Chemical Weapons: Weapons of Mass Destruction Essay

Poison Gas/Chemical Warfare usage, while not harming physical structures preventing the collateral damage of homes and buildings, causes a high casualty rate in all living things. It is indescriminate and robs life equally be they related or not to a target of military or strategic importance. Gas usage has been widely considered uncivilized, but the French resorted to its usage in August, 1914 during the first World War in an attempt to rout the Germans. Unfortunately, the Germans were the first to give gas warfare serious development and it became used extensively before the war was over. On the battlefield it prooved effective in eliminating hostile threats in an inhumane way, but this does not make it morally acceptable. In more recent times ISIS has been reported to using Poison Gas in Syria against both military and civilians in an indescriminate manner. This sort of attack ignores international laws as well as inhumanely cause widespread harm. In this day and age, this sort of attack is unnecessary and is why it was outlawed in the first place even back during the first World War.

Fire has been used in battle as far back as the Greeks in 7th century A.D, but the most devastating use of fire warfare was when Napalm used by the United States in World War two against the Japanese and again in the Vietnam War. Flame throwers were used in World War One, but the problem was that it burned too quick because of the gasoline mixture that was used to produce the flame. In 1942 a team of Harvard researchers that was led by Dr. Louis Fieser discovered that a mixture of rubber with the gasoline made a flame that burned longer, but rubber was would have to be replaced by aluminum soap powder because of the scarcity of rubber (Rohn “Napalm in Vietnam War”). This mixture would later be known as napalm and it was a modernization of war with devastating results.

Poison gas was used throughout WW1. Chlorine gas, phosgene gas and mustard gas were the types of poison gas used in WW1. Chlorine gas effects a person within seconds of inhaling its vapor. It destroyed the victim's respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks. Chlorine is a yellow-green gas with a strong, bleach like odour.it smells as a mix of pepper and pineapple. Phosgene is a colorless gas with a mustly odor comparable to newly cut hay or grass. Phosgene gas reacts with proteins in lung alveoli, causing suffocation. Cause

Most famously used in the incineration of 64 Japanese cities in the1940’s, napalm scorched more to death than in the atomic explosions in Nagasaki and Hiroshima (Bernard). Many still pose the question, why napalm instead of atomic weapons? During the destruction of the Japanese landscape, each atomic detonation had a price tag of $13.5 billion while each napalm destruction was only a slim $83,000 per metropolis (Norris). Most recently, during the siege of Aleppo, the Russian and Syrian governments alike, have been accused of using these incendiary bombs in the rebel occupied area. During this siege, when civilians “see barrels falling from the sky they hope they are explosives and not napalm”

Trench warfare was done by opposing army’s creating trenches. In between those trenches was an area known as “no man's land” and was the most dangerous place to be. This tactic lead to many standoffs and also extremely high numbers of casualties in a short period of time. One of the most efficient ways of winning these battles was chemical warfare. All that needed to happen was to throw a chemical bomb into the enemy's trench and then wait.

Gunpowder was used in guns, canyons. The charcoal came from a common gas that people used to cook on, it's called lit stove, you have to turn the nozzle all the way down to light it and then put you gas to the tempature you want it at. When all these ingriediants are. MIxed together they can make gunpowder. The invention of gunpowder was used into many things it was used into fire works, then Chinese realized it could be used in a war

France was the first to introduce a chemical component for warfare called tear gas. It was utilized on the German Army in August, 1914. Although, it was not used to kill the enemy, it did incapacitate them and left them unable to defend their positions. Tear gas caused irritation in the mouth, eyes, and throat. The use of tear gas in trench warfare was not very effective.

Agent Orange contained a chemical that was very toxic called dioxin. Dioxin enters human tissue by direct contact with skin inhalation through the lungs and through direct contact with food and water supplies. Experiments have shown that dioxin affects a number of organs and systems once they enter your body they last a very long time that is estimated to be about 7 to 15 years with a possibility of lasting up to 20 years because its stays in the body’s fat cells. (World Health Organization)

One of the new weapons used in WWI was poison gas. Poison gas was first used by the french in 1914, they used them to fight against the germans. After the french the germans started to study it and we the first to use it in a big scale. They used chlorine gas caused irritation and aggressive sneezing. There are many types of poisonous gas like chlorine gas, phosgene (causes violent coughing, choking and eventually death), and Mustard gas (nearly odorless chemical that causes internal and external blisters for hours). The total amount of casualties for poison gases are 1,240,853 people and total deaths are 91,198 people.

The Sacred Realm is a theme of art that involves the concept of aspects that cannot be seen but can only be brought to existence through faith by viewing a piece of art work. This faith is usually in form of a sacred realm. It’s vital to understand that this theme cannot be viewed by the naked eye. For instance, the religious images in the visual art are employed to bring about the opinions and beliefs of the individuals who are in faith of the specific religion and this is reached by provision of abstract ideas with images thru the work of art. Therefore, the Sacred Realm theme of art explains in a virtual way the reason and purpose behind the existence of certain aspects of nature such as religion

There are many types of chemical agents that can be used for a variety of effects. Most are not meant to be lethal, but most chemicals at high concentrations can be lethal.

The purpose of this essay is to deal with the fact that chemical warfare should be brought back to modern warfare strategies. As Warren Rudman said, “And they will tell you unequivocally that if we have a chemical or biological attack or a nuclear attack anywhere in this country, they are unprepared to deal with it today, and that is of high urgency.” Rudman’s words are true in what they say and that we should do everything to counter-act his statement. Biological weapons are a key to outstanding success in war and therefore, I strongly suggest that chemical warfare is an effective and producible weapon tactic that can be used on today’s battlefield.

There was not a great acceptance of tobacco smoking in 1628, Shah Sefi of Persia punished two merchants by pouring hot lead down their throats. In 1634, Czar Alexis of Russia created new punishments for smoking. The first offense was whipping and the second was execution. The Chinese’s regulation for the use or distribution of tobacco was punishable by decapitation. By the 1650s snuff became popular and remained until the early 20th century. In the 1800s cigars became popular in Europe and America.

Chemical warfare, while horrible, proved to be unwieldy and unpredictable, and relatively easy to counter. After some limited successes against unprepared opponents, the use of chemical gas had very little tactical benefit; the recognition of this limited utility is that after widespread use in 1915 - except for the short-lived effects of the introduction of mustard gas in 1917 - gas was abandoned by both sides as an effective tactic.

War, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “A state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state” (citation). War truly does bring out the worst of in the people involved, because in war the objective is to kill or capture enough of the opposing sides’ soldiers to show that your side is superior. Both sides will take any measures necessary to win, a few examples of this being Mustard gas, Ricin, Agent Orange, and Sarin . When guns and other weapons will not cut it, that’s when in the mind of the governments that chemical warfare became necessary . Since these four chemicals and many more have been used throughout history, the Chemical Warfare Convention banned all forms of chemical weapons, due to the lasting effects of the chemicals on both nations and individuals of those nations. The way the CWC defines a chemical weapon is a toxic chemical or its precursor that can cause death, injury, temporary incapacitation or sensory irritation through its chemical action.