Weapons of Mass Destruction - Part 1

As the United States and its allies continue the fight against international terrorist groups and the countries that may support them, there is increasing fear Americans at home will one day face the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Such weapons include biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological devices, and range from the silent threat of a poison gas attack to a cataclysmic nuclear explosion. Those who would launch such attacks know thousands could die, of course, but their fundamental motive would be to strike fear and panic in tens of millions more (Porteus, 2006).

A Weapon for Our Own Destruction?

Has Mankind formulated a weapon for its own destruction by fomenting the conditions from which terrorism arises?

No, Mankind has neither developed a weapon for its own destruction nor incited the conditions from which terrorism arises. Such conditions that have existed throughout the Ages have been inadvertent, not intentional.

Evolution, Survival, and Secret Combinations. For those who believe in Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, the cavemen lived under the Law of the Survival of the Fittest. The strong and powerful killed off the weaker challengers to retain power. However, alone, the strongman did not sleep well at night for fear of being killed in his sleep by an adversary. Hence, he formed secret combinations. This process evolved such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Mafia, modern-day gangs, illegal militias, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah, HAMAS, and other such secret combinations. Thus, the killings continue on ad infinitum.

Christian Biblical History. According to Christian biblical history, human conduct, emotions, and feelings such as disobedience, jealousy, envy, covetousness, anger, hatred, and rage have been with carnal man ever since the days of Adam and Eve when the first earthly couple disobeyed God by partaking of the forbidden fruit and, thereby, was cast out of the Garden of Eden. When they lived in the “dark and dreary world,” they survived by the “sweat of their brow” and later began to bear children. When their earlier children grew up, Cain, because of jealousy, slew his brother Abel. This was the beginning of killing, murder, mayhem, and crime.

Man’s Inhumanity to Man. Ever since the first killing committed by Cain, man’s inhumanity to man has continued through the Ages growing ever worse through the centuries and millennia. These killings have increased until today, which now are in its extreme form, i.e., modern-day terrorism. This is where anything and everything goes including wanton genocide, mass murder, beheadings, butchering, mutilations, live-human meat grinding, torture, rape, cruelty, and burning of men, women, and children of all ages, situations, and conditions. All of this horror and terror are carried out by extremist, radical, fundamentalist Arabs-Muslims-Islamites (AMIs), also called Islamo-fascists (Isfasts). The Isfasts use the excuse that their God, Allah, approves and encourages this coercion, fear, and killing. They conduct this mayhem to achieve world peace through world domination by Islam and, thereby, creating a one-religion world.

Terrorism Throughout the Ages. Therefore, the United States, other countries of the world, races, ethnic groups, and individuals have not fomented conditions for terrorism. Terrorism has existed throughout all Ages of man. Basic human conduct, emotions, and feelings such as disobedience, jealousy, envy, covetousness, anger, hatred, and rage have instigated the earlier terrorism as well as modern-day terrorism.

From Fists to WMDs. A similar argument applies for the question regarding Mankind formulating a weapon for its own destruction. Again, ever since the first killing of Abel, Mankind has used various weapons that have increased in technology throughout the Ages. Starting with using his bare-hands, fists, knuckles, elbows, knees, and feet, Mankind’s weapons have progressed to sticks and stones, knives/daggers, spears/lances, slingshots, bows and arrows, fire, shields, body armor, use of horses, canoes, the wheel, covered wagon, battering rams, and catapults. Then, Mankind developed gunpowder, bullets, guns (pistol and rifle), cannons, bombs, hand grenades, bayonets, camouflage, the steam engine, boats, parachutes, and balloons. Then, we progressed to gasoline fuel, ships, gas-engine and propeller-driven airplanes, dirigibles, rockets, submarines, tanks, and machine guns. Now, we have radar, sonar, jet aircraft, guided missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), launch vehicles, satellites, lasers, weapons of mass destruction (i.e., atomic/nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and biological weapons), precision-guided munitions, cruise missiles, bunker busters, stealth aircraft, and on and on it goes.

Our Dilemma – Opposition in All Things. As can be seen, the advancing technology has created the weapons for its time and will continue to advance as our engineers, scientists, and technologists (ESTs) strive to produce new science and technology (S&T). Throughout the Ages, men and women of good intentions have developed all of the S&T that we have today for peaceful purposes. However, there will always be those who will use this S&T for evil purposes because there is opposition in all things. There will always be protagonists and antagonists in life. The protagonists must advance the state of the art to keep their leading-edge weapons one-step ahead of the antagonists’ counter-weapons. Therein lay our dilemma.

