Nuclear and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Abstract

Nuclear, and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Michael Andregg. St. Paul, Minnesota. June 25, 2004.

Weapons of Mass Destruction (often reduced to WMD) are the most terrible weapons yet invented, but they are often neglected by peace activists because they involve many technical issues (which are hard) a lot of secrecy (which is frustrating) and grossly terrifying consequences (which are scary). But serious students must attend these issues anyway, because neither peace nor justice can be achieved unless we master them.

The general term "Weapons of Mass Destruction" conveys the broad concepts that such weapons are: a) extremely destructive, and b) not very "discriminate." For example, a bullet can be aimed to kill or incapacitate one very bad guy with guns who is a threat to a community. A nuclear weapon employed in the same setting will kill every one and most living things for miles around. This does not discriminate between the innocent and dangerous killers. WMD come in four categories ranked here by degree of danger they present: Nuclear, biological, chemical, and a group of exotic and emerging technologies which I will lump under the term "information warfare." Most of this essay will deal with nuclear weapons because of space and time constraints, so we'll go over the others briefly first.