Chemical Weapons and Dodging a Bullet

Ted Galen Carpenter of Cato on Why Didn't Iraq Use Chemical and Biological Weapons Against U.S. Troops?

As U.S. troops continue to search for evidence of Iraq's alleged arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, an important question needs to be asked: Why didn't Iraq use those weapons on invading coalition forces? That such weapons were not used was one of the biggest (and most pleasant) surprises of the war.

Carpenter goes on to summarize the four possibilities regarding why these weapons weren't used. I agree with his analysis, and further, I'm extremely thankful that the weapons weren't used. As I said previously, had they been successfully deployed, the American casualties would have been high due a high rate of gas mask failure in the current DoD inventory. Those who served with a faulty gasmask know just how fun a full dose of CS gas can be when training. There's a real tragedy in the waiting on this issue as I discussed in multiple posts here, here, here, and here. The pro-war crowd, especially those who've never served have no clue just how big a bullet we dodged when Saddam failed to use these weapons against our troops.

Chickenhawks should probably just go back to their Top Gun and Pearl Harbor videos and pretend I didn't say anything. Ya'll don't really give a shit anyway.

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