WMD's

**WMDs** Chris Helsinger, Jake Bush, Matt Wilkes, Elise Pickering, and Cole Fryman

Weapons of mass destruction should **always** be avoided and those in existance be dismantled.
 * Assertion:**

WMDs cause more damage to the land and people than problems they solve.
 * Reasoning#1**


 * Evidence:**


 * **Weapon of mass destruction** (**WMD**) - a weapon that can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e.g. buildings), natural structures (e.g. mountains), or the biosphere.
 * 4 types of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological.
 * **Biological weapon**- a weapon of mass destruction that uses a biological agent or pathogen such as bacteria or a virus that is harmful to living beings.
 * Biological weapons can include: Anthrax, botulinum toxin, plague, ricin, smallpox, tularemia and viral hemorrhagic fevers.
 * **Nuclear weapon**- weapons in which the explosive potential is controlled by nuclear fission or fusion
 * Nuclear weapons produce devastating and long-term effects on human and animal life, as well as the environments in which they live
 * Nuclear weapons can include: atomic and hydrogen bombs.
 * **Chemical weapons** use toxic properties of chemicals as weapons to cause death or severe harm to people and animals and plants
 * Chemical weapons can include: Mustard gas, sarin, VX, soman, and tabun
 * **Radiological weapons** are any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation.
 * The "dirty bomb" would classify as a radiological weapon.
 * Countries that are currently known to have weapons of mass destruction: United States, Russia, France, United Kingdom, Pakistan, China, India, and North Korea.
 * Countries that are undeclared about possession of WMD’s or countries that allegedly have WMD’s: Israel, Iran, and Syria.
 * Countries that are part of NATO weapons sharing: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, and Greece.
 * Countries that formerly had WMD’s but disposed of them: South Africa, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) is a treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons and was opened for signature on July 1, 1968.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">189 countries signed the NNPT, including 5 of the top nuclear powers, the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are only 4 countries in possession of WMD’s that have not signed the NNPT; India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.


 * Reasoning#2**

Chemical Weapons have long-lasting effects and are inhumane. The first major use of chemical weapons in modern times came when Germany launched a large-scale poison gas attack against French troops in 1915. By the end of the war, chemical warfare had killed around 90,000 people. Hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide were used by the Germans to murder millions of people in extermination camps during World War II. During the Vietnam War, the United States used tear gas and several types of defoliants (a defoliant is any chemical sprayed or dusted on plants to make the leaves fall off) including Agent Orange. The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits "the use in war of asphyxiating (choking, smothering), poisonous or other gases, and of bacteriological (identification, study, and cultivation of bacteria) methods of warfare." But it didn't prohibit the manufacturing and stockpiling of these weapons. About 40 countries confirmed the protocol. More than 140 nations signed the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which bans the development, production and possession of chemical weapons. Nonetheless, a number of nations are believe to have the weapons. Chemical agents are classified according to the symptoms they cause, such as blistering and nerve agents.
 * Evidence :**

<span style="font-size: 15pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;">
 * Mustard Gas- One of the worst chemical weapons is mustard gas. Mustard gas may simply make your eyes water, make your throat a little sore, and cause you to think its just a smoke bomb. The truth, however, is that just a few days later, the real effects begin. You begin to develope blisters that soon grow and become painful. Your throat and lungs begin to swell restricting your airway. Your stomach begins to ache and you suffer from diarrhea, vomiting, and dvelope a fever. Depending on how long you inhaled the gas, you'll probably die.

**Reasoning#3**

Biological weapons can cause world-wide epidemics and can turn around and hurt the attackers just as much.

