Dispatches?From Fallujah - Why would anyone volunteer to be an infantryman? By Owen?West: "The biggest mistake of Operation Iraqi Freedom I was not the decision to send young men and women into the breach to remove a despot who possessed illegal weapons. As it turns out, he did not. Yet Saddam managed to convince everyone?the Bushies, the Clintons, John Kerry, France, the New York Times?that he had them. Even Saddam's own soldiers thought he would employ them. Here at 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, they tell the story of enemy soldiers snared in the initial invasion who were carrying gas masks. When asked if they really thought the United States would employ chemicals, the Iraqis responded, 'United States? We're worried about Saddam firing them at you.'"