. By the way the U.S. used and still is using WMD's 
on our own civilian and military population (Project Shad- see enclosed 
report). I have given a lot for you to think about and it is intentional. You 
wrote about us anti-war activists that quote "I feel that you are misinformed 
and are acting solely on emotion". The expertise of these individuals in 
political science, environmental engineering, religious studies, 
international affairs, military operations, and general knowledge is 
exceptional. The world wide information sharing and distribution system is 
also excellent. We also have the University of Illinois here with all of its 
resources and experts available to each of us upon request. These 
individuals, all of us, are not just working from emotions but from an 
extensive knowledge base that spans over 40 years and many wars and conflicts 
for many of us. AWARE and other peace groups have also sponsored numerous 
"teach ins" during which local, national, and international experts have 
shared information and discussed implications. Newspaper stories, television 
documentaries, congressional coordination, and internet communications have 
also increased knowledge. I am describing a system where by knowledge is 
optimized though research, acquisition, discussion, and debate. That is 
completely different from the military where knowledge and news is absolutely 
controlled and substantial and extremely important knowledge is willfully 
omitted or withheld.  Congressional, United Nations, National Academy of 
Sciences, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Veterans Affairs, and 
Inspector General reports have all verified the willful omission and 
destruction of information and military records.  Please note that the 
individuals tasked with information control of military and private media in 
the Pentagon and at CENTCOM are old friends of mine and I once participated 
in their efforts.  Sorry but you and others members of the military are the 
individuals that lack information based on your comments and not us "anti-war 
activists".  I am an antiwar disabled combat veteran who was and still is 
involved in military operations as I have been for over 35 years. But Airman 
Stevens you do not have to believe me, enclosed congressional reports, or 
other information that I cite or provide just go do your own research. If you 
have any questions please ask me and I will reply. Yes, you can share this 
with your commander and friends. Please do!!!  President Bush, Secretary 
Rumsfeldt, and all others in DoD know about our group of concerned senior 
military officers, civilian scientists, government employees, and religious 
leaders by name and have deliberately shut out our reports and 
recommendations.  Please have nice day. Last, you need to really look at who 
is killing whom all over the world from Korea to Afghanistan to Alabama to 
Germany to Puerto Rico to California to Hawaii etc.! Also look who is 
trashing the world's environment as always. Yes it is the U.S. and we wonder 
why everyone is pissed at us.  Also the U.S. is the largest weapons exporter 
of all through our Foreign Military Sales branch in the Pentagon that 
includes conventional and WMD's.

Peace:


Dr. Doug Rokke
Warrior and Patriot
Major, Medical Service Corps, USAR