Oct 20th 2014, 20:30:53
Actually they tried a very bad deployment of chemical agent during the actual war, at the 'black line'.
A troop of US tankers were approaching the black line and saw Iraqi soldiers in full MOPP gear dragging stuff out like some kind of obstacles. Being good tankers they knew those Iraqis were up to no good, and the best solution to an Iraqi causing trouble came in 120mm.
What they were trying to do -- and could easily have done successfully given more time -- was to bring a lot of 55gal drums of pesticide (note: pesticide is a type of nerve gas - fatal in the right concentration and debilitating in much smaller quantity) and position them along the US route of advance. Then as US forces got to the area the Iraqi artillery would pound the position, aerosolizing a lot and contaminating a lot of area. This would have set off every chemical detector for miles and been attributed to Iraqi artillery firing chemical warheads.
Would that have killed a lot of Americans (or Iraqi's in the area for that matter)? Probably not. Would have made many sick and more importantly set off every chemical detector for miles and dramatically changed how we were attacking, perhaps even stopped the attack on bagdad.
Anyway, Yes Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction program. But no, it was not as advanced or active as THE WORLD thought (Russian, French, UK, US etc... intelligence agencies all agreed).