Since their first appearance on the battleground during
World War I, chemical weapons have been used almost exclusively as a psychological
and diplomatic deterrent.
Like nuclear weapons, chemicals
are considered weapons of mass destruction. Armies hate them — with good
reason — and military brass worldwide have for the most part kept them
out of warfighting doctrine.
In spring, 1997, the U.S. Senate
ratified a global chemical weapons ban treaty signed by more than 80 other
nations.
Most defense analysts agree
that a chemical attack would certainly provoke retaliation with nuclear
weapons, a primary reason why chemical weapons are rarely used. Any nation
or political terrorist seeking international support or legitimacy would
only provoke outrage if chemical weapons were used.
Nevertheless, many rogue nations
around the world are believed to be developing them, according to the Defense
Department.
Some also say the nature of
terrorism is changing and with that may come a greater willingness to use
weapons of mass destruction.
Modern arsenals contain a number
of different kinds of chemical weapons — including nerve agents and mustard
agents. Among the most common:
Chemical
Weapons
|
| Sarin:
A nerve gas the Aum Shinrikyo cult used on a Tokyo subway in March 1995.
Sarin is a member of the organophosphate chemical family, as are many modern
pesticides. |
| Soman:With
Sarin and Lewisite, Soman made up much of the former Soviet Union's chemical
arsenal. |
| VX:
Like all nerve agents, it is a colorless liquid. The United States began
producing VX in April 1961, but its composition was not widely known for
another decade. VX agents are among the most toxic substances known; mere
droplets can kill. Sarin, Soman and VX are the most common chemical weapon
agents today. |
| Tabun:
Invented by a German chemist, Gerhard Schrader, in the mid-1930s. Schrader
worked for IG Farben, a company that later used slave labor from the Birkenau
concentration camp to produce its products. One of Farben's inventions,
ironically, was Zyklon-B, used by the Nazis to gas victims in those same
camps. Tabun and Zyklon-B were developed as pesticides. |
Mustard
agents: First used toward the end of World War I, they cause severe
eye and lung damage. Saddam Hussein authorized their use (along with cyanide)
against Iranian soldiers and Kurdish civilians in the Iran-Iraq war. Mustard-gas
weapons are easy to make, and earned the name not from how they are made
but from their smell, said to be like rotten mustard or onions. Like Lewisite
(reported to smell like geraniums), mustard agents cause severe skin blistering.
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IN
THIS SERIES
Terrorists
Find New Tools of Fear
Anti-Terrorism
Budget
Willing
to Kill for the Sake of Killing
Many
Nations Developing Bioweapons
Types
of Chemical Weapons
Mass
Destruction Through Biology
Recent
Domestic Terrorist Events
Simulation
of Terrorist Acts
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