Apocalypse at Armageddon. More so by necessity rather than by intention, protagonists formulate more advanced weapons to be sure and able to counter the weapons of its adversaries (antagonists). Either that or risk being annihilated or held in bondage. Whatever technology protagonists develop for good intentions, the antagonists will find ways to use that good technology for evil intentions. That is a sad but true reality of life, and it will continue on until we end in apocalypse at Armageddon.

The Arrow That Will Destroy Our World

By putting WMDs in the hands of individuals willing to commit terrorist acts, are we creating the arrow that will destroy our world?

No, we no more are creating the arrow that will destroy our world then when the ancient Chinese developed the “arrows of flying fire.” These arrows were early skyrockets that the Chinese first launched in 1232 AD during the Battle of Kai-Keng, when the Chinese repelled the Mongol invaders by a barrage of “arrows of flying fire.” These fire-arrows were a simple form of a solid-propellant rocket (Anonymous, n.d.a).  These rockets progressed to guided missiles and later to our present-day precision-guided munitions (PGMs), cruise missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Atomic Bomb. The Manhattan Project team led by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed the atomic bomb in the early 1940s (Anonymous, n.d.b).  A B-29 Superfortress bomber (called the Enola Gay) piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets (World War II American Ace) dropped the first uranium-235 atomic bomb (called “Little Boy”) on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, creating an explosion equivalent to 20 kilotons of dynamite or trinitrotoluene (TNT) (Rosenberg, n.d.a).  Chuck Sweeney, in another B-29 (called Bock’s Car), dropped the second bomb, a plutonium-239 atomic bomb (called “Fat Man”), on Nagasaki three days later. Japan surrendered the next day on August 10, 1945. Today, B-52s, B-1Bs, and B-2s would deliver nuclear bombs to intended targets, and cruise missiles, intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), and ICBMs would deliver nuclear warheads to other intended targets.

Mass Killing. Jennifer Rosenberg wrote that the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed approximately 70,000 people instantaneously from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radiation within five years (Rosenberg, n.d.a).  Rosenberg further wrote that the second A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed approximately 70,000 people by the end of the year (Rosenberg, n.d.b).

Atomic Explosion over Los Angeles. A 2-megaton atomic bomb exploded over Los Angeles would produce over 100 times the blast that occurred over Hiroshima and would probably kill over 10 million people. As drastic as that sounds, it would not destroy the world, but it would certainly cause great fear and disorder in the world.

Stop Iran from Developing the A-bomb. The United States would not place this weapon of mass destruction (WMD) into the hands of terrorists, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would do it. This is why we, the United States, must stop Iran from developing the atomic bomb. Whether it is soon or later, confrontation is inevitable between Iran and the United States. It would be better for the world if that confrontation occurs sooner. Putting it off until later shall only produce worse results.

Some will Survive When It Happens. The Bomb Shelter Guide says, “Trust me! You can survive a nuclear attack. It will not be the end of the world. But, you must be prepared” (Anonymous, n.d.c).  Graham Allison wrote, “In a cover story in the New York Times Magazine in May 2002, Bill Keller interviewed Eugene Habiger, the retired four-star general who had overseen strategic nuclear weapons until 1998 and had run nuclear antiterror programs for the Department of Energy (DoE) until 2001. Summarizing his decade of daily experience dealing with threats, Habiger offered a categorical conclusion about nuclear terrorism: “‘it is not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when.’ ‘That,’ Keller noted dryly, ‘may explain why we now live in San Antonio’” (Allison, n.d.).

References

Allison, G. (n.d.). Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. Times Book excerpt. Underground Bomb Shelter, 8 pp. Retrieved from http://www.undergroundbombshelter.com/news/nuclear-terrorism.htm.

Anonymous. (n.d.a). The history of rocket science: Early fireworks and weapons of war. About: Inventors, 3 pp. Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrockethistory.htm.

Anonymous. (n.d.b). The history of the atomic bomb: Development and history of the atomic bomb and the Manhattan Project. About: Inventors, 3 pp. Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050300a.htm.

Anonymous. (n.d.c). The Bomb Shelter Guide. Underground Bomb Shelter, 10 pp. Extracted from http://www.undergroundbombshelter.com/.

Porteus, L. (2006, June 20). Weapons of mass destruction handbook. FOXNews.com. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,76887,00.html.

Rosenberg, J. (n.d.a). Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Part 1). About: Your Guide to 20th Century History, 2 pp. Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/Hiroshima.htm.

Rosenberg, J. (n.d.b). Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Part 2). About: Your Guide to 20th Century History, 2 pp. Extracted on 4/16/07 from http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/Hiroshima_2.htm.

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