They are the silent, invisible killers, capable of suddenly wreaking havoc in the battlefield, or even being launched to decimate far-off civilian population centers. Buildings are left untouched, but death hangs in the air. Synthetically manufactured biological weapons are inexpensive to manufacture and easy to spread. When they are released into the air by planes or long-range missiles they are capable of mass destruction. Many people might squabble about the disadvantages of this phenomena, but today, I want to discuss the advantages of using those biological warfare means due to their ability to win a war on sight, their low cost of production and relatively ease to make and spread, in addition to their high efficiency.
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Many components of biological warfare are highly concentrated, so just a few drops of certain bacteria, toxins and other agents are able to inflict large number of casualties over a wide area once they hit the water supply or air within a community with minimal logistics requirements. Also, they eliminate enemy’s population quickly in an effective manner without the kind of distruction a nuclear bomb would cause if denoted in a certain place, but it’s more similar than the afore-mentioned by means that are virtually untraceable where effects are more immediate and obvious (By the time the first casualty is recognised, the agent may have already been ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by many others and more casualties may be inevitable despite medical counter measures.).
Partially because of being cheap and easy to make, biological weapons are concidered effectively deadly. In a literal sense, anyone can create their own crude biological weapon, if he had a flue and would leave samples of the virus in a container, where in he can manage to keep it alive over time and genetically modify it, then it’s a GAME OVER! Furthermore, initial resulting symptoms may often be indistinguishable from those produced by endemic infections, a biological weapon may be capable of overcoming a military force before the presence of the agent is even suspected after the first casualties have presented to medical personnel. Especially now a days, where Borders are open on each other, this endemic can turn to a pandemic easily.
One huge advantage of biological warfare is that it is efficient. In fact a single gram of agents, like the botulinum toxin, used in a biological weapon can kill millions of individuals. The method of delivery of the agents may be as simple as and inconspicuous as attaching an off-the-shelf spray device to a car, truck, boat, or airplane. Which appears harmless and normal to all who might observe the delivery vehicle.
Since biological weapons claimed their 1st victim centuries ago, they’ve been denounced as immoral - A vile tool of cowardly -. The world community has repeatedly attempted to ban their use but the temptation to use them has often been too great (Thanks to the invincible demons of ours). All over the world nations continued to develop these deadly and inexpensive weapons, many hiding their stockpiles and publicly denying their existence. One of the most recent example occurred during the Gulf War.
Biological weapons offer many potential advantages to an aggressor who chooses to use then. Mostly those pros are shown in the difficulty in detecting its presence and protecting its intended victims because defensive efforts aren’t initiated until the threat is evident. Moreover, It’s well-known that defensive systems generally require longer development times in comparison to offensive systems. Furthermore, medical defences may be even more problematic and may take even longer time to field due to important regulatory requirements that impose strict guidelines of the development of vaccines and prophylactic drugs for use on human beings. With all those advantages we still see the that this kind of war isn’t legalised yet, although they are practicing it under the tables!
So what might happen if someday, they really legalised the use of biological weapons?
Biology Student at the Lebanese University who loves to research about various topics that are related to our daily lives especially the scientific ones.
