This is a completely misleading headline. The Patriot missile was not effective at destroying the Scud [0]. The DoD initially claimed successful intercepts when the missile detonated near the Scud, but it rarely, if ever, actually destroyed the warhead. The only reason there was an illusion of success was that the Scud was also spectacularly unreliable and often broke up on re-entry or failed to detonate. It is a complete falsehood to claim that the Patriot would have prevented this loss of life.

[0] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/...