The Pros And Cons Of Biological Warfare

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.

“Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were among many countries that investigated how to wage biological war.” (pg. 38) Some of these countries have biological weapons programs and even some biological weapons have been used in the past. A Russian program “known to the Soviets as “the Concern Bioreparat”, supposedly a series of laboratories and plants that manufactured vaccines and other medicinal products, was in fact a vast network of secret cities, production plants of Moscow’s germ effort. Bioreparat studied and perfected germs as weapons. President Richard Nixon’s administration became the “world’s leading advocate for a treaty banning germ warfare. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention- prohibited the possession of deadly biological agents except for research…for vaccines, detection and protective gear. It was the world’s first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons.” (pg. 63) April 1979, an explosion at a secret military base near Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, sent a cloud of Bacillus anthracis fanning over a nearby village, leaving thousands dead. Although the Soviets, had signed the treaty, they denied allegations that this was “nothing more nefarious than tainted meat.” (pg. 77) During the Gulf War, for example, biological weapons developed by Iraq posed a threat and they might, if fact still pose a threat. While US went in search of nuclear

“Bioterrorism remains a major threat for the United States despite more than $65 billion spent on protecting the country from myriad dangers, the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center said in its latest report Wednesday. The center's Bio-Response Report Card evaluated U.S. preparedness for countering threats from bioterrorism and found the country remains vulnerable to multiple threats and "largely unprepared for a large-scale bioterrorist attack."”(UPI.com, 2011). There have been over a dozen leading U.S. bio-defense experts that have taken part in figuring out where we are exactly as a county and what the effects of a terroristic attack

These biological agents could be viruses, toxins, bacteria, etc. Agents could be used in war or terrorist attacks. Also, they could be modified to cause extreme diseases and disorders, according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It makes bioterrorism even more tempting to use as it is easy and inexpensive to produce, disseminate and can cause a more widespread panic than other acts of terrorism (1).

Welcome to week 4! This week we are discussing what consequences face the Nation if our chosen threat isn’t adequately addressed and whether we believe that it is being addressed adequately now. Of the six security challenges that are mentioned in the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, I have chosen to discuss biological threats. Biological terrorism is a scary prospect that should be a growing concern for the country. The reason for this is the ease at which a bio attack can be put into action. Depending on the level of intricacy of the attack, the effects could be isolated to one area or become a pandemic that spreads across the United States. Bioterrorism comes in many forms but as a general explanation biological

One of the world’s most dreaded plagues for centuries, smallpox is now eradicated. Vaccination programs were pushed worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the disease was eliminated from the world. This push resulted in the last naturally occurring case in the world being almost 40 years ago. Once eradicated the once routine or mandatory vaccinations were stopped for the general public and it was deemed no longer necessary to prevent the disease. Although currently eradicated worldwide, two medical laboratory stockpiles still remain in Russia and the United States. With these stockpiles in existence the possibility of bio terrorism emerges and fear of these stockpiles getting into the wrong hands and being weaponized for

The fear of a Chemical or Biological attack has been a concern to many governments. These attacks, either by state agencies or individuals, have caused loss of life and the United States has not been spared in this forms of attacks.

Chemical warfare has been used since 431 BC when the Spartans used burning sulfur to create clouds of sulfur dioxide when they sieged Athenian cities (Freedmen 1). Now bad guys can get their hands on biological and chemical weapons and they need to be stopped. The United States could increase border security, have better security or have vaccines and antibiotics. If the US could beef up border security, have better security and better dispose of chemicals then they could not only stop chemical and biological attacks but could stop other kinds of attacks.

In many cases, war is fought in order to gain something. It could be territory, or wealth, or power, but in some cases it is fought simply to kill. A type of warfare that exemplifies this is chemical and biological warfare. These attacks are aimed simply at killing everybody. In addition, most people think of biological warfare as a very recent war tactic, dating back not much further than agent orange, deployed in Vietnam. In fact, one of the first and one of the most devastating instances of biological warfare occurred much earlier, in 1347. This was the attack that brought the black plague from it’s origins in western Asia to Europe through Caffa, a city on the modern Crimean peninsula.

This is a contagious bacterial disease that is transmitted through the air(respiratory) or by person-to-person contact, and is often accompanied by fever and delirium, headache, weakness, and cough. If not treated early enough, the recipient may go into septic shock and die. Antibiotics are effective in the treatment of this type of disease.

On October 20th, 2001, Joseph Curseen, a postal worker in Washington D.C., went to work like any other day. Mr. Curseen was a hard worker who had never missed work, even for a sick day, since joining the postal service fifteen years earlier. Sadly, that was about to change. By that night, Mr. Curseen was in the hospital and two days later he was pronounced dead. The cause: anthrax. While this quick turn of events came as a shock to the people in his life, Mr. Curseen’s story was not unheard of. In fact, cases like his were appearing almost every day, and it was soon discovered that anthrax had been placed in letters sent via the postal service in a direct attempt to harm people. This act of terrorism alarmed the world. While government officials and the media discussed bombings, shootings, and hijackings, biological agents were not a focus of attention. The 2001 anthrax attacks were the first successful attempt by a person or a group of people to use weaponized anthrax in a terrorist attack, rather than in warfare. People suddenly became aware of another horrible form of terrorism, bioterrorism, that now posed a serious threat to our society. The 2001 anthrax attacks particularly highlighted the dangers of anthrax and the toxins it releases into a host’s cells, demonstrating the widespread effects that anthrax and other bioterrorist weapons could have on a country.

In the last 60 years, the advancement of biological technology and easily attainable chemicals has led to an increase in chemical weaponry and biological pathogens. While nuclear and radiological attacks are more common, chemical attacks are brutally efficient and biological attacks can be engineered with new technology (Madsen, 2001). Chemical particles are able to disseminate through large areas quickly and efficiently, and in some cases, are not easily detectable until lethal doses are achieved. Unfortunately, not all of the pathogens that are considered dangerous are man-made as antibiotic resistant strains of common illnesses are

In the article a quote from chemist, James Conant, expressed that to him “the development of new and more gases seemed no more immoral than the manufacture of explosives and guns … All war is immoral.” I could not agree more with this statement. I believe that such biological weapons should be outlawed because to me any weapon is

One researcher determined that a hand full of biologists and $10,000 could be used to produce biological weapon agents. This stands in starch opposition to the amount of funding, expertise, and obstacles that terrorist would need to overcome to develop their own nuclear programs (Levi, 2007, p.1). Some states have attempted to create their own nuclear weapons; this takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish. The materials needed are hard to acquire and special equipment is needed to make the process work. Biological agents on the other hand are, as demonstrated by the researchers assessment, are cheap and relatively easy.

There are many repercussions to not having a biological weapon. If we cannot reinstate chemical warfare, we will continue to lose many soldiers’ lives. Having chemical weapons is like when we came out with the UCAV. The UCAV stands for unmanned combat aerial vehicle. The UCAV got rid of the loss of lives in the air. It made bombing targets easier. With chemical weapons, we could eliminate thousands of war related deaths. If