To add up to the previous writeup, the
chemical agent protection given to the civilians could safeguard them from certain
nerve agents (like
Sarin, which the
Iraqis were thought to possess) while not from others (like
VX, which absorbs through skin and requires full protective suit). In fact, infants in their little filtered plastic incubators were probably the safest. They instructed the people to
seal one of the rooms in their houses and stay in it during attacks; such a measure, as they claimed, reduces the fatalities in a
poisonous gas attack by 10 times. The question still remains whether the
home front command ever believed a chemical attack might take place.
As to the inaccuracy of the Patriot missles, there was an Iraqi caricature at that time:
A Scud missle is flying by the Patriot.
The Patriot stops it and asks -- "Scud?".
"No, Al Hussein!" -- answers the Scud and procedes on it's way.