Biological Weapons - Research Paper Example

? Bioweapons Introduction Bioweapons, or more generally biological warfare, are a pressing concern today because of the extent of destruction that can arise due to the mere use of these weapons. Biological warfare or a bioweapon is defined to be the deliberate employment of microbes to attack and affect military forces, civil populations, crops and livestock. (Satpathy 9) So, biological weapons are living organisms (mostly viruses) that attack the host and reproduce and replicate in the body of the host till they kill it. Biological weapons are dangerous because of the strategic advantage that one group might gain due to the use of them. Because of the level of destruction that these weapons are capable of causing, the use of these can be a motivation for many adversaries. Also, these weapons are indiscriminately used to kill people. So they might not just affect the military, but may also cause numerous deaths in the civilian populations. Further, a wound due to other weapons can be treated. A biological weapon might be hard to detect and once detected, might not have a cure. Biological weapons also tend to have long term effects on the human and living populations as compared to nuclear missiles and arms. (Satpathy 10) History Although biological weapons have now come into notice, they have been used for centuries. The use of these weapons dates back to 1500 BC when the people suffering from a plague were often driven into the territories of the enemy. The plague would not just kill or sicken the enemy civil populations but would also render the military unsuitable for war. Apart from that, the spears and arrows were often poisoned so that the enemy could not just be wounded, but would also have poison spread in his body. In the famous First Sacred War, the Athenians poisoned the water supply of the city of Kirrha in order to kill the military combatants. In other wars, clay pots containing snakes were often thrown on the enemy. (Chauhan 158) Slowly over the centuries, biological weapons took new forms. Before the 17th century, the most common way of inflicting disease on the enemy was to throw the infected corpses into the water supply of the cities. Since water is a basic necessity, this ensured that all the people were infected. Later, however, new ways of introducing the diseases were established. For instance in the 18th century, in Native America, two blankets and a handkerchief exposed to small pox were given to the Natives by the British in order to disease them. Diseases like influenza spread often due to the exchange of goods at ports from ships that came from different regions. Biological warfare went to a new extreme when in the Second Sino Japanese war, the Japanese tested all kinds of biological weapons on the prisoners held in custody so that the weapons could then be used to combat the enemy in the future. In the First World War, the most famous and extensive Biowarfare program was started by the empire of Germany. This program included the supply of teams of saboteurs to areas like Finland where they placed anthrax (a disease causing agent) in the stables of Russia in the year 1916. (Chauhan 159) German intelligence officers also created glanders that could be used to affect livestock and crops, particularly at ports. The Imperial Japanese army also was responsible for many pathogen outbreaks in the same period. From the year 1937 to 1945, the Japanese army contaminated the Horustein river in Soviet Russia with typhoid. The army also used made use of bombs having fleas that could carry the bubonic plague. Air dropping of plagued fleas was also a common thing against the Chinese. After the use of the biological weapons in the first and second world wars, nations like the US, Soviet Union and Britain started the experimentation of agents that could be used as biological weapons. The US started its US Biological Weapon testing program through which it started research on the topic. Operation whitecoat was one of the leading operations of the US that aimed to study the effects of certain disease causing agents, during the cold war. In the war against Korea, the US also allegedly made use of the weapons that were similar to those used by the Japanese in the Sino Japanese wars. It is also believed that weapons like tularemia were tested on the general public secretly without publicizing the results. Russia, or formerly the Soviet Union, also did not want to be left out in the biological warfare program. So after the second world war, it started its own program that specialized in the usefulness of the Marburg virus, that even killed its creator. Small pox was also created in 1947 when it was injected in to the eggs of chicken from where it could spread into the birds and animals and then finally into the human populations. The Soviet Union was also known for the weaponizing of anthrax even after they had signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)in 1972. (Lederberg 4) Although the two super powers of the world have been the most active as far as the production of biological weapons is concerned, other less developed countries have also experimented a great deal on the subject. Iraq’s biological warfare program, for instance, was highly developed. The warfare program started with the help of five German firms who supplied Iraq with the equipment to manufacture different toxin causing agents. Also, the US Disease Control program was partly responsible because they provided Iraq with the biological samples of agents like anthrax for the purpose of ‘medical research.’ (Miller et al. 131)The Iraq program was first found out about when Iraq made use of the biological weapons in the Gulf War of 1990. This later led to the invasion of Iraq in the year 2003. Because of the profound interest of the countries in the Biological Weapon programs, the United Nations had to do something about it. It was obvious that the nuclear program of the US earlier had led to the bombing and destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The United Nations could not afford another such mistake, particularly in the case of the biological warfare where the risks and threats were more than that of nuclear missiles. For this reason, the United Nations organized, in 1972, the Biological Weapons Convention whereby the countries were to declare that they would stop the production of all poisonous agents and would carry out potential research in small amounts so that they could not be used as biological weapons later. This Convention led to a stop of the manufacturing of bioweapons in some countries while other, like Iraq and Russia, continued in violation. Arguments for and against bioweapons Although bioweapons are usually criticized for being able to create mass destruction, yet the military personnel justify the use of these weapons as something that is necessary for the protection of an area. As far as security threats are concerned, the use or the mere presence of these weapons might ensure that the populations are same. In case an adversary attacks, the weapons can be used as a motive for the adversary to leave. This might help in maintaining peace and safety for the local residents. However, bioweapons might not always be appropriate for minting peace. Bioweapons, like all other weapons, are not only lethal but have a long lasting impact. Bioweapons are even considered more dangerous than the nuclear missiles. If cities that were bombed by the nuclear bombs in the Second World War have still not recovered, the impact of the use of advanced biological weapons on the human populations is something that is not even imaginable. Biological weapons have, in the past, not even killed tens of thousands of military personnel but have also indiscriminately taken the lives of citizen populations who do not even participate in wars. With this level of globalization and interaction among citizens of various countries, it would be very hard to contain the threat of the biological weapons-induced diseases in some parts of the world. Conclusion To conclude, Biological Warfare has existed almost as long as the human civilization has existed. Although the weapons today are much more effective and sophisticated than those in the past, the purpose is still the same, to kill the adversary. In the world today where humans should learn from previous mistakes and not start wars, the biological warfare is something that has attracted more attention than it should have, by countries that hope to dominate the world with these new weapons. Countries that weaponries pathogens often do not realize that the impact of these is not something controllable and it is not only dangerous, but lethal to their own residents. Action against these weapons should be taken more seriously and strict action should be taken against countries that violate the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972. The US invasion of Iraq in the year 2003 is one example of such an action. Works Cited Chauhan, S. Biological Weapons. APH Corporation, 2004. Print. Lederberg, Joshua. Biological Weapons: Limiting the Threat (BCSIA Studies in International Security). Massachusett: MIT, 1999. Print. Miller, Judith, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad. Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War. US: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print. Satpathy, G. Biological Weapons and Terrorism. India: Kalpaz Publications, 2004. Print. Read More