JOFO,
"The Iraqi Regime has vast amounts of vx verve gas, mustard gas, etc. etc. and it poses a direct threat to the united states. So much so, in fact, that we've got no time to lose, so we're going in without a majority of support in the united nations, including two of our closest allies, the germans and the french".
First off, this is not a direct quote from the administration. Secondly it is inaccurate.
The UN supported the operation Iraqi Freedom by their support for resolution 1441 in the fall of 2002 that authorized "Serious Consequences" for Iraq if it failed its one last chance to comply AND reafirmed prior Security Council resolutions that already authorized the "use of all means necessary" to bring about compliance with UN resolutions and the 1991 Gulf War Ceacefire agreement.
The UN reafirmed its support for Operation "Iraqi Freedom" by passing resolution 1483. Resolution 1483 specifically recognized the USA, UK, and Australia as the "Authority" in Iraq. This recognition further approves that actions that were taken to achieve that position.
More than 40 countries supported the operation. The USA has more close allies than just France and Germany. France and Germany don't form a majority in anything anywhere.
"where is all the gas? surely, a madman like saddam would have fought with whatever weapons he had available knowing that his life was on the line."
First off, it is a documented fact that Saddam had large amounts of WMD including the "gas" you speak of at the end of 1998 when UN inspectors were kicked out of Iraq. Even Saddam admitted to having certain things around that time.
The Gas and WMD Saddam had is a threat to civilian populations around the world and third world military's, not the US military providing prior preperation with suits, drugs, and decontamination facilities.
Saddams chief goal was to survive another round of inspections by getting away with failing to acount for the WMD he had in 1998 by letting the UN inspectors check all of Iraq and find nothing and then certify him as "clean" despite his failure to account for the WMD. Once certified as "clean", UN sanctions could be lifted.
But the only way to succeed and be certified "clean" without actually giving up the WMD, would require an extensive process to bury and clean up any evidence that inspectors might be able to find once they came into Iraq. In doing so, they have prevented inspectors and now soldiers from finding the WMD. But it meant giving up the option of using such WMD since digging it out would take to long a process if a conflict started. But since US military forces were essentially immune to the type of WMD Saddam had, it would not effect the outcome or his fate in this situation. So really his best option in attempting to keep his WMD was to hide it well enough to be difficult to find, even though this meant he would be unable to extract quickly enough if an invasion happened.
He mis-caculated though because the French and Germans were not able to prevent a coalition invasion despite inspectors not finding the WMD, because the fact of the matter was, the only relevant factor was Saddam's inability or refusal to factually account for the WMD that he was verfied and admitted to having in 1998.