Biological WMD's can be a wide variety of different things though there are four specific groups: viruses, fungi, bacteria, and rickettsiae. A biological WMD can be something is simple as poisoning a nation's food supply, to spreading a whole virus/sickness over a large group of people. In 1972, the Biological Weapons Convention was signed. This prohibits the making, stockpiling, and use of Biological WMDs. Although this was signed, the weapons are still created and studied. In January of 2004, President Bush asked for 6 Billion dollars of his 2004 budget to launch "Project Bioshield", which was going to be used to make sure effective vaccines to protect citizens agains bioterrorism. In the NATO handbook regarding biological warfare they have listed 39 possible toxins, bacteria, and viruses that could be used.
 * Evidence:**

Offensive US biological weapons program ended in 1969 with a speech from President Nixon in which he stated that they were Unreliable. Biological weapons are potentially more destructive than nuclear weapons in the sense that the disease they emit can ultimately cover the entire globe. To Combate this the federal government has develop Microbial Forensics. Microbial Forensics was developed to analyze and dissect any and all evidence of biocrimes, accidental release of a toxin (or such), and bioterrorism. Yet with all forensics there can be some problems.

Bioweapons have been used as early as the Middle Ages, and centuries after, by throwing victims of the Black Plague over castle walls. Poisoning water sources through dead bodies would cause E. coli and other infectious bacteria. Even swine flu could have been construed as a bioweapon had it been highly fatal and untreatable. Even biological experiments were run by the Nazis on victim twins of concertration camps.


 * Weapons:**

The CDC puts Biological WMDs into 3 categories; A, B, and C.

Anthrax and smallpox are on the top of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's list of biological weapons, considered "Category A" weapons most likely to be used in an attack.

"Category B" weapons are second-highest priority to the CDC, because they are fairly easy to spread, cause moderate amounts of disease and low fatality rates. But these weapons require specific public-health action such as improved diagnostic and detection systems. These biological weapons include: food safety threats, water safety threats, melioidosis (a highly contagious disease spread through soil and water), and typhus fever (comes from rodent hosts).

"Category C" weapons, described by the CDC as "emerging infectious disease threats," are fairly easy to obtain, produce and spread easily and can produce high rates of disease and mortality. Examples of Category C weapons are:

Agricultural bioterrorism could produce famine or widespread malnutrition. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76887,00.html#)


 * Reasoning#4

Nuclear weapons destroy way too much and just simply kill way to many people. **

Evidence:

Nuclear weapons are similar to radiological weapons. Like radiological weapons, they use radiation in later stages after detonation but they have destructive effects that take place immediately.The blast itself, thermal radiation, and direct nuclear radiation effects can cause immediate effects upon detonation of the weapon. Nuclear fallout is an effect that is seen at a later time. Fallout particles could spread and fall to the earth in days or it could take years to fall.

Physical effects of radiation on humans:
 * hair loss
 * brain damage
 * destruction of the thyroid gland
 * decrease in blood count
 * nausea
 * bloody vomiting
 * diarrhea
 * blood disorders
 * cataracts
 * tumors
 * keloids


 * Effects-**


 * Psychological**- It has been known to have given people a psyhcological disorder usually only given to soldiers who could not deal with the effects of war, this disease is call Posttraumtic Stress Disorder.


 * Environmental**- Biological weapons destroy the environment, an example of this would be Chernobyl, although it wasn't a weapon the effect on the environment that the plants' meltdown had was immense, to this day people can't live in or to near the plant for fear of getting diseases, such as cancer. The weapons also effect the animals in the area, it can knock out small species, and it could also make larger species get close to extinction if the bomb is dropped on the species main habitat. [[image:http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/14898/chernobyl_fallout.jpg align="right"]]

To the right is a picture of the global effects of Chernobyl, at anytime a nuclear bomb of any kind could once again cause this kind of damage, this kind of damage is not necessary. Nuclear weapons should be disabled.


 * Physical Affects on People**- If you are lucky enough to survive the inceneration, then you are very likely to develop different types of cancer due to the massive amounts of radiation let off. If you're on the perimeter of the main bomb blast, the bomb can tear limbs off of your body, that is, if your lucky enough to survive.

**__Pictures:__**
 * Nuclear:

Biological:

Chemical: Do you want this to happen to you?**
 * [[image:http://feww.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/20189340.jpg]]

Or this? **