Word: poisonous
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...case of Saddam, the name-calling is far from preposterous. He has unleashed a blitzkrieg against a weak country on his border and committed mass murder -- using poison gas, no less -- on Iraq's Kurdish minority. But there is nonetheless something pernicious about the analogy. Regardless of how those making the comparison try to qualify its implications, there is a danger that many of their readers and listeners will, at least subliminally, take the point to its invidious extreme: Saddam equals Hitler, ergo Arabs equal Nazis. As a brutalizing corollary, the forces fighting the Jewish state, from P.L.O. commandos...
Iraq's ambassador to Greece, Abdel Fetah al-Khazreji, said last week that his country's chemical weapons would be used only "if we are attacked by a foreign power." But Saddam dropped poison gas on Iran repeatedly during their war and used it against Iraq's own rebellious Kurdish citizens. He could fire it in rockets, missiles, artillery shells and bombs. Mustard and nerve gases, while deadly, are not miracle weapons. Both sides' troops are equipped with protective masks and clothing and both are prevented from operating effectively while wearing the cumbersome gear. Poison gas does not affect planes...
...through a process called salinization. As the heat of the sun evaporates irrigation water, salts are left behind. The water also flushes additional salts out of soils with high concentrations of minerals, leaving them to dry on the surface into a cakelike residue or to dissolve in groundwater and poison plant roots...
...Sunni Muslim, though most Iraqis belong to the rival Shi'ite branch, as did Khomeini. Saddam responded by invading, confident that his powerful, Soviet-equipped army could easily smash the Ayatullah's ragtag militia, but the Iranians fought back. When the going got especially rough, Saddam turned to poison gas, a horror weapon outlawed after World...
While fighting the Iranians, Saddam was also waging war against the rebellious Kurds, who make up about 19% of Iraq's population. There too he relied on poison gas, not against invading soldiers but against civilians, women and children. It took eight years for the gulf war to end in a stalemate, with a loss of an estimated 75,000 to 150,000 Iraqi lives and the country's economy in ruins. To rebuild from the wreckage, Saddam needed more oil revenues, and when Kuwait interfered with his plans, he reached -- as ever -- for his pistol...