Imagine this: you wake up hours before your alarm sounds to find your entire neighborhood in chaos; people running, robbing banks and stores, and bodies are littering the once calm streets. Over the night, a government-run biological experiment dealing with germ weapons had been released, infecting, destroying, and causing panic across the globe. As a single, globalized society, we need to heighten our security against biological weapons and biological terror to prevent the endangerment of mankind. It would be most beneficial to our species if we did not try to use or experiment with biological weapons, seeing as they are engineered specifically to create social, economic, governmental, military, and general fear and disruption. Bioterror has been used throughout our history, taken on the form of many deadly agents, and while these weapons are getting stronger and more lethal, our existing policies against biowarfare need to be improved to prevent an outbreak of deadly disease.
Contrary to the general public's beliefs, biological warfare and terrorism isn’t a recent development, but an ancient weapon dating back to the fourteenth century in Europe. Corpses of fallen soldiers and animals were often used as weapons in sieges, leading to the defeat of many castles due to the “stench of rotting bodies causing illness” in adversaries. The doctors of the time didn’t know that the germs responsible for decomposing the body were actually causing the sickness, so for a lack of a better explanation, they blamed it on the smell. In 1340, the castle of Thun L’Eveque of northern France was barraged with dead horses and other animals, which led to the surrender of the castle and the negotiation of a truce (Lewis). Humans aren't the only targe...
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Regarding his views on war, Albert Einstein said in 1931, “[he] who joyfully marches to music in rank and file… has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him a spinal cord would surely suffice.” Slaughterhouse Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is a satirical World War II novel. The novel focuses on Billy Pilgrim’s experiences. He develops schizophrenia during the war and consequently feels as if he lives in moments, opposed to chronologically, as well as claiming to be abducted by aliens living on the planet Tralfamadore. Through these moments Billy meets Edgar Derby and Ronald Weary, two major characters who suffer from the war, as well. Through its contrasting characters, Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five attempts to dissuade its audience from war by demonstrating its insanity.
Anthrax is one of the most preferred biological warfare agents for many highly identified reasons. First, anthrax is extremely lethal. Anthrax can contain up to 100 million lethal doses in just one gram of anthrax spores, which is 100,000 times more lethal than any other biological warfare agent. It is also known that inhalation anthrax is almost always fatal if the symptoms are allowed to progress without any treatment. Anthrax is also the silent and invisible killer. On top of the fatality rate of anthrax, there are also very low barriers to produce the biological weapon. Anthrax spores are very easy to produce in large quantities, and the process of production is very inexpensive. Also, there is plenty of available information on how to weaponize anthrax and not a whole lot of technology is needed to be able to produce anthrax. Anthrax is also easy to weaponize because it is extremely stable as a dry powder in the form of spores. These spores can live for decades and still be very lethal to the human body. Anthrax can be put into an aerosol form disseminated into a spray can, and it can also be freeze-dried into a bomb. Presently anthrax is the most preferred biological agent is because we have no accurate detection capability.
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Biological warfare cannot be explained by SCOT theory because stabilization and closure which is the cornerstone of the SCOT theory are not clearly apparent in the dynamic of biological warfare. In biological warfare, rhetorical closure has not yet been achieved within the international community. For example, the morality of using biological weapons is still an ongoing debate among the countries of the world. In fact, not all countries have signed the Biological Weapo...
aims. This is because in most cases, it is the only way they can be
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During the past century, more than 500 million people have died due to infectious diseases. Several tens of thousands of these deaths were due to the deliberate release of pathogens or toxins. Two international treaties outlawed biological weapons in 1925 and 1972. Unfortunately, these treaties have failed to stop countries from conducting offensive weapons research and large-scale production of biological weapons. As our knowledge increases on these disease-causing agents, so does our fear of future threats of biological warfare (Frischknecht, 2003).
One of the world’s most dreaded plagues for centuries, smallpox is now eradicated. Vaccination programs were pushed worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the disease was eliminated from the world. This push resulted in the last naturally occurring case in the world being almost 40 years ago. Once eradicated the once routine or mandatory vaccinations were stopped for the general public and it was deemed no longer necessary to prevent the disease. Although currently eradicated worldwide, two medical laboratory stockpiles still remain in Russia and the United States. With these stockpiles in existence the possibility of bio terrorism emerges and fear of these stockpiles getting into the wrong hands and being weaponized for use against the public is rising. The smallpox disease is highly contagious and easily communicable and currently there is no cure for this disease. If reintroduced, an epidemic would be devastating worldwide.
In conclusion, it is clear that a biological weapon is wrong. When Saddam Hussein threatened to turn the Persian Gulf War into “the mother of all wars” the world shook with the possible implications. The United States managed to divert the course of the war such as this did not happen. In other situation these results have not been as successful, unfortunately, and many people have suffered and died. I hope that civilization is moving towards total illumination of biological weaponry.