Re: [ME] Florida and Bioterror

["Robert J. Hansen" <rjhansen@xxxxxxxx>]

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> i feel sorry for the loss of the life of the man in florida no 
> matter what the cause, however, IF it was terroists, i am 
> not scared, i find it laughable.....weapon of mass 
> destruction?  it killed one man, and infected one other 
> with no visable signs yet.  if that;s the best they can do, 

Ben, at great risk of flaming, laughing about biowarfare is the mark
of idiocy.

Let's say, for sake of argument, that one case of a communicable and
extremely fatal disease--let's say smallpox--appeared in Washington
D.C.  Just one case.  The entire city would be either be quarantined,
evacuated, or both, all by executive order.  Nobody but essential
government personnel would be allowed in or out of the city.  There
would be decontamination stations for all who left.  There would be a
national panic the likes of which we have never before seen in
history.  That hasn't happened with the Florida anthrax case because
inhalation anthrax (respiratory anthrax) is killed by exposure to
oxygen, which means it has a really hard time surviving the
environment long enough to infect us.  Anthrax is, for all its fear,
not a highly contagious disease.  The risk to the country from
inhalation anthrax is extremely small and approaching zero.

However.

In a strictly Kissingeresque view of the world (cue the Monty Python
"Henry Kissinger" song), there are three and only three sorts of
weapons of mass destruction.  Those three are nuclear, biological and
chemical.  (It can be argued that the planes in the WTC towers were
WMDs based on the amount of energy liberated--over one metric ton
equivalent of TNT was liberated just in kinetic energy alone, with
another several metric tons equivalent liberated by the explosion of
jet fuel--but a ten-ton equivalent explosion, no matter the
casualties, doesn't rise to the level of even a tactical nuclear
device.  I originally thought they did, but as it turns out, I was
wrong; they are at the extreme high end of conventional damage.)

If only one person dies in a nuclear attack, that's still a weapon of
mass destruction being used on a civilian population.

If only one person dies in a nerve gas attack, that's still a weapon
of mass destruction being used on a civilian population.

If only one person dies in a bioterror attack, that's still a weapon
of mass destruction being used on a civilian population.

Now, the reason why I say some utter moron has opened a new and
frightening chapter in the world's history is not because I expect
tens of thousands of deaths from anthrax.  It is because someone has
used a WMD without understanding what the longstanding policy of the
US and NATO is.  The longstanding policy is this: "since we have
committed ourselves to never using chemical or biological weapons,
and instead only retain a nuclear arsenal, we will consider any
chemical or biological attacks on us to be the equivalent of nuclear
attack."

Are you beginning to see the political ramifications here?

It doesn't matter if one person died or if a thousand died.  A WMD
was used *on a civilian population center*.  Politically, that's the
same as if someone had dropped a nuke on a civilian population
center.

If it turns out that this was a bioterror attack, you're going to see
a tremendously escalated US response.  The reasoning is simple: if
they have biological warfare agents and they're willing to use them,
then by God, we have to deal with them swiftly and permanently before
the next bioattack comes.  Because the next bioattack might not be
anthrax in Florida... it might be smallpox in Washington, or
tularemia in Seattle, or bubonic plague in the ghettos of Los
Angeles.

I am not at all concerned about anthrax infecting any significant
number of Americans.

I am gravely concerned about the *political* repercussions of someone
using a WMD on American soil.

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