The only potential way to inflict mass casualties is with respirable aerosols (Tucker 8).
There are many biological agents that could be turned into aerosols. According to Walter Laqueur there is "Lassa fever, Legionnaires disease, and flesh eating bacteria. Nor can diseases affecting animals be excluded such as Ebola fever and Mad Cow disease" (Laqueur 64). This list continues with anthrax, botulism, brucellosis, plague, Q fever, tularemia, small pox, and viral encephalitis. .
These diseases are intimidating and frightening. Are we prepared for this type of attack?.
"There are well known defenses against biological weapons.
ranging from immunization to gas masks and other.
protective clothing, to decontamination processes.
Antibiotics are effective against many bacteria if applied .
soon after infection" (Laqueur 69).
The most important question to be answered is if we can detect a biological weapon before it reaches us? The answer is no, according to Leonard A. Cole " The pentagon is in a process of researching a BID system"(Cole 204). A BID system is a technique to identify a range of biological agents. They are doing this by developing a library from the fragments and their ionization products (Cole 204). When this device is finally working, it will give us early detection of a biological weapon.
Chemical Weapons.
A chemical weapon is the use of chemicals or industrial waste to harm or alter the behavior of an opponent during a military operation (Karasik 7). They are not difficult to obtain. There are abundant sources of industrial materials and waste for toxic warfare. Such agents can be obtained in large quantities at industrial sites, airports, college laboratories, and even garden supply warehouses (Karasik 11&12).
The chemical weapons that pose the most threat to society are gases because they are easy to transport and deploy. Some of the ways are air delivery, (missiles and rockets) land delivery (cars, trucks, or containers in transit) and sea delivery (barges and small craft) (Karasik 17).
