Atropine

Actually, upon thinking about it a little more, I believe the Iraqi attempt to buy 1.25 million atropine injectors was pure theater designed to frighten us. These are not inoculations after all. They are designed to be injected when you are exposed to nerve agents. Indeed, if I recall my Army training, they are downright dangerous if you inject them when you aren’t exposed. So, why would Iraq need them to gas us? If they use persistent agents against our rear areas or against choke points to impede our advance, they won’t be going in there. If they use non-persistent gas against our troops, they would need to anticipate counter-attacking and driving us back for it to make sense that they would need antidotes. I suppose they might believe we would retaliate using our own gas. We won’t but they might believe it. But if so, they have enough experience buying military supplies from around the world under embargo. They know that buying smaller amounts from widely separated sources would more likely go undetected. One big order was designed to be noticed. It was designed to scare us off. Saddam may still plan to hit us with gas, but this attempted purchase was not part of that plan. It was bluster to break the will of what he thinks is a weak America.

It won’t work. Saddam is a dead man walking; and anyone obeying his orders to use gas against us will pay a heavy price either during or after the war.

On to Baghdad.