Armed Forces: GB Or Not GB?

Georgia Governor Lester Maddox wanted to ride atop the train to prove its cargo safe. The mayor of Macon, Ga., Ronnie Thompson, has vowed to use force, if necessary, to keep it from passing through his city. A Pentagon spokesman insists that the chances of "catastrophe" are virtually zero, yet the Army is quietly stockpiling quantities of a lifesaving antidote along the proposed route. The British Foreign Office (representing the government of the Bahamas) has questioned the wisdom of the plan.

What has given everyone the jitters is a colorless, almost odorless nerve gas coded GB, able to kill or...