Hussein's Worst Weaponry Is a No-Show, So Far
WASHINGTON — Two days into the fighting, what is most remarkable about the war against Iraq may be what has not happened: no chemical or germ attacks, no Scud missile launches, no strikes on Israel.
Iraqi forces still might launch such attacks as American and British forces dash toward Baghdad for what could be a last bloody confrontation. Some might have been prevented by coalition forces, which have seized control of suspected missile launch sites in western Iraq to block attacks on Israel.
Saddam Hussein's regime has long insisted that it no longer has weapons of mass destruction, a claim U.S. officials reject. The fact that Hussein has not yet used any such weapons raises questions for officials and analysts about the condition of the military he has commanded for a quarter of a century. In the face of the onslaught, the loyalty of his forces may be crumbling and his chain of command may be broken.
"We're ready to have him do his worst," one U.S. official said. "We're still waiting."
U.S. military planners have been worrying about what Hussein could do since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The billions of dollars spent since then to develop antimissile systems and shield ground forces from chemical and biological attack are in part a result of the threat Iraq was believed to pose.
Since U.S. troops began pouring into the region last year, planners also have been trying to figure out how to prevent Iraqi forces from setting fire to the country's more than 1, 600 oil wells or from blowing up dams along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to block the advance.
Yet the Iraqi military's threat so far has not lived up to its potential.
Despite some erroneous reports on Thursday, the Iraqis apparently have not launched any of the banned Scud B missiles, which were their most damaging weapon during the 1991 Gulf War. Hussein apparently has fired no more than a dozen shorter-range missiles, although he was believed to have had hundreds in southern Iraq and was expected to lob many of them into U.S.-led forces in Kuwait.
Iraq has set fire to only a handful of oil wells and tampered with only three more, according to a U.S. official. In Kuwait 12 years ago, Iraqi forces lighted 700 oil fires, triggering environmental devastation.
Decreasing Opportunity
This time, there's no sign that Iraq has even tried to use a chemical or biological weapon or sought to blow up a dam.
