Biological and chemical warfare is terrible. No form of war is good, but this kills so many innocent people every time it is used that it shouldn't be used at all. Biological and chemical warfare is defined as a method of warfare in which toxic or incapacitating chemicals or biological agents are used to further the goals of the combatants. It is also defined as the use of chemical substances, biological organisms or products to produce incapacitating disease or death to plants or animals, including human beings.
Biological and chemical warfare both have long histories. In the 400's B.C., the Spartans used pitch and sulfur in a form of chemical warfare during the Peloponnesian War. During medieval times, soldiers sometimes threw bodies of people who died from the plague over the walls of besieged cities or into water wells. Between 1689-1763, during the French and Indian wars, blankets used by smallpox victims were purposefully handed out to Indians in the hope that the blankets would infect the Indians with the disease. The introduction of gas came on April 22, 1915, during World War .
I, when the Germans used it against allied forces at Ypres, Belgium. Gas was used widely by both sides. Mustard, chlorine, and phosgene were used extensively, and many other agents were tried. Gas caused nearly thirty percent of all United States casualties in the war. Gas was also used by Italy against Ethiopia in the Abyssinian campaign in 1936 and by Japan against China from 1937-1943. Gas was not used in World War II after Japan used it. Since then riot control agents have been used extensively around the world by various nations.
This warfare proved so destructive that most nations have agreed to avoid the use of poison gas and other chemical weapons. But Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian troops during the war between Iran and Iraq (1980-1988). This use may have begun in 1983. In 1988, Iraq was also accused of using chemical weapons against its Kurdish citizens, who were seeking independence from Iraq.
