A war of frustration: Saddam Hussein’ s use of nerve gas on civilians at Halabja (1988) and the American response

Author: Christopher Huber

Upon receiving the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1919, German professor and chemist
Fritz Haber properly concluded that “In no future war will the military be able to ignore poison
gas for it is a higher form of killing.” His statement, almost a century old, refers to an
undeniable truth still applicable to today. The use of chemical agents as a form of warfare is a
modern horror known to millions of individuals, soldiers and civilians alike, who have been
unfortunate enough to reside near military conflict within the last one hundred years. Its
asphyxiating, burning, and pain-inducing qualities, dependent upon the agent, have left
battlefields and cities decimated and littered with any human, animal, or vegetation caught in the
deadly clouds. Since its premier use in the First World War, chemical warfare has developed at
an incredible rate and has led to more toxic, more persistent, and more efficient weapons whose
secrets continue to spread to more and more nations. Due to the terrific effect these agents have
on the human mind and body, international organizations have strived to control the research,
development, manufacture, stockpiling, and deployment of chemicals as a means of war. Their
success in this endeavor has been limited, and there have been multiple occasions in which the
use of chemical weapons has been confirmed beyond a doubt, as well as another myriad of
occasions in which they were believed to have been used, but the evidence is inconclusive. In
her book, A History of Chemical Warfare, Kim Coleman identifies five confirmed instances in
which chemical warfare has been used within the past ninety years. These five, World War I, the
Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935-36), the Japanese invasion of China (1937-43), the United
14
States in Vietnam (1965-75), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), will be further expounded upon in
hopes that a better understanding of the history of chemical agents in war can be reached. 2