WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- Iraq could use its chemical weapons for battlefield tactics as well as inflicting "mass destruction" against U.S. and British forces or the country's own citizens, experts said Tuesday.
As coalition forces approach Baghdad, there is increasing concern personnel loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will defend themselves using chemical weapons. Some news reports have suggested Saddam has authorized his republican guard troops to deploy chemical weapons if enemy troops cross an imaginary "red line" drawn around the city.
"Chemical agents are really battlefield tactical weapons," said Jonathan Tucker, senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Tucker, who was on a U.N Special Commissions team in 1995 to investigate Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capabilities, noted hundreds of tons of chemicals such as mustard or nerve agents would have to be used to cause mass destruction or deaths.
Instead, Iraqi troops might disperse chemical agents around Baghdad to accomplish terrain denial, preventing U.S. and British soldiers from entering certain areas because they are contaminated with chemicals, Tucker said. He added terrestrial denial also could be used to herd invading troops to uncontaminated points, where armed Iraqis could concentrate their firepower.
Because mustard and the nerve agent VX are "persistent" -- they stick around for weeks instead of evaporating quickly -- they would be likely suspects in a terrain denial tactic.
However, other factors might deter Iraq from using chemical weapons. For example, Tucker said, they would not be decisive -- they would just slow down an attack. In addition, the Iraqis have been warned, by thousands of leaflets dropped by coalition aircraft, that they will be tried for war crimes if they use chemical agents and are caught.
"Only if the survival of the regime is threatened would they resort to using them," Tucker said, adding this might be inevitable.
"Since he's going to be taken out of power, I can't see why he wouldn't want to use everything in his power," said Eric Taylor, a chemistry professor at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette and former captain with the U.S. Army Chemical Corps.
"He's in between the proverbial rock and a hard place," Taylor said. "But the only way to stave off (U.S. troops) is to use chemical or biological weapons."
Chemicals cannot destroy a building or even a chair, Taylor noted, but they can inflict mass casualties, even deaths. Also, biological weapons take too long to take effect, while symptoms from exposure to nerve agents, such as VX, can debilitate within minutes at the right dose. To counter a possible nerve agent attack, U.S. troops are armed with antidotes and protective gear, he explained.
If intelligence and detectors do not warn troops a chemical cloud is approaching or chemical-laden artillery shells are being launched, Taylor said the consequences could be serious.
"If everything goes well, a warning can be put out to troops," he noted. Then they can don their hoods and masks and they already are wearing protective suits. "The problem is if they don't know chemicals are being used," Taylor said. "That's when we might have a problem. But presumably they're ready."
