"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
> ...He lists the primary reason that states have chosen to
> get out of the bioweapons business -- bioweapons are
> simply lousy weapons... Robert
There is an interesting chapter in Rhode's Making of the
Atomic Bomb where Oppenheimer is doing some soul
searching during the test phase. He realizes the atom
bomb is a lousy weapon, for many of the same reasons
bioweapons fail, assuming one is making war for some
specific political aim.
Bioweapons are the terrorists dream come true however;
they are cheap and perfect for accomplishing the clearly
stated goal of the terrorists, i.e. to slay as many people as
humanly possible, and keep doing so until all infidels and
unbelievers are dead.
Oppie realized that the nuke would give the U.S. a short
term advantage, but in the long run would actually be
disadvantageous, since it would tend to neutralize the
edge we had enjoyed for so long, isolation by oceans
and a political infrastructure that encourages people to get
out and go to work every day, resulting in a superior
manufacturing environment. All those same arguments
apply even more to bioweapons. spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:20 MDT