Germ Warfare

Aspro

After seeing the ultra-sensationalist front page of the Evening Herald yesterday I had a look around and found this link. Interesting.

http://home.earthlink.net/~bkonop/GermIncidents2.html

bonkey

I find it disappointing that the page is named "Hall of Shame", but what it really reports is a list of admitted, reported, and speculative activities by the US alone.

They are not the only nation to have undertaken such activities, and a more meaningful list would include what is known about other nations' activities in this field.

I also find it interesting that the chemical agents used in Desert Storm are here attributed to the bombing of a bunker (by the Allies). Most reports have sketchy claims that Hussein appeared to have used chemical weapons (which he was known to have had possession of) willingly on the Allies.

This latter example is a good example of the villification of the enemy which media (and military) propaganda is culpable for.

Hussein may or may not have released chemical agents, but it is more likely that the Allies inflicted it on themselves. While we can still hold outrage that Hussein had chemical weapons, can the US categorically state that it too does not stock checical and/or biological agents?

jc

Magwitch

The US can deny it actually has chamical or biological weapons I believe, but could not deny that they have the facilities and on-going research to produce such harmful agents. These weapons are often referred to as the "poor mans nuclear bomb" and with good reason. In plain political terms America would be very foolish to fall behind in the development of this field. As has been shown by Iraq it is almost impossible to prevent the production of these weapons by smaller nations, but I wqould say that the US would maybe not use them forfear of alienating its own public opinion (a problem not found in Iraq).

Typedef

Errm

The US junked the Anti-Germ warfare treaty as well as the 30 year old Anti Ballistic Missile treaty and of course refused to ratify Kyoto.

Is it so suprising that an administration as unilateral and undiplomatic is now on the brink of a show-war with third world country remind anyone of his father and Iraq(which he funded against Iran)? Wow how suprising is that given the weapons lobby is a major contributor to the Bush campaign? The National Rifle Association gave the Bush campaing 10 million dollars, gratis I'm sure.

Point, war is the unevolved id of man as a species as is reactionary politics. Strange how under Bill Clinton no-one tried to hit the US in the way it has been hit and when "terrorists" did strike against the US the response was not one of sending 5 warships off the coast of one of the worlds most impoverished nations. Then again I'm sure lots of rhetoric from Bush about the strength of the American people and maybe a war will be distraction enough from issues like the near collapse of the US economy in the few short months Bush has been president or the swathe of ultra-right wing policies that had the US isolated in diplomatic circles and really turned proletariat(for want of a better word) outside the US against the US administration.

Seriously the only hope for humans is that we colonise space before someone somewhere starts a war with Nukes or Biological weapons. There will always be unintelligent, aggressive politicians who have no regard for anything but insular, xenophobic, repressive and segregationist nationalism. Bush for example had/has an opportunity to set himself as a Kennedy or Regan but, everytime he is on the TV he talks nonesense - he quacks like a duck for want of a better comparison, the man spews nationalism which lacks any kind of intellectual challenge whatever and thus far I am unconvinced this guy can do anything but damage to world geopolitics and the global macro_economy.

Germ warfare and it's proliferation is the kind of retrograde, military-industrial-complex move I would expect from Bush, but the sad fact is he will not be the last of his kind. Look all through the last 10,000 years and you will find men like him, quick to use force and the rhetoric of force but, as I am sure we are all aware confounded and fumbelling at diplomacy mutual respect. All this guy seems to know how to do is make war. Wow how suprising is it that his father was director of the CIA for 15 years?

Nepotism sux.