Weapons of mass destruction

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Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) are devices capable of inflicting deaths several orders of magnitude greater than conventional ordnance. Examples include nuclear warheads, missiles designed to deliver biological agents such as anthrax, and shells carrying mustard gas or sarin. They are sometimes referred to as "chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear" (CBRN) weapons. Many commentators act as if this is a brand new threat to world security, when in fact WMDs of various kinds have existed since the beginning of time, and the noble and virtuous USA just happens to have the largest stockpile in the world.[1]

Moreover, there is a lot of talk about keeping terrorists from acquiring WMDs, forgetting that some terrorist groups (like Aum Shinrikyo) have already used WMDs to little effect. In fact, Al Qaeda managed to do a lot more damage with boxcutters than Aum Shinrikyo did with sarin.

[edit] 2003 invasion of Iraq

The casus belli of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the insistence by the Bush Administration that weapons of mass destruction really were present in that country, despite the fact that the regime denied the charges, and UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Dr Al-Baraday found nothing.

Subsequent to the war, Saddam Hussein was deposed and US forces occupied the country and searched every square inch for any evidence of weapons of mass destruction. They have turned up nothing they admitted to - and neither are they likely to as they concluded the weapons didn't exist and stopped looking for them shortly after the end of the invasion. It's puzzling. At the Press Correspondent's Dinner in 2004 Bush looked for WMDs under the papers he had arranged on the podium and he still didn't find anything.

In reality Saddam did have chemical weapons, which Ronald Reagan very generously supplied during the Iran-Iraq War. These (now degraded) weapons are still around and will likely get into the hands of very violent terrorists.[2]

[edit] Footnotes

India and the Weapons of the Mass Destruction

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