BW/ Introduction

BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

Do we still have to worry about it? How likely is it that a deadly virus will endager the human species?

Well, I don't want to advertise personal bunkers here but I do feel a bit uneasy after having done some reserach on this topic.


I will start off bluntly and in all honesty. Upon trying to find a good and befitting introduction into the topic of biological warfare I discovered a site with quotes. First I was going to pick a quote about war to start off. Classic- I know. But how go from there? Why is there such a thing as war? Why do people fight people? Don’t worry I am not going to indulge in a philosophical discussion on humanity. Well, oddly enough I found that the topic page of the brainyquote site sums up those reasons quite nicely.

So, after accepting the fact that fighting and warfare is just something that has accompanied human development from its humble beginnings right up to the 21^st century, we can look at the how of warfare in greater detail.

There are basically two types of warfare: symmetric and asymmetric warfare. Symmetric warfare means that the involved opponents are close to equal in power, resources and weaponry. Every opponent knows, more or less, what he can expect from his counterparts. Your “Game of Thrones” swordfights are symmetric warfare.  The term asymmetric warfare is used when opponents have unequal military resources and the “weaker” opponent uses unconventional weapons and tactics to fight the enemy. The term is frequently used to describe guerilla warfare, terrorism and biological warfare.

Throughout this page I want to give you an insight into the topic of biological warfare. First of all the term itself will be explained in more detail. Then we will take a walk through the negative aspects of scientific inventiveness and look at the dirty beginnings of biological warfare up to the 20^th century. Following that we will look at common biological weapons like smallpox, anthrax and typhus and see how they affect their victims. After that we will –just for a few minutes- stand in the shoes of a terrorist, look at the wanted properties of biological weapons, and choose the most dangerous one. Next we will look at biological warfare incidents that have occurred between the 20^th century and now. Then we will try to find out how serious the threat of biological warfare is today and what protection measurements governments have undertaken. Last but not least there will be one entry discussing the theory that AIDS was initially invented as a biological weapon.

I hope it will be interesting and thrilling for you to learn about biological warfare on this site.

Other blogs that relate to my topic and might therefore be interesting to have a look at are:
Military technology by Flavius LeahuStem cells  by Stefanie Edlbauer

Cheers,

Anna