|
|
Article: `WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION': WHAT'S IN A NAME?(EDITORIAL)(Column)
- Article from:
- The Capital Times
- Article date:
- December 3, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Capital Newspapers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: Robert Weitzel
During the Great War of 1914-1918, the German army introduced a first-generation "weapon of mass destruction" -- poison gas. It was cheap to manufacture, easy to deploy and an effective killer. It burned out men's eyes, blistered their skin and scorched their lungs. The unfortunate soldier caught unprepared died a suffocating, convulsing death. By war's end, poison gas was responsible for 1.2 million casualties and 91,000 deaths.
No one can argue the fact that a battlefield shrouded in poisonous gas has the potential for mass destruction of human life. Unlike a conventional artillery shell that kills only a couple of dozen at a ...