DARE Program

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Using Force Against Iraq


President George Bush has requested authority to use force against Iraq, and is currently waiting for Congress to give the “thumb’s up.” Other countries such as Russia and France have voiced strong reservations to a new resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. I feel we should have the support of the United Nations before taking any military action against a country that may possess biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

According to the publication titled Non-conventional-weapons Proliferation in the Middle East written in 1993 by Efraim Karsh, the term “biological weapons” is little understood and little appreciated by the public at large. All too often, biological warfare conjures up images of uncontrollable epidemics. This by far is not the case. The aggressor uses this form of violence to attack a targeted population and makes sure that the one who delivers this weapon is well protected either by immunization or respirator. The outcome for the attacked population will be incapacitation or even death. I think that if we go after a country that may possess these types of weapons, we will be putting American lives at risk. We can’t control what one has in their own backyard. How do we know what type of retaliation may or may not occur if we attack such an unstable country? The answer is, “we don’t!”

Iraq as we all know possesses chemical weapons. As stated on the Chemical and Biological weapons resource page, http://cns.miis.edu/researchcbw/possess.htm, in 1972 they were running a previously active production program of anthrax, botulinum toxin and ricin. All of these agents can be deadly. Now, in the absence of the United Nations weapons inspectors, who know’s what they are creating now. This frightens me. We have seen over the past year what anthrax can do, and we also know that the government doesn’t have enough vaccine for everyo...