Chemical Warfare?

We have two treads on chemical warfare. One about Serbs, the other about Hitler. I have a follow up question to both and neither.

The effect of gas bombs can roughly be acchived by use of conventional munnition. A barrage will kill the people in the way weather it's conventional or not. Another use of gas is the type that stay where it is shot over a period of time. That can be acchived with mines.

The difference in my mind is that less chemical munnition is needed to get the same effect as conventional. This suggest that gas is useful when logistics is strained.

So would chemical warfare used when things would be desperate?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Well, it's illegal to use. But that doesn't stop some countries from keeping stockpiles. And there are certainly stories and rumours about usage in the world.

Africa is rife with rumours. Jane's Intelligence Review from June 1993 talks in very painful detail about the presence of 'steppage-gait' patients in Angola. Steppage-gait is a form a partial paralysis that can take the form of reduced motor control and power, but normally attacks the legs. It is something which has been thought to possibly be a side effect of certain chemical munitions.
I'm quoting from Jane's Intelligence Review:

"-only young men from military areas were affected. Moreover, groups of affected men from particular units were seen. To date, no woman or child has been seen with the syndrome.One would expect that if dietary or infective conditions were responsible then a cross section of the population, including soldiers, would be affected, especially as UNITA troops lived in close contact with the local population."

Now, this is very interesting also, because UNITA and it's Angolan backers were actively assisted by the Cuban and Soviet militaries, and if they were using chemical weapons then they must have acquired them from East Bloc stores. Also, this article mentions the estimated dates of usage as being between 1986 and 1990.

That means, if Jane's Intelligence is correct, that UNITA and the Angolans would've had chemical weapons deployed in the field during the latter part of the Bush War against the South Africans in Namibia.
And that scares the living hell out of me.



So, in my humble opinion, yes. Chemical weapons could be used if a group was desperate enough. But I have to qualify that by saying that I can't see it being used on a large First World War-scale again.
 
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