Biochemical Attack: Consequences

While some group all organization or state sponsored attacks as war, the differences between conventional warfare and chemical warfare are significant insofar as the consequences are concerned. Chemical warfare is a type of warring where the instigator seeks to attack the opponent on a psychological and physiological level, both directly and indirectly. Unlike bombs and bullets that have a one- time explosion, chemical weapons create a continued state of chaos. Reference the Romans' sowing of the Carthaginian farmlands with salt to prevent them from future agricultural development; in the most basic sense, chemical warfare seeks a similar situation, the effectual hindering of a society through damaging of a necessary item.

Chemical weapons can be divided into basically two categories: direct and indirect impacts. Direct impacts can be linked to such horrific acts as the German Army's use of mustard gas and the French Army's use of Chlorine gas during the First and Second World Wars. These two instances were situations where each army sprayed the breathable toxins in direct proximity of the enemy. Following ingestion, enemy soldiers would develop bodily scars and burns and would develop internal organ damage, almost immediately. In terms of a residential release of chemical weapons, one can look to the United States' recent brush with anthrax.

The mere notion of chemical weapons paralyzes a community and creates animosity between members due to speculative evidence and random accusations. Additionally, the plethora of plausible direct chemical attacks all has dire implications. Should a toxin be released into the water supply of a particular municipal district, the implications for not only those who retrieve water from that area but even adjacent regions are dire. For instance, if the infected water supply went undetected for even a few hours, all individuals exposed to the toxins for that brief amount of time would indubitably develop associated afflictions, which could possibly be spread, unknowingly, to other individuals, starting a virtually continuous pathway.

Additionally, after such a toxin is hypothetically discovered and the water supply is cut (for whatever period of time), adjacent communities dependant on the utilization of those municipal resources, or trading with the affected region, will suffer economically and socially. Additionally, air borne toxins could wreak immense devastation. An evildoer could use a helicopter or low level plane and disseminate a gaseous-based toxin, which would then be proliferated through belts of wind streams. The impacts from such an action could be drastic as air is generally a free flowing entity; any attempts to control, alter or manage the air supply would be exceptionally difficult. Accordingly, people unable to quickly fortify themselves within buildings would be privy to breathing in the contaminated air and infecting themselves.

In terms of indirect impacts, chemical weapons can be used through herbicides to crop fields and contaminate animals. Bio-toxin herbicides can be used against crop fields on a large scale through air distribution techniques, and can consequently result in the destruction of vast amounts of food resources. In terms of animals, inoculation of animals' food stocks with strands of anthrax or other chemicals could have drastic impacts on the entire animal stockpiles and then the humans who consume these animals. The fact that chemical weapons attack the individual on fronts is their most dangerous aspect.

In addition to these purely physical impacts, the psychological and societal stresses a chemical attack could cause are immeasurable. As was seen in the referenced Anthrax scare in the United States, citizens become paranoid and fearful of even the most mundane activities, never knowing if something they do could elicit response from a chemical toxin.

Sources Consulted

Sources

• "Chemical Warfare." Wikipedia. 12 Jan. 2006. 21 Feb. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare>.
• Karnad, Bharat. Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security. 1999.
• Marrs, Timothy, Robert L. Maynard,  and Fredrick R. Sidell. Chemical Warfare Agents: Toxicology and Treatment. 1996.