Massive destruction weapons

Weapons of mass destruction are nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are weapons capable of killing a very large number of people indiscriminately and causing great economic and environmental damage.

The expression was coined in 1937, it rather referred to the aerial bombardment by the German Luftwaffe in support of the rebel side in the Spanish civil war, the best known case being that of Guernica and the bombing of Barcelona, as well as the bombing of Cabra by the Republic, which constitute the first populations bombed in a war by means of this type of attack. The current use of this expression as a synonym for nuclear, biological or chemical weapons was created in resolution no. 687 of the United Nations Security Council in 1991. This resolution refers to the "threat that all weapons of mass destruction they mean for peace and security”, and mentions in particular the nuclear, biological and chemical ones, as well as the three relevant treaties:

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Convention on Biological Weapons
• Chemical Weapons Convention
• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

The use of this term is controversial. It became popular especially during the Iraqi disarmament crisis in 2002. The alleged possession of chemical weapons by the Iraqi regime was one of the main reasons and the most publicized cause to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States.

Other weapons that could be considered of mass destruction

Despite the consensus on the three types of weapons mentioned above, there are other types of weapons widely condemned by the international community, capable of causing large numbers of collateral victims. Among this type of other weapons would be:

• Anti-person mines: The two basic premises of a weapon of mass destruction are met: it kills indiscriminately and in large numbers, with the saving that the deaths occur over many years.
• Cluster pumps: used in bombings on cities, they can be lethal to many people as they divide into multiple warheads that fall randomly destroying everything in a certain area. They are also banned by the UN.
• Depleted uranium munitions: the depleted uranium, used in the manufacture of munitions by its high density and high melting point. Despite its low level of radioactivity, being used with sufficient frequency on a conflict zone with a large civilian population can lead to a substantial increase in cases of congenital cancer and malformations in the short and medium term. Depleted uranium shells, when impacting, release and pulverizing their load that may contain traces of radioactive material so that they could be considered dirty bombs.

Evolution of the use of the term

Nuclear explosion.

During the Cold War, the term "weapons of mass destruction" he was referring mainly to nuclear weapons. At that time, the Western world used the euphemism "strategic weapons" to refer to the US nuclear arsenal. However, there is no precise definition of the "strategic" category, neither considering the range nor the yield of the nuclear weapon.

Following Operation Opera, the destruction of a pre-operational nuclear reactor inside Iraq by the Israeli Air Force in 1981, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin responded to criticism by saying that "under no circumstances will we allow for an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against the people of Israel". This policy of preemptive action against actual or perceived weapons of mass destruction became known as the Begin Doctrine.

The term "weapons of mass destruction" it continued to be seen periodically, usually in the context of nuclear arms control; Ronald Reagan used it during the 1986 Reykjavik Summit, referring to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush used the term in a 1989 speech to the United Nations, primarily in reference to chemical weapons.

The end of the Cold War reduced America's reliance on nuclear weapons as a deterrent, causing it to focus on disarmament. With the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs became a special concern of George H. W. Bush's first Presidency. After the war, Bill Clinton and others Western politicians and media continued to use the term, usually in reference to ongoing attempts to dismantle Iraq's weapons programs.

In early 2019, over 90 per cent of the world ' s 13,865 nuclear weapons belonged to Russia and the United States.

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, fear of unconventional weapons and asymmetric warfare gripped many countries. The fear reached a crescendo with the 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis and the alleged existence of a uranium deal between Niger and Iraq based on false documents which became the main justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Americans did not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They found old stockpiles of chemical munitions, including sarin and mustard gas, but all were deemed unusable due to corrosion or degradation. Iraq, however, declared in 2009 a stockpile of chemical weapons that UN personnel had secured after the war. of the 1991 Gulf. The stockpile contained mainly chemical precursors, but some ammunition remained usable.

Because of its prolific usage and (worldwide) public profile during this period, the American Dialect Society voted the term "weapons of mass destruction" (and its abbreviation, "WMD") as its" word of the year" in 2002, and in 2003 Lake Superior State University added the term WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) to its list of banished terms for "misuse, overuse and general uselessness" (and "as a maneuver that blurs all forms of aggression").

In its criminal complaint against the prime suspect in the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the FBI refers to an improvised pressure cooker as a "weapon of mass destruction.";

There have been calls for at least some classes of cyberweapons to be classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMD), particularly those intended to cause large-scale (physical) destruction, such as by attacking critical infrastructure. However, some scholars have opposed classifying cyberweapons as WMD on the grounds that they "cannot [currently] directly injure or kill humans as effectively as guns or bombs" or that clearly "meet legal and historical definitions" of ADM.

Definition in US law

For the general purposes of US national defense, its Federal Code defines a weapon of mass destruction as:

• any weapon or device that intends, or the ability, to cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the release, dissemination or impact of:
  • toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors
  • a pathogenic organism
  • radiation or radiation

For the purposes of preventing the proliferation of chemical weapons, the United States Code defines weapons of mass destruction as "chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and chemical, biological, and nuclear materials used in the manufacture of said weapons".

International Law

The development and use of weapons of mass destruction are governed by various international conventions and treaties.