Quote:
Originally Posted by pauldun170
Technically, chemical and bio are area denial weapons, not WMD.
|
The term "weapons of mass destruction" is, at this point, a political one, not a descriptive one. The phrase is used to define the use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons as one in the same. This was done first unofficially, but later officially, by the American government since at least the early 90s, specifically during the first Gulf War. In that war we were facing an enemy that potentially still possessed chemical and biological weapons (that we gave them) long after we had renounced the manufacture and use of these weapons. It told the Iraqis that if they used chem or bio weapons, America would respond "in kind" with the only weapon of mass destruction we were still willing to use, nuclear.