Gas Warfare

1. In World War I, the use of chemical weapons was an expected act of war, in contrast to the completely unexpected act of genocide by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in 1987 and 1988. Also, the gas seems to have been distributed in different ways, with the Germans relying on wind to carry clouds of gas while Saddam Hussein used warplanes to bomb Kurds with chemical weapons.
2. The goal of the Iraqi forces seems to have been the genocide of the Kurds in northern Iraq. In World War I, the Germans were using gas as an instrument of making progress in the war, rather than for simply killing as many people as possible.
3. The use of chemical weapons was generally not approved of internationally after the First World War.
4. Gas is effective in that it can often be deadly and is able to break up or disable large groups of people. However, it can be unreliable, because it can not be controlled very well after it is released. It seems to be much less humane than other weapons, because it kills people slowly and painfully and can have long term effects on survivors.