Many soldiers agree.
They are more frightened of the mandatory regimen making them sick than they are of possible court martial. Many news reports have accused the Pentagon of experimentally inserting the substance squalene in place of the usual alum in the anthrax vaccine. A few researchers claim to be able to detect antibodies to squalene in veterans, but Pentagon officials assert that testing is pointless because squalene was never used in Gulf War vaccines. They also deny that such testing could differentiate between antibodies to naturally occurring squalene in the body and those of synthetic squalene from a vaccination. Even if squalene antibodies are found in veterans, they argue, this does not prove that squalene is responsible for Gulf War illnesses.