RUMSFELD WANTS OK FOR U.S. CHEMICAL STRIKES

RUMSFELD WANTS OK FOR U.S. CHEMICAL STRIKES
Iraq using poison gas? That's a reason for war. The U.S. military using it against the Iraqis? That's just fine and dandy, according to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.
Global Security Newswire reports that Rumsfeld is pushing to allow the use of chemical agents similar to the fentanyl gas employed by the Russians to take out Chechen hostage takers last year -- in an upcoming strike on Iraq. The agent is a "non-lethal" narcotic, supposedly. But in the U.S., doctors use it to stop patients from breathing. And 118 people died in the Moscow fentanyl gas attack.
CHEMICAL REACTIONS: Several Defense Tech readers think the comparison between American "non-lethal" gases and Iraqi chemical weapons like VX is overblown. "Maybe they should be called less-lethal than non-lethal, since (any of them) can kill under the right circumstances," one reader says.
Another believes that Rumsfeld doesn't want to use fentanyl at all; instead, he's after irritants and vomit-inducing agents, like the ones listed here.