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The Flaw in using Smallpox as a Weapon
11/15/02
| b.b.e.b.
Posted on 12/15/2002 7:42:11 AM PST by big bad easter bunny
The two deterrents I see in using smallpox as a weapon are: a) When you infect any country it is just a matter of time before the virus will make it's way back to your country. If you happen to be a poor Muslim country odds are a lot more people will die than say America, where the medical system is far superior.
Secondly smallpox was one of the greatest scourges of man! You wouldn't want to be known as the country who re-infected an otherwise safe world.
TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: smallpoxbioweapons
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To: The Great Satan
OK.If it was Saddam,and we know it,why not tell us?
21
posted on
12/15/2002 2:11:25 PM PST
by
John W
To: The Great Satan
I can think of lots of A-words, starting with aardvark, and I'm not really sure what you mean. Arabia? Attack? Alligator? Apple sauce? AIDS? Anthrax? It's anthrax, right?
To: big bad easter bunny
I hope you are right but why do you suppose Russia,Iraq ,and a few other countries made a pile of it?
23
posted on
12/15/2002 2:20:49 PM PST
by
woofie
To: Free the USA
interesting link... thanks for digging it up...
To: templar
If an anonomous smallpox attack should occur this would give all the reason in the word to the various muslim countries to blame the US and Israel. Interesting... we vaccinate ourselves and allies and destroy the enemies with the pox?
To: Principled
Interesting... we vaccinate ourselves and allies and destroy the enemies with the pox?I hadn't thought about it quite that way, but it is a possibility, I suppose.
I was mostly thinking that, maybe, Iraq or some future ME enemy, losing popularity in the ME, might launch a smallpox attack on one of their own neighbors to gain united Islamic/Arabic support against the west. Our preparations against an attack against ourselves would likely be viewed by the Islamics and Arabs as preparation for a clandestine attack against them.
26
posted on
12/15/2002 3:12:15 PM PST
by
templar
To: templar
I get what you're saying.
if we're gonna get blamed anyway....hmmmm
To: Caesar Soze
Correct.
To: John W
OK.If it was Saddam,and we know it,why not tell us? Think about it.
To: big bad easter bunny
You however, are American and rational. Saddam is neither.
Do you remember when he gassed the Kurds, or set the oil fields on fire after Desert Storm? The guy is out there and when cornered he will do something dastardly. Why would he care if his neighbors get sick and die?
To: The Great Satan
I have.It occurs to me,regardless of the reason,it would not be good enough.I seriously doubt it would have its roots-the reason for not telling us,that is-in anything other than political viability and expediency.I would be seriously disappointed if that happened with this President.
31
posted on
12/15/2002 7:44:03 PM PST
by
John W
To: John W
You're not thinking hard enough. War game it out.
To: big bad easter bunny
I see very different "deterrents" to using smallpox as a weapon.
1. Smallpox can be defeated by taking the innoculation AFTER you contract the disease (you've got about two weeks to get the shot after you contract smallpox), so hitting an advanced enemy with smallpox is merely going to piss them off.
2. Most of the Western world over age 30 already has had a smallpox innoculation, and that will convey SOME immunity to this very day, so hitting such a population with smallpox won't be very effective even if new innoculations are scarce.
3. Smallpox doesn't kill immediately. If all that your population or army has is smallpox as a weapon, then your opponent will have a couple of weeks in which to still launch his retaliatory nuclear strikes, chemical attacks, biological attacks, and in general rain death down upon you and whatever other sorry suckers survive any of the former.
33
posted on
12/15/2002 7:54:08 PM PST
by
Southack
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