Chemical and Biological Weapons

I have long argued that Chemical and Biological Weapons sound a lot more scary than they are.  Here is someone who sort of agrees.

Arms Control Wonk is arguing that we have spent way to much money on the Biological threat.

In the Comments Section are some numbers about the number of Iraqis who died due to our sanctions over these issues.  I would like to disassociate myself from these numbers, which appear inflated.  This is not to say that sanctions are not a problem, in that they kill those further down the food chain and leave the leadership unharmed, unless they are so drastic as to cause a revolution.  That would be VERY drastic.  As we can see in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK or "North Korea") terrible conditions are not enough to generate a revolution.

However, also in the Comments is a discussion of earth quakes.  That is an area that we don't often discuss. A serious earth quake in our region (Eastern Massachusetts) would likely kill a lot of people directly and another large slug in the weeks following, as services fail to bounce back to pre-earthquake levels.

Regards  —  Cliff