Norman D. Dicks: “I think we knew. We certainly understood that he possessed chemical and biological weapons, and this is another problem…”

“I think we knew. We certainly understood that he possessed chemical and biological weapons, and this is another problem, by the way. As my colleague knows, people say all this was a great victory. I have heard people get up and say it showed the great might of the U.S. military forces. I would point out we had 500,000 troops out there who were, if Saddam had had accurate Scud launchers and missiles, that he could have devastated us because we did not possess adequate theater missile defense. So when we talk about these issues and talk about deployment of troops in the future, as my colleagues know, we could be faced by someone who would use chemical and biological weapons. That is why I also worry about the potential of lockout, of not being able to get our reinforcements in in a timely way, because an enemy could use chemical or biological weapons on our airfields and therefore stop us from bringing troops and tactical aircraft into the region. So this is an area where we need a lot of work. We also need to make sure we have adequate gear and equipment for our soldiers when we are deploying them. We are pretty good on chemical again, and somewhat weak again on biological. So there are a lot of things that need to be done here, but I have never been as frustrated on any issue except maybe for one, in trying to get the Pentagon to listen as I have been on this one. And recently I want to compliment Dr. Berger out at Walter Reed.…”