CarolC - 23 Jun 06 - 07:13 PM

"Question for you Hubster...

If the chemical munitions were still lethal at the time of our invasion of Iraq, why the hell didn't Saddam use them?

He certainly didn't show any reluctance to use them during the Iran/Iraq war."

The answer to that would be the same reason he did not use them in 1991. The Soviet Union and it's Warsaw Pact Allies all developed and possessed Chemical and Biological Weapons, their military doctrine believes them to be effective against "human wave" attacks. NATO basically renounced the use of these weapons in the 1950's, and developed Tactical Nuclear weapons as a counter to either the Soviet Union or any Warsaw Pact country's use of Chemical or biological weapons. Saddam was quite aware of this possibility and knew that if he did use his WMD the outcome would not be good, also one of the reasons that in both conflicts use of nuclear weapons as an option is never taken off the table.

Saddam did use WMD against Irananian human wave attacks during the Iran/Iraq War.