Inefficient Biological And Chemical Weapons example essay topic

The War Scare It has been said that the United States is just like the Roman Empire. We started off small, became a great power, and hit a high point in life, all of which have happened to the United States. Now, in the twenty-first century, we are putting ourselves in places and positions that many believe that we do not belong in. For Example, in the country of Afghanistan, we have "worn out our welcome".

We went over there, set up American businesses, and basically took over their business flow. We have been asked nicely to leave, been told to leave, and finally threatened, but we did not take it seriously enough. Well, our decisions have come back to haunt us. Now, we face the fate of the great Roman Empire. Falling to our knees and being crushed, or at least bumped down below a world power. On September eleventh, two thousand and one, our world was smacked in the face and pushed to its knees.

The United States has reason to believe that a known terrorist, Osama Bin Laden, organized the high-jacking of four transcontinental flights, and told them to crash into both the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and the White House. At eight o-clock, Central Time, the first plane hit one of the World Trade Center towers, and five minutes later, the other tower was hit. Millions stood and watched the buildings burn, and eventually fall. Our head for all military operations, the Pentagon, was crashed into, and the whole West Side was destroyed. The last flight crashed harmlessly into a field in Pennsylvania, thanks to the people who sacrificed their lives to save others. The world was getting back on its feet, the damage was being picked up, and the United States was living up to its name for once.

However, it was not over yet, for a plague had begun to spread across our land. Letters that had been filled with anthrax were being sent to senators, heads of major companies, and other high positioned people in the U.S. The first case of anthrax that was fatal happened in North Carolina while the victim was sitting by a stream. It was believed that the deadly spores could not leak out of the sealed envelope, and if they did, it would not be in large enough numbers to harm anyone, especially postal workers. When the first case died of inhalation anthrax, the government was jumping all over it, and then two postal workers died of inhalation anthrax because they just handled the mail that had anthrax spores in them. A surge of terror spread through the United States again and millions wanted to be tested for anthrax. As of now, only a few people have died from anthrax, and a little more than that have been exposed.

For a while, America was on the lookout for a major biological or chemical attack, which could kill a huge number of people if used in the correct way. According to the November fifth issue of Newsweek, if an anthrax bomb was dropped in a crowed football stadium, almost every person in that stadium will be exposed, and may die. But what if a nerve gas was dropped in the middle of the second quarter? If it could spread quickly enough, it would have a much greater effect and could harm a greater number of people. Biological weapons have been around since Egyptian times, just not in the sense that one would think. During wars, spies would sneak into a camp, carrying an infected person (dead or alive) and release them into the camp.

The disease would then spread through the camp and hopefully kill or hurt a large number of their enemies. Of course, the spies would become infected and possibly die, but that shows what people will do for their empire / country. On an ABC news special, a team went to Afghanistan to talk with Bin Laden about the Taliban and the country. They did not get to talk directly to Bin Laden, but his right hand man agreed to take an interview. During this interview, he brought up an interesting but disturbing point. He said that he could get into the White House and take it over.

Thinking that he was just being cocky, the reporter challenged his statement. He told her that if he had three men who were willing to give their lives for their country, all he had to do is put a bomb on each and send them in to the White House. One would surely get through, and the other two would just commit suicide. The same thing applies to biochemical war. Strap a bomb containing the most contagious and horrible disease known, smallpox, and send them into a crowed subway. Once you blow the bomb, everyone in that subway will be infected.

Biochemical weapons are effective in certain areas, but they have to be used correctly and deployed in crowed areas. An article written by Gregg Easterbrook, which appeared in the November fifth issue of New Republic, challenged the common thought that biochemical warfare is an immediate threat. The article talks about how inefficient biological and chemical weapons are, and why they are not the gigantic threat in this century. Easterbrook believes that nuclear war is a much bigger threat and in likelier to occur because of the major amount of damage that it can cause in a quick and efficient way. "Biological weapons are bad, but so far none has ever caused an epidemic or worked in war. And it is possible that none ever will: Biological agents are had to culture and to disperse, while living things have gone through four billion years of evolution that render them to runaway organisms".

Easterbrook feels that anthrax is not working very well and that it is a waste of time to even try to use biochemical weapons, but according to an information sheet from state. govt. com, biological agents are not that hard to deploy. One could easily compress anthrax spores into an aerosol can and spray it in a room which would infect whom ever was in that room. Biological agents do not have to be dispersed in such a way that they are inhaled and absorbed through that skin through direct contact. They can be used to contaminate foods, drinking water, soap, and other things that you could come in contact with. It is true that biological weapons are hard to produce, but chemical weapons are another story. Even though nuclear war would probably be more deadly and more effective in the long run due to its contamination effects, the chances of someone dropping a nuke on the United States is not very big.

If someone tried to nuke this country, we would retaliate and so would many other counties, and every nuclear power knows this. Nuclear war would happen so fast that we would not have any warning and we would not think before we launched our missiles at the opposing country. With chemical war, it would happen slower and people could get away with a lot more than they could with nukes. The recent anthrax scare is an example of a chemical weapon, and for what it has been used for; it has done an ok job. It is believed that the anthrax in the mail has been used to scare the people of America more than to kill everyone.

However, it does kill people rather well. As stated before, if anthrax was deployed in the correct setting, it could do massive damage. When a person contracts the inhalation form of anthrax, it can take as little as two days to kill them. So, if this odorless, colorless, and tasteless gas was released in a crowed area, everyone could potentially be exposed and die. Gas masks will protect you against most chemicals that must be inhaled to affect you, but is a person going to wear a gas makes twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?

Probably not, and if one did, they would wear it out and it would no longer work. There are chemical weapons that can kill you if it comes in contact with you skin, and most of those can eat through clothing. In the movie "The Rock" there was an example of a very powerful chemical weapon which releases a gas which will eat away at you skin, destroy your skin, and kill you with in ten minuets of exposure. No one has any proof that a weapon of that power exists, but it is likely that the United States has thing similar to that. To try and take out the world with chemical or biological weapons would be silly and pointless.

It would take to much time, be very expensive, and be very hard to kill that number of people before it could be countered. With nuclear war, the world could be over in a matter of hours. It is said that all the nuclear powers of the world have enough nukes to blow the world up ten times. With the war on terror entering a dangerous phase with the military going behind enemy lines, it would not surprise many to see U.S. troops using biochemical weapons to slow down or stop the Taliban., nov 5 issue new republic, nov 2 issue time, sept 21 issue web.