Does America torture? Does America use chemical weapons?
We don’t ask these questions for political reasons. We ask for the same reason football has rules against “unnecessary roughness.”
The rules that keep the civilian population safe are crumbling.
One day we use the use of chemical weapons as an excuse to go to war, the next America’s ally uses chemical weapons in the 2009 Gaza war.
[White phosphorus] ignites when it strikes the skin and burns straight through or until it is cut off from oxygen. It can cause horrific injuries.
At Green Eye Technology, our job is to protect the civilian population. In the Emergency Preparedness world, we need to know which threats are likely. Chemical weapon use is becoming more likely.
Every time the rules of war and terrorism change, our emergency preparedness rules must change with them. What was once “unnecessary roughness” and “against Geneva Conventions” becomes our next threat.
Phosphorus melts the skin and lungs. The only real treatment is prevention.
See also Associated Press story: Rights group: Israel uses white phosphorus in Gaza
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t mean to be alarmist, but chemical terrorist attacks are already a reality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_bombings_in_Iraq
Radical Islamists in both France and the UK have also attempted to use the biological agent Ricin as a terrorist weapon, though thankfully their efforts were disrupted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Green_ricin_plot
Such incidents are quite rudimentary, but they leave no doubt as to the intent of certain radical elements of society.
A Japanese man did commit a ricin attack a few years ago. On a subway, I think.
I don’t think you’re being alarmist. More like a realist.