[Ramius]

Ummm... somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but *my* NBC warfare training was that VX is a *gas*. Nerve agents don't function as a contact poison. Some blister agents, maybe, but that's a really ineffective way to deploy, since it is easy to avoid and defeat.

Biological agents only work in the strategic sense, not the tactical sense. They take too long to work, and are too easily defeated with antibiotics and immunizations once detected. The only time that bio weapons really work are when they can be deployed on an unsuspecting population. We're not unsuspecting.

This would be a really stupid time for Saddam to deploy chem/bio agents. Not that this will occur to him... but we're way to ready for it.

[Ramius]

Instead of "don't function as a contact poison"... I should clarify that they "aren't *useful* as a contact poison. Sure, they could be deployed as a dried liquid on a surface, but that's not a very useful way to deploy.